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.

Niemann qualified for the Dutch National Youth Chess Championship in 2012.

His first rated US tournament was in December 2012.

He went on to tie for 1st in his grade in the overall K–12 Grade Championships.

Four months later he participated in the 2013 SuperNationals V in Nashville with a rating of 1486, scoring 4/7 in his section.

In March 2014, Niemann's rating was just under 2000 at 10 years old, which gained him an invitation to the U.S. Chess School camp in St. Louis with coaches Greg Shahade and John Bartholomew.

On December 16, 2014, Niemann became the youngest-ever winner of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Tuesday Night Marathon, the oldest chess club in the United States, earning him the title of USCF Master.

Niemann competed at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships in Durban, South Africa, in the U12 category, winning 6 of 11 games.

Since 2016, Niemann has been part of the US Chess Federations All-America Chess Team.

After becoming an FM in early 2016, he competed at the 2016 Saint Louis Invitational IM Norm, and was among the youngest players competing along with Carissa Yip.

At the 2016 North American Youth Championship, he tied for first place in the U18 category and earned his first IM norm.

At the 2017 SuperNationals VI, he entered the tournament as the top seed in the K–8 category with a rating of 2412, and finished 1st.

In August 2018, Niemann competed at the 2018 U.S. Masters Championship, earning his second IM norm and also his first GM norm.

Later in August 2018, he earned his 3rd and final IM norm at the Cambridge IM Norm Invitational and met all the requirements for the title of International Master. In December 2018, he won the National K–12 Blitz Championships undefeated, finishing 12–0, while also tying for first in the bughouse duo competition.

After initially winning six consecutive games, he finished in third place at the 2018 U16 Olympiad in Konya, Turkey.

He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and 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 was born in San Francisco, California, and is of mixed Hawaiian and Danish ancestry.

Before moving to the Netherlands at the age of 7, he attended Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach, California.

While attending a Leonardoschool gifted school in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Niemann began playing chess at age 8.

He moved back to Orinda, California at age 10.

He lived in Weston, Connecticut and New York City, where he graduated from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School.

While attending U.S. Chess School with fellow streamer and GM Andrew Tang, Niemann received training from GMs Joshua Friedel, Ben Finegold and Jacob Aagaard.

John Grefe was another of his coaches.

Starting in 2019, Niemann rose from an Elo rating of around 2450 to 2650 in just over three years.

In June 2019, he won the inaugural ChessKid Games hosted by Chess.com, accruing 20 straight victories and qualifying for the 2020 Junior Speed Chess Championship.

He won the 2019 Foxwoods Open Blitz tournament with a perfect 10-0 score.

Later at the 2019 US Junior Championships, he tied for sixth place.

During the 2019 World Youth Championships he occupied first place for the first 8 out of 11 rounds in the U16 Open with a performance rating of nearly 2600, finishing 9th in a field of 78.

At the 2019 Grade Nationals, Niemann achieved a perfect 29–0 victory, achieving 12–0 in the Blitz Championship, 10–0 in the Bughouse Duo competition and finally 7–0 in the 11th Grade Championship.

In November 2019, he competed in the 103rd Edward Lasker Memorial, tying for 1st place and achieving his second GM norm.