‘Chesscom mafia tried to ruin my career’: Hans Niemann’s dig at Carlsen

Last week, on 27 December 2024 (Friday), Magnus Carlsen made headlines for his wardrobe — his 'OOTD', as he put it in his X post next day — rather than his chess game. The world No.1 was fined and excluded from a late-round game at the World Rapid Championship in New York for violating the event’s dress code.  

Carlsen refused to change out of his jeans — which purportedly went against the guidelines of an event organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE).

After his 'sentencing', he announced he was going to take a vacation.

However, the five-time world champion later announced his return for the World Blitz C’ship after FIDE agreed to relax a bit — ‘appropriate jeans’ are allowed by the rulebook — and added he was definitely going to play in jeans, after all the fuss. 

Carlsen’s return, however, wasn't well-received by Hans Niemann, for one. Taking to X, the American grandmaster stated that Carlsen’s actions made a mockery of ‘the sanctity of the game’ and took a dig at the Norwegians for their 2022 cheating scandal.

Niemann wrote: ‘Allowing a single actor to make a mockery of the tournament and then bending the knee is disappointing. FIDE has a responsibility to protect the sanctity of the game. The chesscom mafia tried to ruin my career because of a similar emotional outburst, someone must take a stand!’

Niemann and Carlsen have a long history together, dating back to September 2022, when they faced each other in their third-round fixture of the Sinquefield Cup. The World No. 1 lost to Niemann and immediately withdrew from the tournament. Carlsen’s action was seen as a way of accusing Niemann of cheating. 

Later, in an online event, their next tournament meet-up, Carlsen resigned after making only one move, adding more speculation to the controversy. In an interview, Niemann revealed that as a child, he had cheated in online chess but didn’t in the match against Carlsen. Or in any over-the-board game for that matter. 

Carlsen responded by releasing a statement where he accused Niemann of cheating more often than he admitted, after which Niemann too was removed from Chess.com, who also released a report accusing him of cheating in online games. 

FIDE intervenes and investigates

At the time, FIDE launched an investigation and Niemann filed a lawsuit against Carlsen, his company (the Play Magnus Group), Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com chief officer Daniel Rensh for unlawful collusion and defamation.

The lawsuit was later dismissed and it was also revealed later that all parties involved had settled, while Chess.com reinstated Niemann on their platform. Carlsen promised that he would play against Niemann if they were ever paired up against each otehr again. 

When the jeans controversy first took place in New York, Niemann also accused Carlsen of lobbying tactics due to his role in the Freestyle Chess Tour. He also felt that Carlsen was trying to ‘discredit FIDE’ and make his own tour the official world championship.