Chess-Niemann gone AWOL as Freestyle Paris Grand Slam underway

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By Julien Pretot

PARIS (Reuters) – Hans Niemann, the chess grandmaster at the heart of an alleged cheating scandal, has yet to provide an explanation on his late withdrawal from the Freestyle Grand Slam in Paris.

Niemann, who was accused of cheating by world number one Magnus Carlsen in 2023 before the matter was settled outside court, received a wild card for the event but informed organisers he was pulling out for ‘personal reasons’ less than 48 hours before the start of the 12-player tournament.

“I texted him on Friday at 7pm. I said, ‘Hans, we’re already here. Are you here as well? And he read the WhatsApp message, because of the two blue markers, but he didn’t answer,” said Freestyle Chess CEO and founder Jan Henric Buettner.

“(Freestyle’s Chief Chess Officer) Sebastian (Siebrecht) came to me. Look… we have a big problem. Hans sent him an email and he said due to a personal situation out of my control, I cannot participate.”

Buettner said he tried to contact the American by phone and email but his call went straight to voicemail and Niemann did not respond to the email.

Niemann, who was replaced in the lineup by Azerbaijan’s Nodirbek Abdusattoriv, has not posted on social media since then.

“We can’t care about the reasons or whatever happened to Hans. We don’t care. We have to focus on our tournament,” Buettner said.

“Like if he’s in a North Korean prison camp or whatever…2 he could have just called me, said yeah, I’m just, I can’t, I can’t, whatever. It makes more sense than not taking my calls, not getting to me at all.”

Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, a Russian, finished top of the round-robin to qualify for the quarter-finals, which kick off on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by XXXX)