Gukesh Dommaraju defeated Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore Thursday to become the youngest champion in the history of classical chess. The 18-year-old is also the first champion from India, a massive triumph for a nation that has gained significant notoriety in the game in recent years. 

“I’ve been dreaming about this and living this moment since I was 6 or 7,” Gukesh said after the game. “I have been living this moment for more than 10 years. Every chess player wants to live this moment and to be one of them is … the only way to express is: I’m living my dream.”

After nearly three weeks of intense competition, Gukesh and Ding were tied 6.5-6.5 entering the final game, and a draw would have forced a series of tiebreaker games Friday in a shorter time control known as rapid. This would have greatly favored Ding, the reigning champion who defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in rapid tiebreakers to win the vacant title in 2023. Gukesh, known as an elite calculator, has far more experience in classical formats and isn’t known to succeed with less time on the clock.

Entering the match, Gukesh’s vulnerability in shorter time controls was so notorious that it seemed to play a part in Ding’s long-term strategy. The Chinese champion spent most of his 14 games trying to force Gukesh into drawn positions, prolonging the match and keeping the overall score even. When Gukesh took his first lead of the match by winning the 11th game, Ding struck right back to win the 12th and salvaged a draw in the 13th to keep the match tied.

As the final game winded down to a handful of pieces for each player Thursday, Gukesh had a one-pawn advantage that seemed unlikely to give him a winning chance. The game was well on its way to another draw until Ding made a shocking blunder with his rook on the 55th move, forcing Gukesh into a trade that put the Indian challenger in a winning endgame. The expression on the 18-year-old’s face was one of surprise, then joy, as he realized that he was about to become world champion. After realizing his mistake, Ding held his head in his hands, fatigued and distraught, before eventually resigning.

“I was totally in shock when I realized I made a blunder,” Ding said after the game. “His facial expression showed that he was very happy and excited and I realized I made a blunder. It took some time to realize it.”

In the wake of Magnus Carlsen’s stunning decision to vacate the championship several years ago, the state of classical chess has been in flux. The last two championship matches have been strange, inconsistent and weakened by the fact that the best chess player in the world did not appear in them.

But for one brief moment Thursday, any argument about the current state of chess melted away at the sight of Gukesh, the 18-year-old phenom, coming to terms with his outstanding accomplishment in real time. Even in a notoriously stoic game, his excitement was palpable as he made his championship-winning move and walked away from the table, failing to conceal a broad smile. 

“I probably got so emotional because I did not really expect to win from that position,” Gukesh said. “But then suddenly after Rf2, I saw [the game] was actually done. I was already preparing myself to go through that huge tiebreak fight and suddenly, it was all over, and I had achieved my dream. I’m not someone who shows a lot of emotions, but I think this one can be forgiven.”

Gukesh is the leader of an elite Indian movement in chess, a massive group of talented young players many consider to be the future. For several years, he was one of many Indian players, alongside Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and others, touted as the next great challenger to the most powerful figures in the game. The future just arrived.

Chess.com, the most popular site for online chess, published a 76-page report Tuesday concluding that chess grandmaster Hans Niemann cheated in at least 100 online matches, including prize tournaments. The report did not prove that Niemann cheated against Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup but reinforces his ban from online tournaments on the site.

“Overall, we have found that Hans has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several prize money events,” the report stated. “He was already 17 when he likely cheated in some of these matches and games. He was also streaming in 25 of these games.”

According to the website, which published its report Tuesday, an investigation into Niemann’s play began following his admission of limited cheating over the course of his early chess career online. Chess.com Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch released a statement refuting Niemann’s claim, saying that he cheated far more than he stated and that he was removed from the site.

The site’s report, which comes nearly one month after Rensch’s statement, concludes that Niemann cheated regularly, sometimes in events for monetary prizes, until at least the age of 17. Niemann, now 19, has enjoyed one of the most meteoric rises in high-level chess after an atypically average career as a younger teenager.

In their report, Chess.com officials denied having ever communicated with Carlsen, who first suggested the idea that Niemann was cheating over the board when the young American defeated Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup on Sept. 4. Carlsen withdrew from the event following the defeat and later said that he would refuse to compete with Niemann in future events due to suspicions of cheating.

