 "Magnus Carlsen explains how Niemann anal beads rumour started, Elon Musk’s role and his own stance")
Magnus Carlsen recently opened up on the cheating allegations he labelled against American Grandmaster hand Niemann in 2022. Carlsen and Niemann have since shared a strained relationship with the American also filing a $100 million lawsuit against the five-time world champion.
While the lawsuit was dismissed by a Missouri federal court in 2023 and Carlsen and Niemann later made an out-of-court settlement, one rumour from that time is still doing the rounds – that Niemann used anal beads to cheat against Carlsen.
The accusation of Niemann using anal beads and getting instructions via morse code to cheat went viral after social media users including American billionaire Elon Musk lapped up the possibility and shared it with millions.
Carlsen explains Niemann anal beads rumour
Carlsen, however, doesn’t believe in the story. While explaining his rationale on Joe Rogan's podcast , Carlsen shared how a “random guy” gave rise to the anal beads rumour which became the talk of the town in the chess world.
“It (the rumour) actually started in one of my friend’s streamer channel’s. A random guy made a comment about anal beads and he was like ‘Yeah, maybe’. I think it started making the rounds on Reddit and then Elon (Musk) saw it, tweeted about it and then obviously it blew up,” Carlsen said.
“I really, really don’t believe that that has happened. I think that has no connection to reality but it just became a thing of its own.”
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More ShortsWhile Niemann at that time admitted that he cheated in casual online games in the past, he refused taking any help during an over-the-board game.
Explaining what made him suspicious about Niemann cheating against him at Sinquefield Cup in 2022, Carlsen said: “He doesn’t seem to be playing….or he didn’t at that point seem to be playing with a particular style. It seemed that he either played, kinda eh, or he more or less played any position very well in certain games. He could just switch from tactical to positional play very easily.”
He further added: “There was a combination of things, based on the chess level that I thought that he had, and that I had seen from his games. Both by playing against him and analyzing a bit with him and by looking at his games. There were a lot of stories back then.
“There were a lot of factors that made me very, very suspicious. I think ever since then he has become better. But there’s still something off, both then and now.”
Carlsen is set to face Niemann at the Paris Freestyle Grand Slam event which will take place in April.
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