Magnus Carlsen chess scandal: Did a grandmaster use a sex toy to cheat?

Allegations of cheating are swirling all over the globe after an upstart 19-year-old defeated the No. 1 chess player in the world.

A major scandal is rocking the world of competitive chess after the shocking defeat of the top chess player by an upstart 19-year-old.

On Sept. 4, Hans Niemann beat Magnus Carlsen, the world chess champion, at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis — a tournament boasting a prize purse of US$350,000. The outcome was a major upset.

There were only 10 players participating in the competition and Niemann was the lowest-rated chess player in the batch, and yet he somehow defeated the best chess player in the world, bringing an end to Carlsen’s 53-game unbeaten streak.

A day after the defeat, Carlsen abruptly and unexpectedly withdrew from the tournament.

He announced the decision on Twitter and shared a cryptic video of José Mourinho, the Portuguese soccer manager, saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble.”

Chess fans took the video to mean that Carlsen was insinuating that he had lost because Niemann cheated during the game. Carlsen has not publicly clarified the meaning of the video.

Tony Rich, the executive director of the Saint Louis Chess Club which hosts the Sinquefield Cup, said of the withdrawal, “A player’s decision to withdraw from a tournament is a personal decision, and we respect Magnus’ choice.”