By Oyero Abiodun Yakub
American teenager, Hans Niemann has sued Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player, for accusing him of cheating after he won the world champion.
Carlsen on Friday urged a U.S. federal court to toss a $100 million libel suit brought against him and Chess.com, an online chess body by American teenage grandmaster, Niemann, whom Carlsen has accused of cheating in a championship game between both players.
Niemann, 19, claimed in his lawsuit that the defendants are trying to blacklist him from professional chess, as he was shunned by tournament organizers after he was accused of cheating at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri in September.
The surprise defeat and unusual decision to immediately withdraw from the tournament made tongues roll in the chess world that Carlsen believed Niemann had cheated.
Though Niemann admitted to cheating in online chess matches when he was 12 and 16 years old, but he denied doing so during professional tournaments involving prize money. The tournament organizers said they have not found any evidence to back the claim of Niemann cheating.
