Hans Niemann

Hans Moke Niemann (born June 20, 2003) is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He became a FIDE Grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and he was the eighth-highest-rated Junior in the world. His peak global ranking was No. 31, in May 2023.

In September 2022, Niemann became embroiled in a cheating controversy after he defeated the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, later directly accusing Niemann of cheating and saying he would decline future pairings with him. Niemann admitted to cheating in online chess games when younger, but denied cheating in in-person games. Chess.com banned Niemann from its site, and published a report noting over 100 games on the site in which Niemann had "likely cheated" according to an internal anti-cheating measure. In response, Niemann filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com and Hikaru Nakamura. On June 27, 2023, the case was dismissed by a federal judge. On August 28, 2023, Niemann, Carlsen and Chess.com announced they had reached an agreement over the matter, in which Niemann was fully reinstated on Chess.com and able to participate in their events, Carlsen agreed to play him when matched up, and all parties agreed not to pursue further legal action.

Early life and education
Niemann was born in San Francisco, California, and is of mixed Hawaiian and Danish ancestry. Before moving to the Netherlands at the age of 7, he attended Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach, California. While attending a Leonardoschool gifted school in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Niemann began playing chess at age 8. He moved back to Orinda, California at age 10.

He lived in Weston, Connecticut and New York City, where he graduated from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School.

Training
While attending U.S. Chess School with fellow streamer and GM Andrew Tang, Niemann received training from GMs Joshua Friedel, Ben Finegold and Jacob Aagaard. John Grefe was another of his coaches.

2012–2015
Niemann qualified for the Dutch National Youth Chess Championship in 2012. His first rated US tournament was in December 2012. Four months later he participated in the 2013 SuperNationals V in Nashville with a rating of 1486, scoring 4/7 in his section.

In March 2014, Niemann's rating was just under 2000 at 10 years old, which gained him an invitation to the U.S. Chess School camp in St. Louis with coaches Greg Shahade and John Bartholomew. On December 16, 2014, Niemann became the youngest-ever winner of the Tuesday Night Marathon of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, the oldest chess club in the United States, earning him the title of USCF Master. Niemann competed at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships in Durban, South Africa, in the U12 category, winning 6 of 11 games.

2016–2018
Since 2016, Niemann has been part of the US Chess Federations All-America Chess Team. After becoming an FM in early 2016, he competed at the 2016 Saint Louis Invitational IM Norm, and was among the youngest players competing along with Carissa Yip. At the 2016 North American Youth Championship, he tied for first place in the U18 category and earned his first IM norm.

At the 2017 SuperNationals VI, he entered the tournament as the top seed in the K–8 category with a rating of 2412, and finished 1st.

In August 2018, Niemann competed at the 2018 U.S. Masters Championship, earning his second IM norm and also his first GM norm. Later in August 2018, he earned his 3rd and final IM norm at the Cambridge IM Norm Invitational and met all the requirements for the title of International Master. In December 2018, he won the National K–12 Blitz Championships undefeated, finishing 12–0, while also tying for first in the bughouse duo competition. He went on to tie for 1st in his grade in the overall K–12 Grade Championships. After initially winning six consecutive games, he finished in third place at the 2018 U16 Olympiad in Konya, Turkey.

2019–2021
Starting in 2019, Niemann rose from an Elo rating of around 2450 to 2650 in just over three years. In June 2019, he won the inaugural ChessKid Games hosted by Chess.com, accruing 20 straight victories and qualifying for the 2020 Junior Speed Chess Championship. He won the 2019 Foxwoods Open Blitz tournament with a perfect 10-0 score. Later at the 2019 US Junior Championships, he tied for sixth place. During the 2019 World Youth Championships he occupied first place for the first 8 out of 11 rounds in the U16 Open with a performance rating of nearly 2600, finishing 9th in a field of 78.

At the 2019 Grade Nationals, Niemann achieved a perfect 29–0 victory, achieving 12–0 in the Blitz Championship, 10–0 in the Bughouse Duo competition and finally 7–0 in the 11th Grade Championship. In November 2019, he competed in the 103rd Edward Lasker Memorial, tying for 1st place and achieving his second GM norm.

At the 2020 FIDE World Youth Championship, Niemann placed sixth at the American Continental Selection Open. He achieved his third and final GM norm at the Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy (CCCSA GM Norm Invitational) in October 2020, placing first. In November, he won the 75th Annual Texas State and Amateur Championship, held in Fort Worth, Texas. In December 2020, he won the blitz competition at the VII Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival, and then surpassed the 2500 Elo threshold required to become a grandmaster.

