13 minute read
Chess World Unpacks Carlsen Niemann Scandal
Magnus Carlsen competes in a chess tournament. Courtesy of Eric Rosen
Andrea Nguyen
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Sports Editor
Zach Marshall
Imagine Naomi Osaka hitting the ball once and walking off the court, or Tom Brady throwing a football to a teammate and leaving with no explanation. This is exactly what happened in the chess world recently, creating its largest scandal in years. On Sept. 5, 31-year-old Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, MO after losing a game against 19-yearold Hans Niemann, giving up the chance to win $100,000.
According to the International Chess Federation, Carlsen has held the highest chess ranking for the past 11 years. He is known for his unbeaten streaks — earlier in his career, he had a 125-game unbeaten streak, the longest ever on record. Prior to the Sept. 5 game, Carlsen held a 53-game unbeaten streak. Earlier this year, however, he voluntarily relinquished his title as world chess champion, one which he held for the last nine years. When Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup, it was the first time he had ever quit while in the middle of a tournament.
Niemann, on the other hand, is an up-and-coming chess player. His rating has skyrocketed over the past two years, demonstrating rapid improvement in his game. Chess streaming on websites such as Chess.com — the most popular chess website where people can virtually play with others of similar rank — gives visibility to younger up-and-coming players, which is how Niemann gained a fanbase.
Originally, Niemann wasn’t even supposed to play in the Sinquefield Cup, a competition for some of the best players in the world. He had been a wildcard candidate for another player, Richárd Rapport, who could not attend. Niemann came in with the lowest rating by far. He drew his first game and won his second. His next game — the one against Carlsen — wasn’t the first match between the two. In February they played a series of five games in a rapid chess tournament: Niemann won the first, then Carlsen squashed him in the next four.
This time, however, Niemann won his game against Carlsen. He won while playing with the black pieces, a rarity at the highest levels because white has the advantage of making the first move. In the post-game interview, Niemann claimed he scouted out some of Carlsen’s moves and then used an AI engine to analyze them. However, Niemann mentioned a move from a match that Carlsen never played, drawing speculation of how he really won.
The next day, Carlsen withdrew and posted a video clip on Twitter of Portuguese soccer manager José Mourinho saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak I’m in big trouble, and I don’t want to be in big trouble.” Players in the tournament were offline and had no connection to the outside world during the tournament, so they could not see the video.
Niemann won his next game against Alireza Firouzja. At one point, he played queen to G3, a move that is near impossible to predict without a computer, which prompted many chess fans to back up Carlsen. Some people, including Chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, speculated that Carlsen dropped out because he believed Niemann cheated. For the remainder of the tournament, more anti-cheating measures were taken, but the chief arbiter said there was no evidence of cheating. In the recent past, chess players have cheated by looking at a phone during a bathroom break or having a bluetooth device in their ear.
Niemann stumbled during his post-game interview against Firouzja. Online, chess fans said he didn’t know what he was talking about and speculated that he wasn’t that great of a player. He suggested bad moves and ideas about what should be played, and his explanation for playing QG3 made little sense.
Niemann’s next game ended in a draw, and in his post-game interview, he finally addressed the cheating controversy. According to Niemann, he studied a different game from Carlsen than what he originally said in his first interview. He also explained his QG3 move, saying that it was meant to scare Firouzja and was not necessarily the best move. He also admitted to cheating twice in online chess, but when he was 12 and 16 years old.
Later that day, Chess.com, which is partly owned by Carlsen, banned Niemann from its website and events. In a statement, they claimed there was more information regarding his online cheating than Niemann had let on.
On Sept. 19, Carlsen and Niemann played an online rematch at the Julius Baer Generation Cup for preliminaries. On his second move, Carlsen resigned and turned off his camera as a form of protest, which confirmed that Niemann was the reason he quit the tournament. Carlsen hasn’t discussed the scandal since the tweet. He may have requested an official investigation, and during that time the player cannot address the situation.
Oberlin’s former chess club sponsor and Head Women’s Tennis Coach Constantine Ananiadis thinks that Carlsen handled the situation poorly.
