Hans Niemann

Hans Moke Niemann (born June 20, 2003) is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He became a FIDE Grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and as of September 2023, he was the eighth-highest-rated Junior in the world. His peak global ranking was No. 31, in May 2023.

In September 2022, Niemann became embroiled in a cheating controversy after he defeated the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, later directly accusing Niemann of cheating and saying he would decline future pairings with him. Niemann admitted to cheating in online chess games when younger, but denied cheating in in-person games. Chess.com banned Niemann from its site, and 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 Hikaru Nakamura. On June 27, 2023, the case was dismissed by a federal judge. On August 28, 2023, Niemann, Carlsen and Chess.com announced they had reached an agreement over the matter, in which Niemann was fully reinstated on Chess.com and able to participate in their events, Carlsen agreed to play him when matched up, and all parties agreed not to pursue further legal action.

Niemann considers Bobby Fischer to be the greatest chess player of all time.