Picture Credit: Crystal Fuller/Saint Louis Chess Club
In a rematch of the Sinquefield Cup fixture earlier this month, which lead to one of the biggest recent controversies in chess, reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen resigned from his preliminary game against Hans Niemann just after two moves in the Julius Baer Generation Cup on Monday.
The tournament was hosted by chess24.com online and hence the players were on video via Microsoft Teams. So as the match kicked off, Carlsen made one move and then suddenly disappeared, and resigned from the match. He had a similar reaction earlier this month as he quit the $500,000 Sinquefield Cup after losing against Niemann. Carlsen further confirmed his resignation from the event by posting a video of a famous quote by football manager Jose Mourinho: “If I speak, I am in big trouble.”
Check the video here:
Armenian chess grandmaster Levon Grigori Aronian, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation, talked about Magnus Carlsen's decision and took the Nowagien’s side in the matter. Aronian expressed that he has some understanding of Carlsen's frustration as Hans Niemann has not been the cleanest person, especially regarding online chess.
Aronian said, “I understand that frustration of Magnus. I really didn't know much about a lot of things. Now I am somewhere in the middle. I do believe Hans has not been the cleanest person when it comes to online chess. But he's a young guy, hopefully, this will be a lesson to him not to do any bad things online. Generally, I think this is a problem that requires a solution - and there are solutions.”
