The ‘cheating’ scandal tearing the chess community apart, explained

polygon.com:

On Monday, reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen made just one move against his opponent, American grandmaster Hans Niemann, and then resigned, sending the chess world into a panic about a growing scandal with seemingly no resolution.

Carlsen essentially refusing to play against Niemann heightens speculation about Carlsen’s abrupt withdrawal from a tournament in St. Louis after losing to Niemann in early September, and whether he thinks Niemann is cheating. Carlsen has not explained his actions, either in St. Louis or the resignation this week, and as a result, tensions have snowballed and drawn divisions in the chess world.

Carlsen is a five-time world champion and arguably the best chess player ever. The 31-year-old Norwegian has been the world-ranked number one for over a decade, and his peak Elo rating (a scale used to determine relative strength of players) of 2882 is the best in history.

Niemann is a 19-year-old American whose Elo rating has exploded since the pandemic from 2484 in January 2021 to 2688 at the beginning of September. His meteoric rise has surprised and impressed the chess world, and in turn added to the suspicion of foul play.

During round 6 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, Carlsen was supposed to play Niemann in what would have been their first meeting since Niemann beat him earlier this month. But instead of playing, Carlsen moved his knight and then resigned and turned off his camera, shocking live commentators into silence and sparking a Twitter storm of opinions.

“This is unprecedented. I just I can’t believe it,” live commentator Tania Sachdev said. “Magnus just refusing to play against Hans. He will play the tournament, but he is saying, ‘I will not play the game against him.’