Hikaru Nakamura about Maxim Dlugy’s leaked e-mails: This is spicy

After 19-year-old American grandmaster Hans Niemann defeated Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, the World Chess Champion decided to withdraw from the event. Rumors that Magnus Carlsen suspected Niemann was cheating started spreading over social medias and the “Carlsen – Niemann” controversy is the top news in mass medias ever since. Magnus broke the silence by giving the interview after the Preliminary stage of the Julius Baer Generation Cup where he resigned the game against Niemann after only two played moves.

Carlsen couldn’t particularly speak on the topic, but he mentioned “Niemann’s mentor” GM Maxim Dlugy: “I have to say I am very impressed by Niemann’s play & I think his mentor Maxim Dlugy must have been doing a great job“.
Shortly after, it became clear that Carlsen mentioned Maxim Dlugy because the American grandmaster got caught cheating on chess.com. Motherboard, the tech section of Vice, now confirms that Dlugy was cheating in chess.com tournaments, reviewing the confidential emails between GM Maxim Dlugy and Daniel Rensch – Chess.com’s Chief Chess Officer where the American grandmaster confesses cheating. 

Hikaru Nakamura reviewed the complete article and the given emails during his live stream: “This is spicy. They actually gave emails, so this is pretty wild“. Hikaru found out from Maxim Dlugy-Daniel Rensch’s e-mail discussion that Dlugy cheated in one of the Titled Tuesdays back in 2020. Nakamura and Dlugy actually got paired in that tournament, but it appears that the game against Hikaru was the only game of the event in which Maxim Dlugy didn’t use the outside engine help. Nakamura showed the game and the video he streamed during the game where he called Dlugy’s moves weird. See the complete video below

The timetable of events related to the Carlsen – Niemann case: