The grandmaster is suing world champion Magnus Carlsen and on-line platform Chess.com, amongst others.
Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old American grandmaster on the centre of an alleged dishonest scandal, is suing world champion Magnus Carlsen, on-line platform Chess.com and others for slander and libel and is in search of a minimum of $100m in damages.
The lawsuit, filed at a US District Court docket in Missouri on Thursday, additionally listed Carlsen’s on-line chess platform Play Magnus, Chess.com govt Danny Rensch and US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura as defendants.
Niemann claimed that the defendants are “colluding to blacklist” him from the skilled chess world and that he has been shunned by match organisers since five-time world champion Carlsen publicly accused him of dishonest.
Niemann had beforehand been banned from Chess.com for dishonest on-line, having admitted he had not performed pretty in non-competitive video games on the web site in his youth however denied any wrongdoing whereas contesting over-the-board video games.
Carlsen’s shock defeat to Niemann and his subsequent withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Missouri in September sparked a furore of feedback and allegations, together with from Nakamura, that Niemann had cheated.
Weeks after the Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen resigned after only one transfer towards Niemann in a web-based match and mentioned later in September he believed Niemann had “cheated extra – and extra not too long ago – than he has publicly admitted”.
In a press release on Thursday, legal professionals for Chess.com mentioned there was no benefit to Niemann’s allegations and that the corporate was saddened by his determination to take authorized motion.
“Hans confessed publicly to dishonest on-line within the wake of the Sinquefield Cup, and the ensuing fallout is of his personal making,” the assertion learn.
“Chess.com seems to be ahead to setting the document straight on behalf of its workforce and all trustworthy chess gamers.”
My lawsuit speaks for itself https://t.co/rOfUxiNYCH
— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) October 20, 2022
Chess.com banned Niemann after the primary match towards Carlsen and revealed a report earlier this month that mentioned he had possible cheated greater than 100 instances in on-line video games.
Niemann’s lawsuit mentioned that Chess.com banned him “from its web site and all of its future occasions to lend credence to Carlsen’s unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations of dishonest”.
“Carlsen, having solidified his place because the ‘King of Chess,’ believes that in relation to chess, he can do no matter he desires and get away with it,” the criticism added.
The lawsuit additional accused Nakamura, a streaming accomplice of Chess.com, of publishing “hours of video content material amplifying and making an attempt to bolster Carlsen’s false dishonest allegations”.
The Worldwide Chess Federation (FIDE) mentioned it might open an investigation into the allegations of dishonest final month.