Hans Niemann

Hans Moke Niemann (born June 20, 2003) is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He first entered the top 100 junior players list on March 1, 2019, and became a FIDE grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He achieved a peak global ranking of No. 15 in October 2025.

In September 2022, Niemann became embroiled in a controversy after defeating reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. As a result, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, which many interpreted as an accusation that Niemann had cheated during the match. Later, Carlsen directly accused Niemann of cheating and said that he would decline future pairings with him. In a later interview, Niemann admitted to cheating in online chess games when younger at the age of 12 and 17 (five years earlier), but denied cheating in over-the-board games.

Niemann was removed from the Chess.com global championship and was also banned from playing on Chess.com in any way. Chess.com published a report noting over 100 games on the site in which Niemann had "likely cheated" according to an internal anti-cheating measure. In response, Niemann filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com, and fellow grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. On June 27, 2023, a federal judge dismissed one of Niemann's claims. On August 28, 2023, Niemann, Carlsen, and Chess.com announced that they had reached an agreement over the matter, in which Niemann was fully reinstated on Chess.com and permitted to participate in future Chess.com events. Carlsen agreed to play him if they matched up, and all parties agreed not to pursue further legal action.