Carlsen and Niemann settle dispute

@ClayAndSilence said in #10:
> It'd be very interesting to know the terms of the settlement. No doubt this can never be revealed.

Chances are slim that it will go public - but then again - 4 parties involved, 4 times the chance someone leaks.

Or even greater than 4 times. The more people involved, the less the chances that the leaker gets identified, so they might be more inclined to do it.

Anyone has posted!?

twitter.com/hansmokeniemann/status/1696537826786173272?s=48&t=c06FzacGNRrBMoWpTdAsrg

Hans Niemann - Did you miss me?

John Waite - Missing You

youtu.be/k9e157Ner90

Niemanns back on twitch too, currently, as in right now, streaming. Good for him. www.twitch.tv/gmhansn

How can anyone believe anything from these lairs.

@ClayAndSilence said in #10:
> It'd be very interesting to know the terms of the settlement. No doubt this can never be revealed.

Chess.com said:

"Chess.com, Magnus, Hans, and Hikaru all have their own opinions about the events surrounding the controversy, and they agree they should each be able to talk openly about their views."

Which is definitely not the same as saying the terms of the settlement can be disclosed, but perhaps they can. Its very unusual in a defamation lawsuit for the parties to basically agree that they can say whatever the hell they want about the underlying facts. Recall that Trump got sued a second time for doing exactly that recently. So I have no idea if the settlement is or is not confidential. Its also hard to speculate whether money changed hands. Hans wasted time and money on his federal lawsuit, and may not have had the money and energy to deal with refiling in state court.

It's probably the most pragmatic solution for everyone involved. For chess dot com it seems they regularly reinstate cheaters so even if they're convinced Niemann cheated it's not a huge issue if it eliminates the risk of further legal action. For Carlsen if a simple admission that he doesn't believe Niemann cheated (for which there was no conclusive evidence to back the claim) then saying he acknowledges his opponent didn't cheat to make the case go away makes sense. As far as Niemann goes I think getting damages was always a long shot and this way he can play in events again and resume his career so this makes sense for him too.

Only slight issue that could cause an issue is that if Carlsen now admits Niemann didn't cheat then I'm unsure if the FIDE case regarding a false accusation of cheating could cause issues although I doubt FIDE would do more than a slap on the wrist and I think no one wants to reopen this can of worms.

Having said that if Carlsen hadn't doubled down on his accusations and chess dot com hadn't decided to publish a cheating report then I imagine we could have reached the same outcome without incurring all the legal fees that I imagine weren't cheap.

As to whether Niemann cheated in the first place that's hard to say. There's no conclusive evidence he did cheat so that would normally indicate innocence. The accusation is that he used an undetected cheating method that is impossible to disprove for any player (including Carlsen).

Funnily enough the only way you could actually prove such an accusation would be to have an ironclad contract with Niemann where he gets $100M from Carlsen and chess dot com if he can prove he cheated in the event and evaded detection although in that case you would end up with both sides desperately trying to prove their opponent was right! At least in that case if Niemann did have some mysterious cheating method his financial incentives would mean it makes sense for him to reveal it while currently if it exists it's in his interests to hide it and if it doesn't exist he can't reveal what doesn't exist.