Carlsen explains why he accused Niemann of cheating: 'There were a lot of stories back then'

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen has finally spoken in detail about the infamous 2022 cheating scandal involving American Grandmaster Hans Niemann during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Carlsen said Niemann’s gameplay raised suspicion of cheating and that many players still “don’t trust” the American.

Niemann had famously stunned Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup in 2022, however, the Norwegian chess legend later withdrew from the tournament, suggesting that the then-teenager cheated during his games. Soon after Carlsen also withdrew during an online match against Niemann.

Niemann admitted to cheating in online games but denied all allegations made by Carlsen. Later a $100 million defamation lawsuit was filed against Carlsen and a few other parties by Niemann which was eventually settled out of the court in 2023.

Carlsen explains why Niemann’s game raised suspicion 

Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most popular podcasts that counts Donald Trump and Elon Musk among its guests, Carlsen revealed what made him doubt Niemann’s gameplay.

“There was a combination of things, based on the chess level that I thought that he had, and that I had seen from his games. Both by playing against him and analyzing a bit with him and by looking at his games. There were a lot of stories back then,” Carlsen said.

“There were a lot of factors that made me very, very suspicious. I think ever since then he has become better. But there’s still something off, both then and now.”

Talking about the details, Carlsen said: “With him, specifically…I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to be playing….or he didn’t at that point seem to be playing with a particular style. It seemed that he either played, kinda eh, or he more or less played any position very well in certain games. He could just switch from tactical to positional play very easily.

“It didn’t smell good to me. It still doesn’t, but to some extent, he had his lawsuit and we have all kind of moved a little bit on. I don’t trust him, and a lot of top players still don’t trust him. He certainly doesn’t trust me or Chess.com, Hikaru, or whoever he felt wronged by.”

The 34-year-old Carlsen also pointed out that he wasn’t impressed with Niemann’s game when he faced him under strict security measures at the 2024 Speed Chess Championship Final in Paris. “He didn’t play nearly at the same level there,” he said.

Carlsen: ‘Chess players are becoming paranoid’

The five-time world champion Carlsen also admitted that top chess players are getting more paranoid about possible cheating incidents in modern-day due to chess engines and lack of security at the tournaments.

“I am not ruling out that chess players are becoming more and more paranoid. We do have chess engines that play perfect chess. Anybody with their phone… I think Elon [Musk] tweeted to Garry [Kasparov] that ‘My phone can beat you at chess!’ which is true!” Carlsen added.

Talking about how prevalent is cheating in chess, Carlsen felt it was quite rampant as it was difficult to catch the perpetrators if they didn’t give a hint.

“There have been so many cases of people who are acting suspiciously, who are having suspicious results based on the data. But if you are not cheating in a dumb way, there is really not going to be a smoking gun. Without that smoking gun, it’s hard to catch people.”