Instead of responding to Carlsen’s implied and later explicit accusations against Niemann, the online hosts clarified that they only conducted an investigation in response to Niemann’s claim of two cheating incidents. Their report found that his cheating was far more extensive than that.

“It must be emphasized that we never intended our concerns about Hans’ fair play violations to be a public conversation,” the report stated. “Indeed, his recent removal from Chess.com and the CGC was also communicated privately. He chose to make these communications public. As a result, we feel compelled to share the basis for our decisions publicly with the community.”

Though there is still no evidence that Niemann is cheating over the board in high-level tournaments, there is now a natural level of suspicion surrounding the grandmaster in all of his events. At the U.S. Chess Championship earlier this week, Niemann and other competitors were extensively searched with a metal detector to ensure fair play.

Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen released a statement Monday accusing fellow grandmaster Hans Niemann of cheating.

Carlsen, the highest-ranked classical chess player of all time and five-time world champion, will refuse to play Niemann in competitive play, putting tournament organizers and chess authorities in a difficult position.

The statement, which Carlsen posted on Twitter, was released after the completion of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, an online tournament which pitted established chess players against relative newcomers.

Carlsen dominated the event, winning 10 of his 15 preliminary matches before decisively defeating Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi in the championship bracket. Niemann performed well but ultimately lost to Le Quang Liem in the quarterfinals.

One of Carlsen’s few losses in the entire tournament came against Niemann via forfeit, as he refused to play the young American due to his suspicion that Niemann was cheating. Carlsen elaborated on this refusal in his statement.

“So far I have only been able to speak with my actions, and those actions have stated clearly that I am not willing to play chess with Niemann. I hope that the truth on this matter comes out, whatever it may be,” Carlsen stated.

Carlsen’s comments came after nearly a month of controversy which started with his game against Niemann in the Sinquefield Cup. In the high-profile tournament in St. Louis, Niemann defeated Carlsen with the black pieces in the third round of the tournament. It was a massive achievement for a 19-year-old player who only become a grandmaster in 2021. But the victory also led Carlsen to withdraw from the tournament, igniting the massive scandal.

While Carlsen refused to elaborate on his withdrawal for several weeks, speculation ran wild in the chess community. Niemann’s past transgressions in online chess slowly came to the surface. Though the American admitted to cheating in online tournaments when he was younger, he emphatically denied ever having cheated over the board.

In his recent statement, Carlsen finally clarified his feelings when he chose to withdraw from the Sinquefield Cup.

“His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrated on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do,” Carlsen said.

Chess.com, a popular online chess hosting site, also disputed Niemann’s claims, concluding that he cheated online far more than he originally admitted. Though there still isn’t any concrete evidence of Niemann cheating over the board, the investigation into his online play led the site to ban him from all future tournaments that it hosted.

Carlsen’s subsequent forfeit in the Generation Cup, the next meeting between the two players, sent even more shockwaves through the community, and it’s now clear that it may not be the last time it occurs. Carlsen will not play against Niemann, and future matchups between the two players may result in more forfeits.

Because of his status in the chess community as one of, if not the greatest, players of all time, Carlsen enjoys a massive amount of leverage over Niemann with tournament organizers. It’s practically impossible to host a high-level tournament without Carlsen’s presence, and if these hosts must choose between the five-time champion and a 19-year-old with a proven history of cheating, Niemann’s career could suffer as a result.

Only future tournaments can truly reveal the full impact of Carlsen’s actions.

Despite his strong showing in the preliminary rounds of the 2022 Generation Cup, chess Grandmaster Hans Niemann lost to Chinese player Liem Le in the quarterfinals Thursday and will not advance. Meanwhile, reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen lost his first game against Levon Aronian but made a furious comeback in later games to win and move on.

If both players had won, they may have met in a final that would have represented the payoff of a white-hot feud. Instead, Carlsen will move on without the burden of the most intense drama in recent chess history.

The scandal surrounding Carlsen and Niemann has been complex and shadowy since it first began earlier this month, but it was immediately clear that the stature of the players involved gave it the power to completely change the game forever. The feud between the two players is far from over and could escalate even further in days to come.

An Upset And A Withdrawal

It all began on Sept. 4 in the fourth round of the Sinquefield Cup, a high-level invitational tournament in St. Louis. Carlsen, the highest-rated chess player in human history and five-time World Champion, was naturally a heavy favorite going into the event.

