The latest flashpoint in the Carlsen-Niemann saga took place in the sixth round of the preliminaries at the Julius Baer Generation Cup, one of the online events in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Ten days earlier, 19-year-old Hans Niemann had beaten Magnus Carlsen over the board at the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen’s shock withdrawal from that event got the rumour mill spinning, which only accelerated after Niemann’s admission that he had cheated online at ages 12 and 16, although he insisted that those incidents are behind him.
In the Generation Cup, Carlsen made just one move against Niemann before resigning, clearly in protest. After the event Carlsen released a statement, making it clear that he suspects Niemann of more extensive cheating and that he won’t be playing any more games against him.
Carlsen’s cold-blooded conviction in this matter is remarkable. Anish Giri, another elite player, drew attention to the Norwegian’s splendid play against Levon Aronian in the very next game which followed his protest, as though he was undisturbed by the drama. I am reminded of those schoolteachers who can segue from righteous fury to monastic calm without skipping a beat.
In the final round of the day, Carlsen seemed also to air some kind of teacherly instinct. At the end of a hard-fought draw with the exceptional 17-year-old Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, he made a little clapping gesture on camera. Spontaneous as it was, it also looked pointed, as if to say ‘this guy is the real deal’. Carlsen himself was on tremendous form during the event, and qualified for the knockout stages easily despite his self-imposed handicap in the Niemann game. He was quick to praise his other teenage opponents too. He described 17-year-old Vincent Keymer, whom he beat in the quarter finals, as ‘very, very strong’.
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