A $100 million defamation lawsuit filed against the five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, a top chess streamer and the world’s largest chess site has been settled.
Terms were not disclosed, but, in the parlance of chess, all of the parties appear to have called it a draw, meaning there were no winners — or losers.
The settlement was announced Monday on the website Chess.com, which had been one of the defendants.
The suit was filed last October by Hans Niemann, a curly-haired 20-year-old American grandmaster. Carlsen had accused him of cheating after Niemann beat him in a game last September in a prestigious tournament in St. Louis called the Sinquefield Cup.
Carlsen, a 32-year-old Norwegian who has been the world’s top-ranked player for 15 years, implied that Niemann was surreptitiously playing moves relayed from an outside source.
After Carlsen made his allegations, Chess.com, which has more than 145 million members, released a 72-page report concluding that Niemann had cheated in more than 100 games on its platform and that his progress in over-the-board chess, as the in-person version of the game is known, had been uncharacteristically fast. Though Chess.com presented no evidence that Niemann had cheated in over-the-board play, it barred Niemann from the site.
Hikaru Nakamura, 35, who in addition to having nearly two million followers on Twitch is ranked No. 2 in the world, behind Carlsen, then addressed the controversy on his streaming channel, seeming to side with Carlsen while also denigrating Niemann’s abilities as a player.
Niemann’s suit named Carlsen, Nakamura and Chess.com as defendants.
In the statement announcing the settlement, Chess.com said it was rescinding its ban of Niemann and allowing him to participate in all activities on its site, including tournaments with cash prizes that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Chess.com said it stood by the findings of its report about Niemann from last year.
In the announcement of the settlement, Carlsen acknowledged that there was “no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated in his game against me at the Sinquefield Cup.” He added, “I am willing to play Niemann in future events.”
For his part, Niemann said he was pleased that the suit had been resolved in a “mutually acceptable manner” and that he would be allowed to play again on Chess.com, adding, “I look forward to competing against Magnus in chess rather than in court.”
The announcement did not contain a statement from Nakamura.
The settlement is probably not the last word on the controversy. As the statement made clear, all parties in the litigation will now be allowed to “talk openly about their views,” meaning without fear of legal repercussions. It would not be surprising if people in the chess world, including Carlsen, Nakamura and Niemann, continued to weigh in.
In addition, there is a looming investigation from the International Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, into the matter. The investigation, which reportedly went beyond the events at the tournament in St. Louis, was put together by a special commission earlier this year. A report was to have been released in March, along with possible recommendations for sanctions against the players involved, but in May the federation postponed the release, citing its desire not to be entangled in the litigation. At the time, the federation said it would release the report in October.
Efforts to reach representatives of the federation were unsuccessful.
In an email, Erik Allebest, a co-founder of Chess.com, wrote about the settlement and the decision to allow Niemann to once again compete on its site: “We believe the same as other professional leagues and governing bodies: that everyone deserves a second chance. We always strive to do what is best for chess, and we believe this decision to move forward together is good for the game.”
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