In the fourth round, the Norwegian champ faced off against 19-year-old Niemann, an American who has enjoyed a nearly unprecedented meteoric rise through the ranks in his later teenage years. in a game where many high-level players become grandmasters before their 16th birthday, Niemann improved dramatically late in his teenage years and earned the title at 18.

In a stunning upset, Niemann defeated Carlsen in the fourth round of the Sinquefield Cup, a huge victory for one of chess’ rising stars. At first, it appeared to be a crowning achievement for the young player in one of his first tournaments against the world’s best players. It soon became a nightmare.

The following day, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament without providing a solid explanation. Many were quick to speculate, however, that he was withdrawing under the suspicion that Niemann cheated in their game. His tweet announcing his forfeit included a viral clip of soccer coach Jose Mourinho refusing to speak to the press for fear of getting in trouble.

In the ensuing days, Niemann continued to compete in the Sinquefield Cup while speculation continued to grow. Supporters of Carlsen’s alleged theory, like grandmaster and popular chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura, began to scrutinize Niemann’s post-game analyses and suggested that he wasn’t properly evaluating some of his own moves. One particularly salacious rumor claimed that Niemann used a vibrating sex toy as a signaling device during games. The unfounded story was publicized by a number of media outlets and has become one of the foundational details of the scandal.

Niemann Admits Wrongdoing

In an interview on Sept. 6, Niemann admitted to cheating in online tournaments at the ages of 12 and 16 but adamantly denied cheating over the board. There is still no evidence to prove that Niemann cheated against Carlsen, but officials from Chess.com, a popular chess website that hosts many high-level online tournaments, disputed other parts of his story.

Chess.com Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch released a statement on Sept. 6 claiming that Niemann cheated online far more often than he claimed. As a result, Rensch said that the organization had privately removed Niemann from the website and barred him from all future online events.

“We have shared detailed evidence with him [Niemann] concerning our decision, including information that contradicts his statements regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com,” Rensch said.

Facing immense pressure beyond the tournament, Niemann struggled in the later rounds of the Sinquefield Cup and finished sixth, still an impressive result for the teenage prodigy. The next event for high-level chess players is the Generation Cup, an online tournament pitting established players again junior competitors. Niemann had already agreed to compete before the scandal began. So had Carlsen.

The Three-Move Rematch

In the preliminary rounds, in which all 16 players compete in a round robin tournament and the top eight move on, Carlsen and Niemann were scheduled to play in the third round on Sept. 19. Before the tournament, Carlsen arranged for a media blackout and refused to speak to the press, prolonging his absence from the public eye while speculation about Niemann ran rampant. As a result, many saw their matchup as the only way Carlsen could possibly convey a message. The reigning champ delivered.

Niemann began the game by moving a pawn to d4. Carlsen moved his knight to f6. Niemann moved another pawn to c4. Carlsen resigned.

It was another victory for Niemann over Carlsen, but it wasn’t earned. It was a protest. Carlsen was refusing to play against Niemann. He remained silent for several more days before finally making a cryptic statement about his forfeit in a broadcast interview on Sept. 21. He referred directly to chess player Maxim Dlugy, Niemann’s former mentor who was accused of cheating on Chess.com in 2017.

“Unfortunately, I cannot particularly speak on that, but people can draw their own conclusions, and they certainly have,” Carlsen said. “I have to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play and I think his mentor Maxim Dlugy must be doing a great job.”

Header: Carlsen Moves On, Niemann Denied

Following Carlsen’s forfeit, both players played spectacular chess over the remaining preliminary rounds. Niemann earned the third most points to qualify for the quarterfinals, but Carlsen was even more impressive, ranking first by a wide margin. He won 10 of 15 games, and his one loss was the forfeit against Niemann.

Now, Niemann is out of the tournament following his loss to Le while Carlsen will move on to the semifinals Friday. He will play 17-year-old German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer. It may not be the result many were hoping for, but those seeking more intrigue won’t have to wait long. At this point, Carlsen has all but accused Niemann of cheating, but reports suggest that he plans to make an official statement following the tournament’s end on Sept. 24.

If he can present credible evidence that Niemann cheated to defeat him in the Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen will irrevocably ruin Niemann’s career and pave the way for massive changes to current chess tournament procedures. Until then though, spectators merely have to wait.