Almost exactly two years after their fateful meeting at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann will once again play a competitive chess match over the board in a big-time tournament, the semifinals of the Speed Chess Championships, on Friday in Paris. The two players' collective journey back to the same board in a high-stakes match is not quite as enthralling as their incendiary bickering match of two years ago, though they've walked rather circuitous paths back here.
We'll start with Carlsen, as his life has been far simpler than Niemann's over the past two years. Shortly after the Niemann affair, Carlsen officially ceded the title of world champion, an honor he'd held for a decade, to Ding Liren. Ding defeated former Carlsen challenger Ian Nepomniatchi in 2023, a few months before Carlsen stormed to the 2023 Chess World Cup title. He then won and defended the rapid and blitz world championships, and there's not any debate about whether or not he remains the best player in the world. His prep for this month's tournament included playing nine 3+0 games against Ediz Gurel, one of the youngest grandmasters in the world. He won eight of them, despite Gurel putting up a good fight.
Niemann, on the other hand, has come all the way back in from the chess wilderness apparently having learned little from the way the chess world turned its collective back on him in the wake of the scandal. To recap the controversy in one sentence: Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating against him when the latter broke Carlsen's 53-game unbeaten streak in classical chess; Chess.com released a huge dossier to support its business partner; Niemann eventually sued Carlsen et al.; the suit was settled; and Carlsen released a hilariously passive-aggressive statement showing that he clearly thinks Niemann is a huge dirty cheater, even if he can't say it. While the fundamental question of whether Niemann cheated against Carlsen is still totally unsupported, the chess world hasn't exactly thrown its arms open and welcomed Niemann back into the fold, as he conducted himself like a noxious asshole during and after the controversy.
When Niemann beat Carlsen in Miami shortly before their infamous Sinquefield run-in, he gave an instantly memorable quote, saying "Chess speaks for itself," and walking away from a gobsmacked interviewer. He has since tested the limits of how much chess can actually speak for itself, because he has had to scuffle in ways few players of his talent ever have. A May 2024 profile of Niemann in New York magazine detailed how big-time tournament organizers have been hesitant to invite him to their tournaments, both because they don't quite trust him and also because he's been behaving like a maniac. He allegedly destroyed a hotel room in St. Louis last October, to the point that he was banned from the St. Louis Chess Club (the most important club in the country) and an arbiter petitioned for his removal from the U.S. Chess Federation.
Niemann has taken his Bobby Fischer idolatry to disturbing extremes, melting down in Zagreb when told he could not stay in a hotel room Fischer once stayed in, prompting a tournament organizer to say, "Cheater or not, he clearly has some mental problems." Niemann has also become a YouTube guy, for a while posting almost daily in a video series documenting his journey to "world chess champion." He hasn't posted in that series for three months now, since Day 92, though he has generally continued blogging through it.
"As Eminem says, 'You get one chance,'" he said in his most recent video. "I don't know the exact line, 'You get one chance,' but of course you can get many more chances if you're really good." He reiterated that he would someday become world champion.
Niemann has not just been a profligate video blogger; he has also been winning a ton of important, high-level matches. He went back to the challengers level at Tate Steel and finished in the middle of the pack. He has taken two Titled Tuesday wins this year, and ramped up to the Speed Chess Championships by playing a grueling series of matches against top players in an effort to raise his rating before the SCC. Naturally, he called it "Hans Niemann against the World," and he beat Nikita Vitiugov, Etienne Bacrot, and Vidit Gujrathi in real life, in stunning fashion. He finished his prep by taking a convincing series win against Anish Giri, before defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So in early SCC rounds. Those guys are three of the very best players in the world, and Niemann smoked them. He is at his best in short-format games, and his inventive style really is unlike anyone else in that tier.
The other two players in Paris are Hikaru Nakamura, the prolific streamer and blitz expert, and Alireza Firouzja, the best young player in the world. Niemann and Carlsen will play a grueling series of blitz and bullet games across three formats: 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. Whoever has the most points after the 150 minutes of continuous play will advance, with the loser going to the third-place match. This format is spectacular for these two guys in particular, since they will play tons of games in rapid succession, with the pressure inevitably mounting as time controls get tighter. For two players who still hate each other, the repeated games will assure many wins and losses on both sides and many opportunities for each player to freak out. I want to see good chess, but also I want this incredible, stupid scandal to reach new heights.
