With Magnus Carlsen on the verge of losing his second tiebreak game to Levon Aronian — a defeat which would knock him down to the Losers’ Bracket in the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour — Hans Niemann was beside himself with glee. Niemann was doing commentary with Tania Sachdev and David Howell on the official stream for the Freestyle Tour and got so animated at one point that the official broadcasters opted to focus their camera on him like he was some sort of human evaluation bar. He clasped his hands on his face, jumped out of his seat, egged on Aronian with ‘come ons’ from time to time, and shouted moves at the TV screen, like a football fan would exhort their team’s striker to shoot.
At one point, when Aronian let go of an overwhelming advantage on the board and the eval showed a level position, Niemann stood on his feet staring at the screen like he was watching the collapse of the stock market. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was feeling the tension of the occasion perhaps a bit more than the players in the middle of the war on the chessboard themselves.
He had reason to.
Carlsen and Niemann have been entwined in controversy for the past three years, with allegations of cheating in a Sinquefield Cup game levelled against the outspoken American in 2022 after he beat Carlsen. Carlsen had withdrawn from the tournament itself after that loss, but the charges of cheating against Niemann were never proven. Niemann had responded with a $100 million lawsuit which was later settled out of court. Niemann says that the allegations consumed three years of his career with tournament invitations for elite tournaments drying up.
Niemann qualified for the Las Vegas event after winning the qualification tournament. He was supposed to be present at the Paris leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour, but skipped it at the last minute for “personal reasons” which he has still not divulged.
At Las Vegas, Carlsen will fight in the ‘Losers Bracket’ — where you can only finish third in the final standings at best — Niemann, playing in the Black Group — is in the Upper Bracket and will be in the eight-player quarter-finals. He started off incredibly well, scoring 4.5 out of 5. Then he lost his final two games to compatriots Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. But those results couldn’t keep him out of the Upper Bracket.
“There are very few pleasures in life that compare to this feeling,” NIemann declared after Aronian won the first game against Niemann said:
After Aronian defeated Carlsen, the Armenia-born American with a penchant for flamboyant shirts walked around in the playing hall like he was out for an evening walk. In the commentary booth, Niemann was celebrating. “You know what they say, karma is a …. I don’t want to finish the sentence. Levon, I’m taking you to dinner tonight.”
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Niemann then rushed to meet Aronian outside in the hallway, jokingly informing the veteran Armenia-born American that he was going to pay him a bonus.
“The reason I lost my last two games was to give all my karma to Levon. I gave all my energy to Levon. Now, not having to play Magnus, it is going to be a very nice tournament,” Niemann said on Chessbase India stream.
“It’s a great day, amazing day. My two losses have been erased from memory (already), This is the best day of the three years. Other than when EndGame.ai was started (his online chess platform). But this is a close second,” Niemann said.
Asked how he felt about not having to play Carlsen, Niemann said: “It’s not about how I feel. It’s about how he feels.”
