#168 - Hans Niemann: The Corrupt Chess Madia

The Peter McCormack Show

Peter McCormack

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4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 88 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hans Niemann on beating Magnus Carlsen, the cheating accusations that nearly ended his career, and the "chess mafia" he says tried to destroy his life.

At 19, Hans Niemann beat the world's greatest chess player. Magnus Carlsen withdrew without explanation. Within weeks, Niemann was facing global cheating accusations, blacklisting from his own federation, and a fight to save his career.

Four years on, he's world No. 12 and still climbing. In this interview, Hans addresses everything: what Magnus actually saw at the board, the $100 prize he won at 12 that became "the greatest crime" of the saga, the 70-page report and what was really in it, the time Magnus was caught taking a move on his own livestream, and the top-10 player banned for cheating whose name was never published.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Hans On Magnus

00:01:20 - What Did Magnus See When You Beat Him?

00:04:40 - "I'm Closer To The Older Players"

00:07:20 - Being Called A Cheat At 19

00:11:30 - The Chess Mafia

00:15:25 - Could You Catch Magnus?

00:29:30 - The Cheating Accusations, The Cost

00:35:55 - Bitterness Is Poison

00:38:25 - WHO Believed The Allegations And Why

00:40:40 - Losing Faith In The Media

00:43:15 - Navigating Infamy At 19

00:45:50 - Naming Chess.com

00:48:35 - "Magnus Was Gaslit"

00:52:55 - What Did You Actually Admit To?

00:55:40 - Magnus Cheated On Camera

00:57:00 - Does Magnus Believe You Cheated?

00:59:20 - The God Complex

01:01:00 - The Dana White Of Chess

01:03:15 - Chess As Soft Power

01:07:00 - Chess In Every School

01:22:20 - Scores To Settle

01:23:15 - Washington Square Park

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CONTACT PETE

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› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact

› Email – me@petermccormack.com

› Instagram – /mccormack555

› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH HANS NIEMANN

› Twitter – https://x.com/HansMokeNiemann

› Website – https://endgame.ai/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The amount of damage that he did is beyond apology.
0:03.0	I mean, and most people would have never played chess again.
0:06.0	My greatest crime was winning $100 at 12 years old.
0:09.0	Why was I a brand ambassador of his company two months ago?
0:13.0	Two months before that match.
0:15.0	Why was I given a wild-coard invitation to a tournament
0:17.0	that he basically decides to players two weeks before the same football cup? i'll actually tell you a funny thing magnus actually cheated online on camera
0:24.4	he was streaming a tournament and it's a prize monday event and another grandmaster
0:28.8	said next to him and the grandmaster says make that move and he didn't see that move he made
0:34.1	the move and won the game that's like you should should be, if I did that, I'd be
0:37.7	bent. In the chess world, he's kind of like babyed. Whatever he wants he gets. A lot of the
0:44.2	tournaments he plays, he decides the format. He has huge influence in who to invite. So since the chess
0:51.7	is such a hierarchical, egotistical game and he has all this influence and power, he develops sort of a god complex.
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1:22.7	which is iran.com. And it's good to meet you. I, about two days ago, watched your Netflix documentary and I was fascinated by it.
1:32.7	You've been accused a lot of things in that documentary and since, specifically from Magnus Carlson.
1:41.4	But you beat him in 2022.
1:43.7	What do you think he was seeing when he played you?
1:48.3	Yeah, there was a lot of speculation.
	...

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