Sunday, September 11, 2022

Scandal in the chess world after legend loses to 19-year-old grandmaster

Guardian:

Magnus Carlsen’s shock withdrawal from the $350,000 Sinquefield Cup in St Louis following his third-round defeat to the newcomer ... has triggered a variety of “cheating” claims.

...

it was the first withdrawal of the Norwegian’s entire career. His only explanation was a cryptic video clip of the football manager José Morinho saying “If I speak I am in big trouble,” during a press conference about referees.

This was widely interpreted as raising suspicions of cheating.

...

[The 19-year-old] has been banned from the largest chess site and uninvited from the Chess.com Global Championship, a $1m event with online qualifiers and an eight-player final in Toronto.