 "American Grandmaster Hans NIemann will have to face one question from Daniil Dubov after losing an 18-game blitz showdown against the Russian GM in Moscow. Image credit: Instagram/Reuters")
American Grandmaster Hans Niemann had recently challenged Russia’s Daniil Dubov to an 18-game blitz showdown at the latter’s home turf recently, with the stipulation being that the loser of the game had to undergo a lie-detecting polygraph test. Despite putting up a spirited fight and taking the battle deep, Niemann ended up losing the match that took place over the course of two days by a 9.5-8.5 margin.
Niemann is yet to officially announce when he will be undergoing the lie-detector test, in which the victor Dubov will be allowed to ask no more than one question.
Dubov to bring up C-word during polygraph test
Dubov, however, already knows what he’s going to ask, and it certainly won’t be a pleasant one for Niemann to tackle. In an interview in his native Russian language, Dubov revealed he’s going to ask his defeated opponent, “Have you cheated over the board?”.
And just to make it a little more specific, the 28-year-old Russian GM plans to ask whether Niemann has cheated “over the past 5 years” or not.
Niemann, after all, was involved in one of the biggest scandals in chess history after he was accused of cheating by world No 1 Magnus Carlsen during the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, USA in 2022. This was after Carlsen, who was the reigning world champion at the time, dropped out of the tournament after suffering a surprise third-round loss against Niemann.
The controversial American GM did not take the accusation from the Norwegian chess icon too well – he responded with a US$100 million federal lawsuit against Carlsen, compatriot Hikaru Nakamura as well as Chess.com.
The two parties, however, had arrived at a settlement the following year, after which the matter was closed – legally speaking at least, with Niemann and Carlsen continuing to target each other verbally to this day. The American has gone so far as to accuse Carlsen of trying to “ruin his life” .
While Niemann has consistently denied Carlsen’s Sinquefield Cup accusation more than two years since the infamous incident, he has admitted to cheating a couple of times at an early age.
Dubov’s question, thus will take the 2022 Sinquefield Cup into account, Niemann will not be required to confirm whether he cheated in that specific event or not.