Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old accused by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, of being a cheat, made an impressive recovery in the second half of the US championship in St Louis. After that, his next move was in the Eastern Missouri District Court, seeking $100m in damages from Carlsen, the chess.com website, the streamer Hikaru Nakamura and others, alleging that they are “colluding to blacklist” him from major events, including the “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands.
From next to last of the 14 US Championship players at halfway with 2.5/7, Niemann improved to tied fifth and 7/13 at the finish. Of the five members of the US Olympiad team, only the former world No 2 Fabiano Caruana, who won the title, defeated him. His tournament performance was exactly at the level expected from his previous results, while his best game began with 18 moves of theory and was decided at move 36 when Black chose Kd8? instead of Kc8!