In January 2021, he placed third at the Vergani Cup, held in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. In February, he won both the classical round robin (7/10) and blitz (10½/11) tournaments at the Winter Chess Festival "Paraćin 2021" in Serbia. In April, he was featured on the front cover of Chess Life magazine, with a cover story documenting Niemann's journey to becoming a Grandmaster, and accompanying podcast.

In July 2021, Niemann won the World Open held in Philadelphia after beating John Burke in tiebreaks. Later that month, he won the U.S. Junior Championship hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC), which entitled him to compete in the 2022 U.S. Chess Championship. In August, he finished second (8/9) behind GM Aleksandr Lenderman (8½/9) at the 121st U.S. Open Chess Championship.

2022
In March 2022, Niemann broke into the chess top 100 for classical time control. He was the 12th-ranked American. In the FTX Crypto Cup, he won a game with the black pieces in a second-round match against Carlsen. In the post-game interview after defeating Carlsen, Niemann said, "Chess speaks for itself" before walking off. Despite winning four other games, Niemann didn't win any of his overall matches in the FTX Crypto tournament, and finished last out of a field of eight with zero match points.

A few weeks later, at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup in September, Niemann won another game against world champion Carlsen, leading Carlsen to withdraw from the tournament and sparking international controversy (see section below). Niemann faced Carlsen again two weeks later during the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Carlsen resigned that game after one move, further fueling the controversy.

In December 2022, Niemann placed second at the Chessable Sunway Sitges Open, after winning a tiebreak against Amin Tabatabaei. The tournament consolidated his rating as a 2700 player on the official FIDE ratings list for the first time. During the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships held in late December in Kazakhstan, Niemann finished 100th out of 177 in Rapid and 47th out of 176 in Blitz.

2023
In April 2023 Niemann finished 6th out of 200 at the Open Chess Menorca with the top 10 players all tying for seven points after the nine round round-robin and Gukesh D taking the win. Later that month he participated in the Kazakhstan Chess Cup, a side event to the World Chess Championship 2023 also held in the country at the same time, finishing 6th out of 167.

In May, he started as the top seed for the Baku Open International Chess Festival, finishing 54th out of 122, with Prraneeth Vuppala achieving a surprise win against him, crossing the 2500 Elo mark to become a Grandmaster. In the same month, Niemann participated in the 2023 Dubai Open Chess Tournament as the second highest seed. He finished 47th after losing to non-titled Xue Haowen with white pieces in the eighth round.

In June, Niemann won the 1000GM 2023 Las Vegas Super Swiss, following a tiebreak with Mikhail Antipov. In July, he won the Uralsk Open 2023 in Kazakhstan. In August, he reached a settlement with Chess.com and began playing games again on their site. He won the Timșoara Grand Prix Rapid, the third stage of the Romanian Grand Prix. He then transferred to the fourth stage Arad Grand Prix Classic, placing second after Haik Martirosyan.

In October, Niemann competed at the US Championships at SLCC, coming in 7th. At the 2023 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships, he finished 26th out of 105 in Rapid and 39th out of 206 in Blitz.

In November, Niemann was the 2nd seed at the Tournament of Peace, a 10 player GM round robin. He eventually won by a massive 3 point margin after scoring 8/9, garnering him his 3rd classical tournament win and 4th overall of the season after a difficult start.

2024
From January 13-28th, Niemann competed in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, in the B section. Although he started off strongly with two wins in the first half of the tournament against GM Liam Vrolijk and IM Divya Deshmukh, he suffered back-to-back losses to IM Eline Roebers and GM Marc Andria Maurizzi, finishing in 7th place. and On February 2, 2024, the Saint Louis Chess Club said they would not invite Niemann to any invitationals in 2024, due to his recent behavior and comments. This was later reported to involve damage to his hotel room during the 2023 US Championships. Niemann published a video confirming that he had damaged a hotel room, but also claimed that he "incessantly apologized and was supposed to be reinstated by the hotel". Also on February, Niemann played in the Djerba Chess Masters finishing second on tiebreak to Daniel Dardha after defeating GMs Aryan Tari and Bilel Bellahcene, but suffering another loss to GM Marc Andria Maurizzi. He got his first tournament win of 2024 in April, scoring 8/9 as the top seed of the GRENKE Open and winning clear first. In May, Niemann played the Dubai Global Police Chess Challenge. After starting off slowly with three draws against three 2400 rated IMs, he scored wins against GMs Aydin Suleymanli and S.P. Sethuraman, finishing in a tie for 2nd place and 7th on tiebreak. He then participated in the Sharjah Masters, starting seeded 14th and went on to finish 15th with a score of 5.5/9. In June, Niemann played for Tremblay in the French Team Championship, scoring a combined 8/11 and crossing the 2700 mark in live FIDE ratings for the first time in a year. He then played a blitz match against GM Vidit in Texas, coming out on top after winning 6-3 in the 2+2 section and winning $30,000.

