The reaction of top level players in many cases has been so pathetic. Mostly notably Kramnik who released this[0] baffling video wherein he tortures every single datapoint that he think might support his argument that Niemann is cheating and ignoring the possibility that he's not and ignoring that the entire game was streamed, which would have explained some of the 'weirdness' he saw.

At this point Hans has played tons of tournaments - the kind that other top GMs avoid (hence Niemann is v often top/near top seed) because playing these oftentimes v underrated 2400s is risky - under severe scrutiny, has had his rating peak during this no doubt incredibly stressful period of scrutiny (as seen imo by his behaviour and personality shift to cope with it), and is clearly a high-level GM who doesn't use assistance. Sure, there's THAT[1] interview at SLCC after the Magnus incident where he gives pretty terrible analysis (under a lot of stress, in the public eye, before he has experience with public speaking), but if having an embarrassing analysis when Stockfish is turned off makes you a cheater then Kram is a spinbot[2].

Speaking of spinbots, I think it's worth bringing up CSGO, what some people regard as an infamously toxic game, where cheaters ruin games. But even despite that, the best CSGO player of all time, s1mple, got banned for cheating when he was a teenager in 1.6 and a community of young, heated players can accept that this happens with young players.

Professional CSGO has a pseudo-official system for pick-up games among pro-level players. Occasionally, unknown players can get promoted into this league. A new Estonian player got promoted into it, got accused of cheating, was frequently destroying top level opponents with unconventional plays such that it was 'obvious' that he was cheating, publicly complaining and making accusations on stream[3].

League admins, rather than placating the established professionals who have a vested interest in striking down upcoming talent, instead chose to fly him to their offices where he'd play on a PC set up by the league, under the watch of league staff. Lo-and-behold he was that good, much to the amazement of sceptics (some contemporary reactions caught in this thread[4]).

Accusers had no leg to stand on - what more could they want? Apologies soon ensued[5].

That player was ropz, who today 6 years on has been consistently a top 20 overall player for the duration of his career, and currently at over $1MM of prize money earned[6].

Hans deserved a similar opportunity at the time. He offered to play naked. He wanted to prove himself. He had the game of his career that should have been the happiest moment of his life, instead it turned in to a brutal trial-by-social-media wherein everything he did or said was brutally analyzed and top level creators with massive audiences opined with vague accusations. The world was fixated on a dumb (but funny) rumour on whether this 19 year old's crowning achievement was achieved with a vibrating sex toy up his own ass or not. Organisers chose not to invite Hans to placate Magnus and other top players, hence his last year in random tournaments.

I don't know whether Niemann cheated vs Magnus or not, but I think there's more than enough reasonable doubt that he didn't cheat. And if he didn't cheat, and this is what he has had to go through - public humilation from his former idols, international attention focused on his sphincter, constantly speculated about by people seeking to profit off the controversy - it's such a sad story and an absolute tragedy.

I hope there's never another case like Niemann again.

_

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYgUp9AGo5k

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXO-mIk4w5Q

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGOqFVNfhhY

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08x9MfsY_w

[4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/62lyvf/rop...

[5]: https://twitter.com/JW1/status/955624592944631809 Same player in the above clip

[6]: https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/31594-ropz-robin-koo...