CHESS BRAT

It was the biggest cheating scandal in chess history. Now, cleared of the most serious accusations, Hans Niemann is gunning for a world title-and doubling down on his opponent-trashing, hotel-wrecking, money-flaunting ways.

- JEN WIECZNER

ON THE SECOND DAY of this year's Grenke Chess Open, Europe's largest tournament, the 20-yearold grandmaster Hans Niemann woke before dawn with a stabbing pain in both ears. The trouble had started on the flight to Germany, when Niemann, who is the 46th-best player in chess and its most reviled villain, got extreme vertigo and vomited. "Screaming in agony," he later told me, he went to two hospitals but found the staff at both places rude and unwilling to treat him before a 9 a.m. match. Niemann went to the tournament chess hall and, ears throbbing, beat two weaker opponents before getting a hold of some antibiotics. By the end of the competition, Niemann had been diagnosed with a double middle-ear infection, lost zero games, won first place, and received a check for €20,000.

"Over the past few years, I've played a lot of games under extreme stress and obviously not being entirely focused," Niemann told me on a video call in early April as he was recovering at home in London. The American looked pale and tired with messy curls casting shadows over his gray eyes, blue-black circles beneath them like bruises. "I've become accustomed to performing under duress, when all the odds are stacked against me."

Niemann has been a pariah since the fall of 2022, when Magnus Carlsen, the world's No. 1 player, accused him of cheating. Now, if Niemann plays poorly, his rivals take it as proof he's a fraud; if he plays brilliantly, it only fuels their suspicions that he is somehow relying on AI. He is effectively blacklisted from most of the best tournaments.

Even the Grenke win was tainted. The tournament has two tiers: an invitation-only draw for the world's most elite players and the Open for amateurs. Passed over for the former, Niemann had to hassle the organizers to be accepted into the latter, wiring them €100 just to get them to respond to his emails and process his registration.