Several days later after returning to Norway, Magnus shared in a private conversation that his experience in playing Hans was “unlike a game he’s ever had.” He emphasized that he has competed against numerous prodigies and players who “exert” themselves and show great effort throughout a long, difficult fight like this game. He described Hans’ level of exertion as “effortless” and felt he never had a chance to get back in the game, which was extremely unusual for Magnus who is known for his resourcefulness. Hans’ lack of emotion or excitement about the result was also noted by several others.
It is hard to understate the respect that the chess world has for Magnus, which has been earned over the last decade. The report notes compares the emotion for five players that have beaten Magnus, including Hans. His emotional response is not like the other players ...
Chess.com is set up to catch online cheaters, especially in speed chess. They readily admit that they do not police OTB games, since they are not the organizers of these tournaments. In this case they did apply the same anti-cheating rules that they use in other online games, and found suspicious activity.
Hans Neimann is the approximate Donald Trump of chess. Why would Neimann have to look nervous? He had beaten Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces just a few weeks before on 16 August 2022 Round 2 FTX Crypto Cup, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and was in the process of beating him again. Niemann's response was that "It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me. I feel bad for him."
How many players have three tournament wins over Magnus in about a month? The last one was two moves long.
Magnus did not do himself any favors with his act at the Candidate's tournament when he said he was undecided whether he would defend his championship or not. And he said he likely would not unless the challenger were Alireza Firouzja. Carlsen was not playing but he showed up and waited until just after the tournament finished to announce that he would not play in the championship match. Players had to go for broke to be first because they did not know if second was meaningful or not. It affected the play of the tournament.
Carlsen lost to Niemann and waited until after Niemann went through the enhanced security check and tested clean. Then he tweeted from someplace that he was withdrawing, leaving his opponent to sit at the table waiting for the clock to run down ten minutes before the official declared the game forfeit. A player does not drop out of a round robin without just cause, defined as ilness or force majeure. He had played three games, less than half of those scheduled, so they were all nullified for the tournament standings. Of course, a round robin with an odd number of players leaves someone each round with no opponent.
Then Carlsen went to the Generations Cup and resigned his game with Niemann after making one move, and continued to play in that tournament which was a round robin in the preliminary rounds. He affected the standings and pairings in the elimination rounds.
The situation is about the conduct of Magnus Carlsen, not what Hans Niemann did years ago as a minor. Carlsen needs to justify what he did to FIDE. It is not like the grandmaster community just woke up and discovered Niemann had years ago been banned by Chess.com. It was talked about almost immediately by GM Hikaru Nakamura and his guests. Chess.com is simply running interference for a very big corporate asset.
The Chess.com reports on 26 grandmasters alleged to have been determined to have violated their fair play standards. They provide a list with all the names removed except for Niemann. They relate that one of those banned by Chess.com was in the FIDE top 10 in the world.
In this case they did apply the same anti-cheating rules that they use in other online games, and found suspicious activity.
This case is about over the board play. Magnus Carlsen quit a tournament in 2020, it was September 2022, not years ago when Niemann was a minor.
Chess.com Report at 3: "Despite the public speculation on these questions, in our view, there is no direct evidence that proves Hans cheated at the September 4, 2022 game with Magnus, or proves that he has cheated in other OTB games in the past."
Chess.com Report at 19-20: "Chess.com is unaware of any concrete evidence proving that Hans is cheating over the board or has ever cheated over the board."