Carlsen rips into Niemann

OSLO - Chess superstar Magnus Carlsen for the first time openly accused American Hans Niemann of cheating on Monday, saying that the rising star had done so more recently and more often than he previously admitted.

The chess world has been shaken for three weeks by the Carlsen-Niemann controversy, since the five-time world champion, 31, withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in the United States earlier in September after losing to his 19-year-old opponent.

Last week, the Norwegian's abrupt withdrawal from a match against Niemann in the Julius Baer Generation Cup online tournament reignited the furore.

In a letter published on Twitter and addressed "Dear Chess World", Carlsen said: "I believe that Niemann has cheated more - and more recently - than he has publicly admitted.

"His over-the-board progress has been unusual. So far I have only been able to speak with my actions, and those actions have stated clearly that I am not willing to play chess with Niemann."

He did not specify the exact form of the alleged cheating - top grandmaster Anish Giri said it was "pretty clear" Carlsen did not have direct evidence - but added there was "more that I would like to say".

Niemann has acknowledged cheating online twice, when he was 12 and 16, but says he has never played fraudulently in a face-to-face match and is even willing to play nude to prove his good faith.

"I have never cheated in an over-the-board game. If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it. I don't care. Because I know I am clean," he said recently.

It came after he was reportedly accused on social media of using anal beads - a vibrating, remotely controlled sex toy - to gain an advantage by getting an accomplice to buzz the device as a guide for making better moves.

In early September, the huge chess platform chess.com banned him for cheating on the website.

AFP contacted Niemann for comment but he did not immediately reply.

During their Sinquefield Cup match, Carlsen said that Niemann did not seem tense or even to be "fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as a black in a way I think only a few players can do".

He called cheating in chess "an existential threat to the game" and said: "I don't want to play against people that have cheated repeatedly in the past."

He concluded by saying he hoped the truth would come out, "whatever it may be".

While cheating is easier to achieve over the Internet by using computer engines to assist in finding good moves, it is much harder to do so over the board as players are "often scanned beforehand for electric devices", as reported by The Guardian newspaper.

But there are also workarounds. At the 2010 Chess Olympiad, three French players - Sebastien Feller, Arnaud Hauchard and Cyril Marzolo - were found guilty of an elaborate scheme.

Marzolo analysed Feller's games online, before sending suggestions via SMS to Hauchard, who then relayed them to Feller by standing behind specific tables in a predetermined coded system.

There were also incidents where players were banned for looking up moves on a smartphone that was hidden in a toilet.

Carlsen also made a plea for stricter detection measures while repeating his concerns about cheating in the sport.

"Chess organisers and all those who care about the sanctity of the game we love should seriously consider increasing security measures and methods of cheat detection for over-the-board chess," he added.

"We must do something about cheating... because I don't know what they are capable of doing in the future."

AFP, REUTERS