Grandmaster Smagin believes that the scandal between Carlsen and Niemann increases the popularity of chess

Vice-President of the Moscow Chess Federation Sergey Smagin spoke about the situation between world champion Magnus Carlsen and American grandmaster Hans Niemann. Magnus accused his rival of cheating. After that, Niemann filed a lawsuit, demanding $ 100 million for damage to reputation.

“It won’t affect the image of chess in general much. Perhaps, on the contrary: we live in a world where any scandal increases popularity — this is also PR. Moreover, everything has always been bland in chess, so this is very successful.

This guy, Niemann, personally causes me great sympathy, I even started watching his parties. By the way, he is an interesting, strong, very original chess player with his own style and charisma.

It seems to me that Niemann acted in a purely American way – which we do not understand. But, in my opinion, everything is on point. Of course, he won’t win 100 million, but he’ll get his nerves frayed and get paid off,”- Smagin said.

In addition to Carlsen, the site is listed as defendants Chess.com , American Hikaru Nakamura, Carlsen’s company Play Magnus Group and chess player Danny Rensch, who is CEO Chess.com .