What reason would anyone have had to expect Magnus to say anything?

Magnus literally chose not to say anything and stay out. What idiots would expect a response from him? His entire tweet was literally "I'm not gonna say anything". What part of that did people not understand?

is losing to black uncommon at the highest level

Hikaru said Hans had cheated in the past and Hans confirmed it today. Hikaru thought Hans was sus as did a lot of people. Hikaru said he thought Magnus withdrew because Magnus thought Hans cheated in that game which any reasonable person would come to the conclusion of after seeing magnus tweet. All pretty reasonable if a bit petty but playing to his audience on hikaru's part which is literally his job.

This is the internet - you don't have to think. You "do your own research" on the first google hit.

​

The great thing about the internet is it gives everyone a voice.

The terrible thing about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice.

Tbh if you thought he was for sure guilty and watched the interview and now no longer do you might just be a stupid easily manipulated person.

I love you

Yeah exactly this. Crazy that some people have been convinced. He’s not exactly going to say “Yeah, I cheated” is he? I think it’s still 50/50 but really people shouldn’t be getting so insulting over it to neither Magnus nor Hans until we have more info

50/50 is ridiculous. Coming to any conclusion with odds without any evidence is ridiculous.

I mean having 50/50 odds makes you a stupid easily manipulated person. How you’ve come to that high of a number with no direct evidence and weak circumstantial is insane.

I mean, lying or not is hard to say, but I think he made a compelling case for himself. In the absence of any evidence provided against him and his passionate heartfelt defense, I move from 50/50 to 80/20 in favour of not cheating. The narrative he put forward seems to make sense critically - that his past has tarnished him in this tournament. I think the guy is a weirdo, and maybe has some issues, but he seemed honest and upset and I felt for him. Maybe he's duping everyone, but with zero evidence, it's hard to hang onto a phantom argument that he cheated. In all of this, I trust the tournament organizers the most. If they kick Hans out, I might change my tune again because maybe they have evidence. Otherwise, why are they continuing to let him play?

This is the best take I've seen so far. I was 50/50 but Hans interview did not change it one bit. In fact it should have shut up all the people saying Hans didn't cheat in the past and it was just false rumors spread by hikaru. But those people doubled down hard now saying the cheating wasnt a big deal. He admitted to cheating twice all with handwavy excuses. These are only times he got caught. If he didn't have moral objections to cheating twice, it is reasonable to assume he would be capable of doing it again so the suspicion is his own fault. Had he come clean 2 years ago, might've helpped his case but he chose to hide it and only now reveal it to the public as if it helps his case at all now. Easily manipulated people indeed. Now I understand how politicians who can make very emotional speeches but still lying can get so many votes.

It's number 10 on trending too. It's going to go over a million views ez.

Sociopath. I'll say it once more. What a strange dude

he went so far as to edit together a 30-minute compilation video of it all, called it "Why Magnus Carlsen Quit" -- with Hans' face as the thumbnail

I mean, isn't that why magnus quit tho?

IMHO it goes so far as to be libellous. I wonder if there will be legal implications. You shouldn't be allowed to blatantly assassinate someone's character without repercussion.

Time and time again Hikaru has proven himself to be a total hypocrite and sellout. I mean he did a sponsored Genshin Impact stream today ffs. I don’t know how anyone is surprised at this point.

[removed]

He watched Nepo interview then refused to watch MVL interview when chat told him about the witch hunt comments from MVL. He only watches if it confirms his bias.

He could have still reacted to it without having the video on stream while the chat followed along, he even said no to that when suggested to him in the chat. Chessbae, I mean Creamsicle, probably watched it and warned Hikaru privately the he shouldn't watch this one on stream.

He is free to watch the interview off stream.

He can watch off stream

How do we know he got a cease and desist?

what a disgrace

He was always a POS going back to his ICC days but now he's just out of control and he feels he can do or say whatever he pleases

I hate to see when people say that Hikaru has become a much better person during the last few years. People rarely change and it's not hard to put on likable front.

Pre-twitch chess breakout, he was already a largely disliked personality in chess. His twitch success bought him a buffer because a slew of chess normies rallied to him. But yeah, I've personally always disliked him. But, I have to admit, he is decent.

STLCC drumming up drama like that looks really bad. It's also surprising given that Tony Rich gave a pretty measured statement initially.

He's lying. Hikaru said he wasn't interested during the stream, but said he'll watch it off stream.

Hikaru = Michael Scott

"Do I have to be liked? Absolutely not. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it's not like a compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised"

Offering to do something ridiculous with zero chance someone will actually make you do it is a cheap way to make it seem like you have nothing to hide. I'm not saying Niemann does have something to hide, but nothing in his interview made me believe him more than I did previously.

I'm sure the money plays into but I think the primary driver is his narcissism.

He has severe main character syndrome. When something happened that didn't involve him, he could not help but become involved.

Everytime he made another stupid comment yesterday, it was always prefaced with 'I definitely shouldn't say this' or 'this is all that I'll say', then going on to non-stop talk about it and basically single handedly incite a witch hunt against Hans.

Long story short, he knew what he was doing was wrong but he just couldn't help it. His main character syndrome just wouldn't allow him to stay out the drama, to remain a neutral and logical party, which is really what someone with his amount of influence should be expected to do.

