While all four games of the Sinquefield Cup fifth round were drawn, it seems the biggest move of the day happened during the post-game interview with Hans Niemann. He passionately responded to the recent speculations made about him following Carlsen’s withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup. Hans Niemann first analyzed his round 5 game against Leinier Dominguez where he escaped from a losing position taking a draw from the rooks endgame and then spoke about the accusations against him that overwhelmed social medias these days.
“There’s been a lot of things in social medias. And I have lots of things to say. I thought a lot about what I want to say and how I am going to say it“, started Niemann. He first answered the rising social media questions that were referring to his “weird accent”: “For the last two years, I have lived in a suitcase, traveling around Europe, playing chess non-stop. I spent so much time working on chess that I simply don’t go outside and socialize with people who speak fluent English“. Hans then spoke about the opening he prepared for the game against Magnus Carlsen as “People were saying there was no idea why I checked this”. He gave an insight about his preparation for the game, explaining that he used his preparation for proper transposition for Catalan opening that Magnus have played a lot lately. “I checked this (opening) because it’s a transposition and I spent some extra time to get the proper transposition as I am playing the World Champion” added Niemann and also explained the piece sacrifice from the game against Alireza Firouzja: “19.Qg3 was a purely psychological move. Clearly, people don’t know anything about Firouzja, his style, how to beat him. The way to beat him is to attack him. He really really hates being attacked and he loses when he’s being attacked“.
Speaking about rumors and Nakamura’s stream where Hikaru said that Niemann was banned on chess.com, Niemann said: “When I was 12 years old, I was with a friend and I was playing titled tuesday. And I was playing and I had a little help of the engine, I was 12 years old. I was a child, I had no idea what happened. Four years later, when I was a 16-year-old, I made absolutely ridiculous mistake. In unrated games. After that I have never ever in my life cheated in the over the board game, online tournaments, or unrated games. I am saying now truth because I don’t want any misinterpretation. I am proud of myself that I learned from that mistake and now I have given everything to chess. I sacrificed everything for chess and I do everything I can to improve. So, I wanted to get some rating so I can play stronger players, so I cheated in random games on chess.com. Now, I was confronted, I confest, and this was the biggest mistake in my life. And I am completely ashamed. And I am telling the world because I do not want any misinterpretation and I do not want rumors“.
“I am deeply, deeply sorry for my mistake and I know that my actions have consequences. And I suffer those consequences“, added Niemann. He then explained that after the game against Magnus he was removed from chess.com, as he received the private email saying that his account was privately banned and that he cannot participate in the Global Chess.com Championship. “After not playing the chess.com events, I went to over the board tournaments and I said to myself that only way to make up for my mistake was to prove to myself and prove to others that I could win myself. That was my mission and that was why I have lived in a suitcase for two years. That is why I played 260 games in one year. That is why I’ve trained 12 hours a day because I have something to prove“. He added that he believes that Magnus’s accusations in his tweet, chess.com and Hikaru’s accusation in his stream are unfair and that this is a targeted attack against him. “I am not going to let chesscom, I am not going to let Magnus Carlsen, I’m not going to let Hikaru Nakamura, the 3 arguably biggest entities in chess, simply slander my reputation” concluded Hans. See the complete interview below
