Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann has sued world champion Magnus Carlsen and others for allegedly defamatory statements alleging that Niemann cheated in competition.
The suit claims that the defendants, including Chess.com, caused Niemann “devastating damages” by “egregiously defaming him” and “unlawfully colluding” to exclude him from the professional chess world.
“My lawsuit speaks for itself,” Niemann wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Niemann is seeking at least $100 million in damages from a federal court in Missouri’s eastern district. Carlsen, his company Play Magnus Group, the online platform Chess.com and its leader, Danny Rensch, and grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura are among the defendants in the lawsuit.
Niemann’s defamation and collusion lawsuit refers to him as a “American chess prodigy,” but Chess.com questions that claim. According to the report, Niemann is the only grandmaster under the age of 25 who became a grandmaster after the age of 16. In general, he is referred to as “statistically extraordinary.”
The report highlights Chess.com’s “best-in-class” cheat detection, which has resulted in cheating confessions from four of the world’s top 100 players. According to the report, Niemann himself called it “the best cheat detection in the world.”