A top US chess player accused of cheating after Magnus Carlsen quit a prestigious tournament has admitted to doing so as 12 and 16-year-old – but insisted that he was now “clean” and was even prepared to play naked to prove his innocence.
Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old who stunned world champion Carlsen by beating him with the black pieces at the $500,000 Sinquefield Cup on Sunday, promised that he was a reformed character after revealing that he illegally benefited from computer assistance while playing chess on the internet as a child.
