In his first public appearance following the accusations of cheating in chess levelled against him in September, American grandmaster Hans Niemann on Wednesday, 5 October, came out in his own defense and stated he "won't back down."
The 19-year-old was found to have ‘likely’ cheated in more than 100 games in an investigation conducted by Chess.com last Tuesday.
Prior to this, Niemann was accused of cheating by world champion Magnus Carlsen last month, after the he upset Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup.
The whole incident rocked the sporting world, setting fire to debates and discussions around cheating in the game of chess.
Meanwhile, Niemann publicly spoke for the first time on Wednesday after his win in the US Championship match against 15-year-old grandmaster Christopher Yoo.
The American was asked to address the “elephant in the room”.
"This game is a message to everyone. This entire thing started with me saying 'chess speaks for itself' and I think this game spoke for itself and showed the chess player I am,” Niemann replied in a news debate after his victory over Yoo.
"It also showed I'm not going to back down and I'm going to play my best chess here regardless of the pressure," he added.
"You can leave it to your own interpretation, but thank you, that's it. That's all I can say, because it was such a beautiful game I don't even need to describe it," Niemann concluded.
Surprisingly, Niemann refused to answer any more questions and ended the interview just under 60 seconds.
Niemann, who in the past had admitted to cheating when younger, however, has so far denied all the accusations of him doing so during competitive events.
Though an investigation by Chess.com had discovered him likely to have cheated more often than he had admitted to, they still do not have any evidence that could be produced against the American.
Following the first set of allegations hurled against him, Chess.com had banned Niemann on 5 September.
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