Hans Niemann has accused Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and chess.com of trying to destroy a “kid’s life” as he once again spoke about the cheating allegations labelled against him by the three parties. Niemann was accused of over-the-board cheating by world No.1 and former world champion Carlsen after the Norwegian suffered a defeat to the then-teenager Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup in 2022.

Niemann later admitted to cheating in online games but denied all allegations that Carlsen made and went on to file a $100 million defamation lawsuit against the five-time world champion. World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and Chess.com were also named in the lawsuit for defamation and unlawful collusion.

Eventually, in 2023, all parties brought an end to the matter with an out-of-court settlement.

However, Carlsen recently rekindled the controversy as he spoke about cheating scandal while appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Carlsen said that there were a “lot of factors” that made him “very suspicious”. One of them being Niemann’s game lacking a clear trend.

Niemann launches fresh verbal attack against Carlsen

With Niemann still struggling to move past the cheating allegations, the 21-year-old American chess Grandmaster has now launched another verbal attack against Carlsen and others who led the charge against him.

Explaining why he’s not planning to undergo lie-detector test against Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov, Niemann said that he’s not interested in talking about the cheating allegations. While he did not take Carlsen’s name, Niemann did not shy away from alleging that those who accused him of cheating were trying to ruin a “19-year-old kid’s life” because of vendetta.

“I really really hate this narrative and I am not going acknowledge over-the-board accusation, chess.com’s blatant defamatory accusations because I have nothing to prove,” Niemann said in a video uploaded on his YouTube account. “Despite all the things been done to me, I have continued to prove. I have nothing to prove. The onus is on them to prove. These are terrible people who tried to destroy a 19-year-old kid’s life because of personal and sick sick vendetta.”

Niemann added that he does not wish to prove his innocence again when it’s clear he did not indulge in cheating against Carlsen.

“My innocence has been proven time and time again and it’s not my job to prove my innocence. I think people in chess are not familiar  with presumed innocence,” he added.

Niemann is set to face Carlsen at next month’s Freestyle Chess Tour Grand Slam event in Paris. It will be Niemann’s first appearance at the tour which has been co-founded by Carlsen.