World chess champion Magnus Carlsen made a press release on Monday explicitly stating that he believes his opponent, Hans Niemann, cheated throughout match play. He didn’t present any concrete proof to assist his claims. This is Carlsen’s first formal assertion on the continued chess scandal, and the primary to incorporate an specific accusation. The furor over the scandal has dominated the web dialog for weeks.

“I believe that Niemann has cheated more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted,” the assertion reads. Carlsen goes on to elucidate his reasoning: “His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do. This game contributed to changing my perspective.”

This chess drama started earlier this month, and has solely continued to snowball in latest days. It started when Niemann, a a lot lower-ranked competitor, beat Carlsen in a match through the 2022 Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. Then, on Sept. 19, Carlsen forfeited a sport after only one transfer in a match towards Niemann, this time throughout spherical 6 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Social media platforms subsequently lit up with dialog, as chess followers — and even these exterior the sport’s regular viewers — debated the importance of those occasions.

“I believe that cheating in chess is a big deal and an existential threat to the game,” Carlsen’s assertion reads. “I also believe that chess organizers and all those who care about the sanctity of the game we love should seriously consider increasing security measures and methods of cheat detection for over the board chess.” (It is notoriously tough to detect dishonest in high-level chess video games. AI software program is highly effective sufficient to information even inexperienced gamers towards advantageous strikes, whereas seasoned gamers would possibly solely must resort to such instruments throughout a small handful of inflection factors in a sport.)

Carlsen doesn’t supply proof of Niemann’s dishonest, nor state whether or not he has any. (Niemann was not beforehand caught dishonest in an over-the-board match. Nevertheless, on Sept. 8 Chess.com banned Niemann from the platform, and shared its reasoning on Twitter.) Carlsen closes the assertion by noting that he’s “limited in what I can say without explicit permission from Niemann to speak openly.”

Polygon has reached out to Hans Niemann for remark.