Hans Niemann, the controversial US 20-year-old, has wasted no time in returning to action after his $100m lawsuit against the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, and others was settled out of court.
On Tuesday, only one day after the settlement was announced, Niemann competed in the early and late versions of Titled Tuesday on chess.com, the website that had banned him for admitted cheating in online tournaments. He was an also-ran in the early event but scored 8.5/11 to finish 12th in a 487-player field, 1.5 points behind France’s world No 5, Alireza Firouzja, in the late contest. Titled Tuesday is a free competition with a $2,500 prize fund open to all masters, and normally attracts hundreds of entrants.
Titled Tuesday had been dominated in recent weeks by Carlsen and the world No 3, Hikaru Nakamura, who has won the event a record 56 times. Both featured in the lawsuit and were absent this week, so it will be at least Tuesday 5 September before any online showdown with Niemann.
In Carlsen’s statement on Monday, he said: “I acknowledge and understand chess.com’s report, including its statement that there is no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated in his game against me in the Sinquefield Cup. I am willing to play against Niemann in future events, should we be paired together.”
The legalistic word “determinative” has been construed to mean that the No 1 may still avoid another over-the-board meeting, for which the chances are already small, due to Carlsen’s decision to limit his participation in classical tournaments, and to Niemann’s current rating of 2666, which is too low for invitations to elite events. Titled Tuesday appears to be the only competition where they could realistically meet.
Niemann will also be back to over-the-board chess later this month, when he is the top seed among 131 entrants in the World Junior Championship at Mexico City from 20 September to 2 October. It will be an important event for his comeback. The World Junior title has lost some of its allure from the decades when the future world champions Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand won the crown, but it is still a useful asset for acquiring tournament invitations.
Otherwise, Niemann has significant ground to make up on his rivals from Generation Z. One year ago, before his fateful Sinquefield Cup game against Carlsen, the then teenager was running level at around a 2700 rating with Dommaraju Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi, who have all since surged ahead of him.
England has a new No 1 grandmaster. Nikita Vitiugov, the world No 25 and 2021 Russian champion, has transferred. The 36-year-old will be eligible for the England team at the next biennial Olympiad at Budapest in 2024.
With his Fide international rating of 2720, Vitiugov ranks ahead of David Howell (2677), Michael Adams (2658) and the currently inactive Matthew Sadler (2694). Along with other Russian players, Vitiugov was listed as Fide in the ratings, and there is no fee chargeable for his transfer. He has spoken out against the war with Ukraine.
Vitiugov is England’s strongest chess immigrant for more than a century, higher ranked than those who fled Nazi persecution in the late 1930s or the small number who came around 1990 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Arguably, Mir Sultan Khan, the Punjabi from modern Pakistan who ranked in the world top 10 in the 1930s and won an epic marathon against José Capablanca at Hastings, should be top of the list.
Vitiugov used to reside in St Petersburg but moved to Spain with his wife, and his young son was born there. Now he has rented a flat in East Anglia and is making arrangements for his family to join him.
His transfer was aided by the English Chess Federation’s international director, Malcolm Pein, and it is likely that he will become a leading teacher at training camps for the England open and women’s teams, plus young talents, planned to be set up with the help of the new £250,000 annual government grant for top chess. Vitiugov is well qualified for the job, as he was the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler’s chief aide in two world title Candidates tournaments.
A brilliant attacking game where Vitiugov defeats the reigning world champion, Ding Liren, in only 24 moves.
Last weekend’s successful Northumbrian Masters at Newcastle confirmed the event’s status as the premier congress in the north. Its organiser, Tim Wall, has created a fine event with small funds and no major sponsor.
The top seeded GMs Gudmundur Kjartansson (Iceland) and Danny Gormally won the Open with 7/9, while the invitation tournaments sparked a record seven title norms. Rajat Makkar, 16, a French sixth-former at Hampton School, achieved the rare feat of a simultaneous GM and IM norm, while Freddie Waldhausen Gordon scored his first IM norm at age 13.
The Scot went on to total 8.5/11 in Titled Tuesday, defeating three grandmasters, and is on course to rival Jonathan Rowson as his country’s all-time No 1.
3833: 1 Qxg6! Rh1+ 2 Bf1! Rxf1+ 3 Kc2 Qxf2+ 4 Kd3 Qd2+ 5 Kc4 Qe2+ 6 Kc5 when the white king escapes the checks and Qf7 mate cannot be prevented.