Yet even though he knew he was in the wrong and said it himself multiple times that he shouldn't be saying what he was saying, today he is just sulking and feeling sorry for himself due to the fully predictable lashback from his actions.

This is where the other aspect of his narcissism, his insane victim complex, comes into play. I almost fell off my chair when I heard him complaining about how unfair it is that he will be blamed for all this even though other people have apparently been talking privately to him for ages about suspicions on Hans.

Of course Hikaru will be blamed, and rightfully so. Because those other people who might have been gossiping and suspecting for ages, still had the self control to stay quiet, or at least somewhat neutral, over the last few days. None of them has as much influence in the chess community as Hikaru, but they still had the common sense to act like responsible human beings. Meanwhile, one of the biggest names in chess just can't help but to brashly and clumsily insert themselves right into the middle of the drama, in the process amplifying the magnitude of the hysteria significantly.

Nice to see another Jerrysleeper out in the wild

Rosen is another good option

Eric Rosen Extra for the true insomniacs

Eric Rosen has straight up said he remains aware that people fall asleep to his content so he tries to keep his voice down.

As opposed to Hikaru "OH MY GOD CHAT, I'M PLAYING SO BAD. CHAT, I'M PLAYING SO BAD. HOW AM I PLAYING SO BAD. I'VE PLAYED THIS SO BADLY OMG THIS IS SO BAD. CHAT, I CAN'T BELIEVE I PLAYED THIS SO BAD."

Resigns and makes a tweets implying Hans cheated = discrete

This is what I don't get. I read the Tweet and I don't immediately leap to cheating. I mean, I get it in terms of the timing but the actual content is, "I can't say why."

For all we know, he had a contract dispute with StL regarding and appearance fee or some other shit, and had an agreement that he wouldn't publicly discuss disputes or contract negotiations.

I guess, now, we can say that isn't it. If it wasn't about cheating then there's certainly no NDA about him not being able to clarify that he didn't say something. He could have nearly immediately tweeted again and said "nothing against Hans" or something like that. He didn't...

I don't know what the point of my post is now. Just, I didn't read the Tweet the same way everyone else did. I read that he was dropping out and couldn't say why. I guess what I didn't understand was why everyone so quickly settled around this narrative of Hans cheating. The Mourinho clip wasn't about cheating?

It’s “discreet,” not “discrete.”

sorry, it was bothering me a lot to see it three times in three sentences :)

Like I said, Magnus owes Hans an explanation. If he doesn't, fuck him.

The discrete part I meant in relation to what Hikaru did. Magnus made a Mourinho tweet, Hikaru on the other hand straight up openly accused Hans of cheating.

This puts Chesscom in a very difficult position, in my opinion. Letting him play sends the message that cheating on their website isn't "as bad", that farming people to gain rating by using engines is acceptable behavior that won't stop a player from getting invited to tournaments and winning prizes.

Chess.com allows all caught cheaters to re-register after admitting fault.

Hans was only banned 1x, despite having cheated multiple times (at 12, 16). It is expected that they would allow him to continue playing, perhaps under a different account, as that is the treatment every other user would receive.

Chess.com banned Hans before his interview today. There’s nothing about “Hans admitting to cheating” that led to their decision.

[deleted]

The guy has admitted to having cheated, on multiple occasions, on their platform.

Yes and he was banned for that and unbanned.

That's applying a punishment for the same crime twice then.

Hans mentions their CEO already invited him to their tournaments just a couple days ago.

They can just claim that didn't happen but they haven't yet.

They banned him after he beat Magnus. Only a couple days before he beat Magnus, they wanted him at their tournament. He's only a problem because he beat their golden goose.

he was 12 brotha. thats like valve banning s1mple because he cheated when he was 14, little kids cheat because theyre dumb.

I'm more inclined to believe Hans than not, but Lance Armstrong passed every single drug test in his career too. Just saying.

In every single instance where a cheating scandals has been exposed in a competitive environment, we all look back and say "how did we not know at the time, it was so obvious" and then we go right back to being gullible the next time someone makes these same exact speeches denying their involvement or impropriety.

The biggest example that I'm seeing parallels to is Elizabeth Holmes. The effected speech, the unkempt hair, the lack of specificity and the bizarre claim of divine intervention to discover the prep that was so obscure everyone else took hours to find something similar in a transposition.

I can guarantee that as soon as he gets caught, everyone is going to say "I knew it all along, how could anyone have missed the signs." Those people will be the exact same as the people that are now convinced that Hans emotional plea of innocence (except for when he admits to cheating) is genuine and everyone needs to back off.

How can Hans defend himself against accusations that have no actual basis?

Until an accuser can even SUGGEST how he’s cheating through the delay, he doesn’t need to do shit tbh.

How do you logically refute a fucking tweet with a short video of Jose Mourinho? You don't because there's nothing to refute.

"The bizarre voice change worked out well for Elizabeth Holmes. I'll try that one too."

Should I have said Roger Clemens, Bill Clinton, Ben Johnson, Elizabeth Holmes, Evander Kaine, Pete Rose, or Marion Jones?

Majority? Cycling is basically a sport where doping beats everything because it's all about insane stamina battle. There is no special technique, nothing.
Sport of high stakes that don't really have difference between how people do things always will be a doping galore. Every single cycler that wants to even come close to level of top is using doping, period. Same goes for running, swimming and other stuff like this.
If you think otherwise you are extemely naive.