“Especially for someone of his stature, influence, and platform, [Carlsen] should know better,” Ananiadis wrote in an email to the Review. “Everything he does and says is scrutinized and taken seriously. Even his decision not to play the world championship is disrespectful to the game of chess. Not sure if [the] game has gotten to him, but he’s acting strangely for sure. On one hand, it does bring publicity to chess. On the other, it’s negative.”
Conservatory second-year Evan Beachy believes Carlsen has a duty to speak out if he has evidence of foul play.
“I think Hans got good after quitting chess online, and the media is looking over the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to cheat — it’s not like they’re letting people get on their phones at this tournament,” Beachy said. “Magnus has a duty to say something. If he has good evidence to support it, he should come forward with it.”
There could be yet another Carlsen-Niemann rematch in the near future. Carlsen secured a spot in the Generation Cup’s knockout stage, and there’s a chance Niemann will qualify as well. They may face each other once more in the quarterfinals. But these players will not be looked at the same as they had been before the Sept. 5 game. Even if this isn’t a cheating scandal, both players will have their names attached to the controversy for the rest of their careers.
split its donations between supplying food for MiLB players, purchasing basic necessities for their houses, buying new baseball equipment, and providing career and financial services for players retiring from baseball. Due to similar activism, the MLB also began providing housing for minor league players last season.
Many consider this a historic moment for Minor League Baseball: more than half of the current 5,500 players signed a union authorization card during the 17 days leading up to the official formation of the union, presenting MLBPA as their bargaining representative for negotiations with the MLB. Now, the MLBPA is working toward bargaining for players in the offseason and including the Dominican Summer League in its union.
Minor League Baseball Players Unionize on Sept. 14
Continued from page 16 and respect — on the job and on the field.”
The unionization effort comes after a decade of pay cuts and labor exploitation in MiLB. In 2014, MiLB players filed a lawsuit against the MLB for exploitation of its workers. Specific complaints included that the MLB paid MiLB players below minimum wage and did not provide pay for spring training (Senne v. MLB, 2014). In January 2020, MLB tried to appeal this case to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled in favor of the MiLB players, but the appeal was denied. Two and a half years later, the MLB and MiLB players reached a settlement of $185 million, which will be paid out as early as next year. This money will be divided among lawyers representing MiLB and roughly 23,000 current and former players.
“Every MLB organization will soon have the option to pay Minor Leaguers outside of the ‘championship playing season,’” Harry Marino, the executive director of the nonprofit Advocates for Minor Leaguers, wrote in an issued statement following Senne v. MLB. “[We] will hold accountable each and every Major League organization that fails to adjust its compensation of Minor Leaguers accordingly. Ultimately, we will not be satisfied until Minor Leaguers have a seat at the table to negotiate fair wages and working conditions, as is the norm across professional sports.”
MiLB players faced further financial difficulties in 2018 when Congress passed the Save America’s Pastime Act. The MLB lobbied millions of dollars for Congress to ratify this law, which allowed the MLB to be exempt from paying its workers at federal minimum wage and from paying overtime hours. 40 MiLB teams were also cut from the MLB due to funding problems in 2020. The MLB’s revenue is approximately $10 billion a year, the largest in any American professional sport.
In recent years, grassroots organizations have raised awareness about issues faced by MiLB players. A couple years ago, Advocates for Minor Leaguers started publicizing difficulties in players’ working conditions. In response, the MLB raised MiLB weekly wages last year to a range of $400–700, providing increased compensation for MiLB players’ up to 70hour work weeks.
More Than Baseball, a nonprofit founded by a former MiLB player,
Kayla Kim
Contributing Sports Editor
Last Saturday, the cross country team participated in the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational, hosted by the University of Rochester. Both the men’s and women’s teams placed 14 out of 25 in their respective categories. Oberlin’s fastest finishers in the 6-kilometer race were second-year Sage Reddish, fourth-year Sunniva Sheffield, and third-year Eliza Medearis, with each finishing in the top 100 overall. In the 8K, second-years Walter Moak and Danny Markey, along with third-years Jerry Achtermann and Aidan Duffield, also finished in the top 100.
