Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 444: Hans Niemann Cheating Scandal

"Hans Niemann?" Sheva frowned, trying to remember the person associated with that name. It definitely rang a bell, yet somehow, his memory was fuzzy at this time.

"An American GM, curly and messy hair, looking like he hasn’t fallen asleep for a week. You played against him in Reykjavik, remember?" Bagas said, trying to give a description. When he saw Sheva still being clueless, the fat boy couldn’t help but sigh before sliding through his phone to find the person’s image. "Here, you know him, right?"

"Ah! Him!" Sheva widened his eyes in realization. "Yeah, of course, I remember him! We played in the last round of the Reykjavik Open and shared a draw, if I’m not wrong. A good guy, even if he is a bit overly enthusiastic." He smiled, reminiscing about his good time in Reykjavik.

"Oh, well... Maybe you will change your mind when you hear this." Bagas didn’t even turn his face from the phone. "Magnus Carlsen himself has just released an official statement, accusing him of cheating."

Sheva choked instantly, not expecting the news to be explosive. Well... He should, since Bagas had already warned him before. Still, to deliver it so casually like that, as if he were talking about the weather outside...

"Anyway, what is the story?" Sheva shook his head, going straight to the point. His gossipy nature rose instantly, recognizing a drama that was about to unfold.

"Well, the story began in the early part of the month, a day before your first round in Dubai, if I remember correctly," Bagas spoke, acting like a storyteller. Well, not like that. More like a conspiracy theorist, if Sheva had to say. "At that time, Hans managed to defeat Magnus—miraculously, if I have to say—at the Sinquefield Cup. That led to Magnus withdrawing from the tournament abruptly, and after that, he made a cryptic tweet, implying that something shady was going on."

"Oh?" Sheva raised one of his eyebrows slightly. "What tweet?"

"Here." Bagas slid his phone, showing exactly Magnus’s Twitter account. It was just a video of someone—a football manager, if Sheva wasn’t wrong—saying, ’I prefer not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble. In big trouble.’

"What is the context here?" Sheva frowned, clueless.

Bagas gave his best friend the ’Are you serious?’ look before finally realizing that indeed, Sheva was clueless here. Having no choice, he sighed before explaining, "His name is Jose Mourinho, and all you need to know is that he is a controversial football coach. His comments in the media often offended people, and this is also one of them. Here, he said this after his team didn’t get fair treatment from the referee, and since Magnus posted it right after he withdrew, right after he lost against Hans..." Bagas trailed his words behind.

Well, Sheva didn’t really need to hear the next words coming from his best friend. Even he himself was able to fill the blank here. Still, the more he thought of it, the more the boy found it to be strange.

"Well, Magnus only implies, so Hans’s situation shouldn’t be that bad, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, that is, until he made things difficult for himself." Bagas snorted amusedly. At Sheva’s questioning glance, he added, "In an interview two days later, he admitted in a joking tone that he might cheat once or twice during his teenage years in online chess, but never on the board. But as you can see, that doesn’t help his case at all."

Sheva felt the corner of his lips twitching when he saw that, the big vision finally started to fill the gap inside his head.

"Yeah, the best player in the world against a GM who admits that he cheated in his teenage years. No way he would be able to win the public’s approval." He hummed. "So, is that it?" Asked the boy, thinking that the drama was over. However, based on Bagas’s little snort, he knew that this was far from the finish line.

"Magnus escalated further, releasing a public statement accusing Hans directly of his cheating scandal last night. The entire community is exploding right now."

Sheva’s expression turned grim instantly, and within a second, he got the official statement on his phone already. The main point was that Magnus believed Hans had cheated more than the boy admitted, and he also used Hans’s interview to attack the boy further. More than that, Magnus also stated that he would not play against Hans again in the future.

Everything escalated so fast, and Sheva himself couldn’t find any reason why Magnus suspected Hans of cheating. It was only a short and ambiguous statement, mentioning that Hans seemed unusually calm and not fully concentrating during critical positions in their game, which Magnus found suspicious. Still, that was it. Just a baseless suspicion, not even any proof to back it up.

"This is ridiculous..." Sheva sighed, finding the situation to be crazy. "What is the public’s reaction, by the way?"

"Well, a lot of people had already voiced their opinion, but all of them are still on Magnus’s side," Bagas replied, scrolling his phone once again to show Sheva something. "As you have said before, it is the world number 1 against a normal GM. Of course, people will root for the former one. Also, Hans’s media skills are fucking terrible, putting him in a worse situation."

Sheva got a few more interviews featuring Hans, which somehow only made him twitch his lips incredulously. The young man often portrayed himself as a blunt person in front of the media, talking too much about something he should’ve kept to himself. More than that, some statements are ridiculous, like ’Chess speaks for itself’ when he found it difficult to explain some of his actions on the board.

Still, Sheva didn’t believe that Hans cheated. He still remembered—albeit vividly—how they had met for the first time, and although their communication was limited to the game they played, Sheva believed he had a good grasp of Hans’s personality. The young man might be overly friendly, but his enthusiasm for playing against a strong player and his desire to be stronger were something that couldn’t be hidden from his eyes.

Also, Magnus’s accusation seemed a bit too much here, and honestly, Sheva got a little bit emotional for that. So, without even consulting Bagas first, his fingers danced on the screen, typing a piece of his mind before sending it to Twitter. Then, a moment later, Bagas also noticed the tweet, and the boy was utterly dumbfounded by what he just read.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

-0-

Author’s note: Hey, everyone! I just write a new novel as an entry to the WSA 2026 competition, with the title of ’I Am the God of Football in the Fantasy World’. Please, help me support this new novel by adding it to the library and leave your comment in it. Thank you!