PRO Chess League
Niemann has competed in the PRO Chess League since 2017, competing for the Las Vegas Desert Rats (2017), Saint Louis Arch Bishops (2019, winning team) and Norway Gnomes (2020).

Streaming career
Niemann streams both online and over-the-board chess on Twitch, competing against fellow chess streamers such as GMs Andrew Tang, Daniel Naroditsky, Nakamura, WFM Alexandra Botez and Carlsen. In his streaming career, Niemann served as a coach and co-commentator for the second PogChamps online chess tournament, coaching participating Twitch streamers like xQc, Ludwig, Forsen and Hafu, as well as strongman and actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.

Niemann first started streaming in the summer of 2018, then more regularly in the spring of 2019. His viewership grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, coinciding with an overall boom in the chess category on Twitch.

Sinquefield Cup incident
In the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Niemann defeated then world chess champion Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces, playing the Nimzo-Indian Defence. Niemann's live rating surpassed 2700 for the first time with this win. Carlsen withdrew from the Cup the following day, revealing his decision through a cryptic tweet that included a video of Portuguese football manager José Mourinho saying: "If I speak, I'm in big trouble, and I don't want to be in big trouble." Although Carlsen did not make any explicit accusations himself, his tweet, coupled with the heightened security measures implemented at the tournament after his defeat, suggested the presence of an allegation regarding Niemann cheating, an accusation denied by Niemann and several commentators. Niemann continued the tournament with 4 draws and 2 losses.

Niemann faced Carlsen again in a much-anticipated game during the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Carlsen resigned the game after one move, further fueling the controversy. It has been characterized as the most serious cheating controversy for international chess since the Toiletgate incident in the World Chess Championship 2006. Many chess players and public figures commented on the controversy, including former world champion Garry Kasparov.

On September 26, 2022, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating in a statement posted on Twitter. Carlsen stated he had considered withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup due to Niemann's last-minute inclusion, believed that Niemann cheated more often and more recently than he had publicly admitted, and was convinced by Niemann's behaviour during their Cup game to withdraw from the tournament. He stated that he was limited in what he could say openly without "explicit permission from Niemann", and that he would not play chess with Niemann in the future.

Responses and analysis
The executive director of the St. Louis Chess Club, Tony Rich, said that no formal complaint was made in writing. Chief Arbiter Chris Bird published a statement affirming there was "no indication that any player has been playing unfairly" during the tournament, but did not address the reason for additional security measures added after Magnus' withdrawal.

Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura accused Niemann of previously being suspended from Chess.com, for cheating in online tournaments. Niemann admitted in a post-game interview to having cheated in online games when he was 12 and 16 years old, but strongly denied ever cheating in an over-the-board game. Niemann revealed that Chess.com had suspended him again from the site and their events in light of the controversy. Chess.com's chief chess officer, Daniel Rensch, confirmed that Niemann would remain suspended pending an explanation of his past cheating on the platform.

A statistical analysis of Niemann's games since 2020, including the Sinquefield Cup game between Carlsen and Niemann, by anti-cheating expert Ken Regan, found no evidence of cheating. In early October 2022, Chess.com released a report identifying more than 100 games in which he had "likely cheated" according to an internal measure, some as recently as 2020, when he was 17.

Lawsuit
On October 20, 2022, Niemann filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com, Play Magnus Group, and Nakamura, regarding claims of his cheating. The case was filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis, where the Sinquefield Cup took place. Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter wrote that the case would be "tough to win", based on legal precedents and the difficulty of proving actual malice under US law. By December 7, 2022, all defendants except Play Magnus Group had filed motions to dismiss on various grounds, including lack of jurisdiction and the State of Connecticut's anti-SLAPP laws.

On June 27, 2023, the case was dismissed by a federal judge. On August 28, 2023, Chess.com announced in a blog post that the parties had reached a settlement and there would be no further litigation. Chess.com reinstated Niemann's account and let him play in future events. Carlsen agreed to play Hans if paired in the future, stating “I acknowledge and understand Chess.com’s report, including its statement that there is no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated in his game against me at the Sinquefield Cup.”