Moak was declared the North Coast Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week for Sept. 6. He was the first finisher for Oberlin; a continuation of his success at the Wooster Invitational where he finished second overall in the 4-mile race. Although he primarily ran shorter events, such as the 1500m and the 3K steeplechase during last year’s winter and spring track season, Moak is beginning to adjust to the longer events he’s competing in this year.
“I was pleased with how I moved up through the pack at Rochester; while I was in 76th place at the 2k split, I finished 23rd,” Moak wrote in an email to the Review. “All five of our scoring runners had similar eryone understands and is engaged in the effect they have on the people and spaces in their lives, then you’re going to have a positive culture. … The challenge is always balancing getting in the most work at the most effective intensity while keeping the focus on the entire season, knowing that with training, consistency is everything.”
Cross country athletes compete in last year’s Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational. Courtesy of Oberlin Athletics
progressions over the middle miles.”
Head Coach Ray Appenheimer is excited for this season after coming off a successful spring track and field season, where he was named one of the Coaches of the Year for the women’s division. Appenheimer is continuing to focus on fostering a positive team environment while encouraging growth and improvement.
“This year, we’ve been talking a lot about the energy we bring to our spaces and the effect we have on building a positive, fun, goal-oriented community for ourselves and the people around us,” Appenheimer wrote in an email to the Review. “We talk about how we are all responsible for the collective energy at practice, at meets, in the weight room, everywhere we go. When ev-
IN THE LOCKER ROOM Jon Schafer, Soccer Captain and Musician
Andrea Nguyen
Sports Editor
Kayla Kim
Contributing Sports Editor
Zoe Kuzbari
Contributing Sports Editor
After missing multiple seasons due to injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, fourth-year midfielder Jon Schafer is finally playing his first full season of soccer, leading as one of the team captains alongside fourth-year Zack Butter and second-year Anthony Pacewicz. Off the field, Schafer is a Politics major and sings in Pitch Please, an a cappella group; last semester, he soloed Taylor Swift’s “Death By A Thousand Cuts” in a concert. He also enjoys golfing with his friends and teammates.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When did you start playing soccer?
I started playing as early as I can remember. My dad was a soccer coach for a long time in his life. It’s an important game for my whole family. I have two older sisters who both played in high school, and then one of them wound up playing in college, too.
Why did you choose to go Division III, and why Oberlin?
I chose to go Division III because I figured it was a way to play the sport that I love at a good level, but not in a super competitive way. I would be in an environment where a lot of people are also dedicated to academics and music. I thought Oberlin in particular would be a nice, well-rounded place for me to be.
Do you participate in music at Oberlin?
I do, actually. I’m in an a cappella group here at Oberlin — Pitch Please. That’s been a lot of fun. I did a lot more singing in high school, though. It was a very small school, so it was easier to find those opportunities. But at Oberlin, there are still plenty of opportunities. I just don’t always take them.
What does being team captain mean to you? What responsibilities do you feel like you have as a captain, especially to first-years here?
First and foremost, for the first-years, I feel like I have an obligation to be a role model. In college, you kind of have the freedom to determine what kind of role model you’re gonna be. Obviously, when we are at training and in games, I try to be as serious as possible. Personally, I’m someone who enjoys every aspect of soccer, mostly social. So for me, taking things seriously sometimes still involves joking around. One thing that I’ve been hoping to instill in the first-years is that soccer, even when it is business, is also so much fun. There’s a reason we play it still, and there’s a reason we love it.
Jon Schafer dribbles a ball at a men’s soccer game against Grove City College. Courtesy of Oberlin Athletics
were always the grade above, so they’re not here this year, but they’ll be visiting this weekend for the men’s soccer alumni game. It’s been sad sometimes without them, but also refreshing. I’m getting closer with other people and living with other guys in my grade on the team. They are great, and I’m very thankful to be able to call them friends. In my four years here, there’s hardly any instances of real beef or qualms, and we always had a pretty good social environment.
What advice do you have for first-years?
Try to do a cost-benefit analysis and figure out a way that you can enjoy your time while not shooting yourself in the foot academically, socially, and mentally. Who knows — there might be a global pandemic that comes in and cuts it short and makes it look a lot different from what you would expect.
