Hans Niemann Responds to Insinuations and Accusations

In what will likely be remembered as one of the most remarkable interviews in professional chess, Hans Niemann responded to Magnus Carlsen's recent withdrawal tweet and the cheating accusations / implications which followed. Niemann not only made a passionate and compelling case in his defense, but to the surprise of many possibly gained numerous additional fans in the process. At the very least, any burden is now on his accusers to back up their claims or innuendo with better evidence than what they have so far publicly provided (or not provided at all).

Full post-game interview (if it doesn't automatically begin there, portion where he responds to the controversy begins around 8:16): youtu.be/CJZuT-_kij0?t=496

@MentalFugues He admitted that he cheated 2 times in online chess and got banned.
Dont know why this would make things any better...

It surely doesn't help that he cheated in the past, as well as the fact that he makes poor analysis, and of course that he has an obnoxoous attitude more generally.
That said, allegations of cheating are very serious and thos drama is tragic for chess, no matter whether he is innocent or not.

Its very interesting to hear him describe the Qg3 move against Alireza. He didn't calculate a ton of variations and kind of made the move intuitively, and Alireza believed him. Shows that super-GMs aren't all calculating machines.

he's not the only GM who has been caught cheating when he was a kid. I believe there's someone else in the same tournament who had one of their accounts closed when they were a kid.

and chess.com quietly closing hans account and rescinding an invitation is really bad form. In a completely balanced and fair world, chess.com should go bankrupt. chess.com should also remove the account of all other GMs who have been caught cheating when they were a kid.

my current opinions are based on what we know at this stage. officials haven't accused him of anything and yet he has been punished quite harshly.

Imagine learning chess all your life and having a legit once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of beating the world champion only 1 time in your whole career,
then when it actually happens, everyone calls you a cheater.

@EvilPyrokar said in #2:
> @MentalFugues He admitted that he cheated 2 times in online chess and got banned.
> Dont know why this would make things any better...

Obviously, on its own having cheated in the past doesn't exactly help him. But wow, what he did as a 12 and 16 year old shouldn't condemn him to automatic guilt as an adult in a far more important situation. It was good and probably necessary he address his past, and he makes a reasonable case for how it changed him for the better. Those past childhood incidents don't at all justify simply disregarding all of the other evidence and explanation, which is quite substantial, that he presents in his defense.

@MentalFugues said in #7:
> Obviously, on its own having cheated in the past doesn't exactly help him. But wow, what he did as a 12 and 16 year old shouldn't condemn him to automatic guilt as an adult in a far more important situation. It was good and probably necessary he address his past, and he makes a reasonable case for how it changed him for the better. Those past childhood incidents don't at all justify simply disregarding all of the other evidence and explanation, which is quite substantial, that he presents in his defense.

When he was 16 years old is roughly just two years ago. Last time he got caught cheating was relatively recently.

The thing is even if we believe he cheated, we can't comeup with a theory. How did he managed to do it otb? The best response would be that he had access to magnus preparation. But even then there is no reason to believe why would magnus lose in his own preparation if his preparation is sound. I think the only way out is him givinf polygraphic test on live television.

They're checking him like its Fort Knox and hes still playing well. I believe him