MOSCOW, Sep 6 The reason for removing the reigning world chess champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen since the final stage of the Grand Chess Tour in St. Louis (USA) may be due to the cheating of the opponent, the Norwegian newspaper VG reports. On Monday, the Norwegian, after losing to 19-year-old American Hans Niemann, announced on Twitter that he was withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup. The Norwegian attached to the message an excerpt from an interview with a quote from the Portuguese football coach José Mourinho: “If I talk, I will be in big trouble.” According to VG expert Thorstein Bae, Carlsen could have considered that his opponent was cheating by receiving help from the program. At the same time, he notes that the Norwegian showed a weak game in the tournament. Chess24 website expert Colin McGourty, as well as American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who said this in an online broadcast, put forward a similar assumption in his material. .»He once said in an interview that if he spends more than 10 minutes on a move, then this is a very bad sign, and he did so often in this game, which increased my confidence. But I think even if there was a draw, he would demoralized because of the result of the match with an idiot like me. It must be a shame for the world champion to lose to me. I feel sorry for him!» — Chess24 quotes Niemann. In July, Carlsen announced his refusal to play the match for the world chess crown with Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won the Candidates Tournament. The Norwegian defended the title four times, the last time he beat Nepomniachtchi in 2021. At the end of August, Carlsen cited the fear of losing as one of the main reasons for not participating in the World Championship match.
