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Earlier today, American chess grandmaster Hans Niemann took the internet by storm when he filed a defamation case against Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Chess.com.
Hans Niemann is allegedly suing the aforementioned parties for $100 million in damages, after he was accused by Magnus Carlsen of cheating during the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.
After details of the lawsuit went viral, catastrophic personal injury attorney and trial lawyer Tom "AttorneyTom" got in touch with esports personality Jake "JakeSucky" Lucky to provide his opinion on the matter:
"Hey Jake, for the sake of time, I'm going to skip any potential jurisdictional issues I see. I'll get straight to the heart of it. I think Hans Neimann has potential of winning this lawsuit. Well, yes and no."
Trial lawyer AttorneyTom shares his thoughts on the Hans Niemann vs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Chess.com defamation trial
After AttorneyTom claimed that Hans Niemann has the "potential to win," he then pointed to some "particularly weak" claims in the $100 million defamation lawsuit.
He provided an example of a petition against Hikaru Nakamura and stated that the latter is primarily a "reactor," who has been reacting to the underlying statements made by Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com:
"Embedded in this petition, I think there's some particularly weak claims. For instance, against Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru is mostly a reactor. He has been reacting to the underlying statements made by Magnus and the reports of Chess.com. And the original thoughts or statements he said on top of that, were based on that foundation."
If the court deems Hans Neimann a "limited purpose public figure," he would then be required to prove that Hikaru Nakamura was aware that the statements made by Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com were false:
"Especially if the court finds that Hans is a limited purpose public figure, he's basically going to have that Hikaru knew those statements were false by Chess.com and by Magnus. Yet he made them anyway. I think those claims are weak at best."
AttorneyTom then shifted focus and provided his thoughts on the Hans Niemann vs Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com lawsuit. He stated that these claims "could have some teeth" and mentioned something called "defamation by implication":
"Now pivoting to Magnus and Chess.com. I think these claims could actually have some teeth. Even if Magnus hasn't come out and explicitly said, 'Hans is a cheater,' he's certainly implied it. And there's something in the law, called defamation by implication."
AttorneyTom mentioned the impact of the lawsuit on Hans Niemann's career, saying that he's "basically been exiled" from the chess world:
"Now Magnus and Chess.com haven't come out with any definite proof that Hans cheated. So, where does this leave us? Well, if you're Hans, you've basically been exiled from the chess world. You can't play on Chess.com. He can't compete in any of the big tournaments! So the damages are potentially huge!"
The minute-long clip ended with AttorneyTom adding that the discovery in this case was everything, and that it would "make or break" Hans Niemann's claims:
"So, discovery in this case is going to be everything. It's going to make or break Hans' claims. But on its face, there is potential for him to prevail."
Fans react to the trial lawyer's take
The reaction thread on Twitter attracted more than 30 replies, with one Twitter user even asking if Call of Duty: Warzone streamer Nadia could also file a defamation lawsuit for the cheating accusations made against her:
Another user hoped that the defamation trial would be livestreamed:
Here are some more relevant fan reactions:
Besides being a chess grandmaster, Hans Niemann is also a Twitch streamer. He started broadcasting on the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform back in 2018, and has spent the majority of time streaming and playing chess on his channel. He currently has 57,031 followers and averaged 198 viewers in July 2022.
