1. Hans Moke Niemann was born on June 20,2003 and is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer.
36 Facts About Hans Niemann
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Hans Niemann first entered the top 100 junior players list on March 1,2019, and became a FIDE grandmaster on January 22,2021.
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Hans Niemann achieved a peak global ranking of No 16 in September 2024.
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In September 2022, Niemann became embroiled in a controversy after defeating reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.
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Later, Carlsen directly accused Hans Niemann of cheating and said that he would decline future pairings with him.
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Hans Niemann was born in San Francisco, California and is of mixed Hawaiian and Danish ancestry.
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Hans Niemann moved to the Netherlands at the age of seven, where he attended a Leonardoschool for the gifted and started playing chess.
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On December 16,2014, Hans Niemann became the youngest-ever winner of the Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, the oldest chess club in the United States, earning him the title of USCF master.
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Hans Niemann competed in the 2016 North American Youth Championship, tying for first place in the under-18 section.
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Hans Niemann has competed in the PRO Chess League since 2017, playing for the Las Vegas Desert Rats, Saint Louis Arch Bishops and Norway Gnomes.
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Hans Niemann became eligible for the title of international master after his performance at the Cambridge IM Norm Invitational in August 2018, officially receiving the title later that year.
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Hans Niemann surpassed the 2500 Elo threshold required to become a grandmaster, officially receiving the title in 2021.
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In January 2021, Hans Niemann placed third in the Vergani Cup, held in Bassano del Grappa, Italy.
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In May 2022, Hans Niemann broke into the classical top 100 with a rating of 2656.
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Hans Niemann then faced Carlsen again two weeks later in the Julius Baer Generation Cup.
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Later that month, Hans Niemann participated in the 2023 Dubai Open Chess Tournament as the second-highest seed.
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Hans Niemann finished 47th after losing to non-titled player Xue Haowen with the white pieces in the eighth round.
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In June, Hans Niemann won the 1000GM 2023 Las Vegas Super Swiss after tiebreaks with grandmaster Mikhail Antipov.
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Hans Niemann then transferred to the fourth stage Arad Grand Prix Classic, placing second after grandmaster Haik Martirosyan.
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In January 2024, Hans Niemann competed in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament's B section.
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Hans Niemann ultimately finished the tournament in second place after tiebreaks against grandmaster Daniel Dardha.
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The match was highly anticipated, with Hans Niemann expressing a desire to take revenge on Carlsen for allegedly defaming him.
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Hans Niemann finished 6th in the Swiss-system tournament of World Blitz Chess Championship 2024, qualifying for the knockout stage, in which he lost to Magnus Carlsen in the quarterfinals.
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In March 2025, Hans Niemann played in Aeroflot Open 2025, followed by a 18-game blitz match lasting 2 days against Dubov in Moscow, the loser having to answer a question from the winner under a polygraph.
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In 2024, Hans Niemann reached out personally to former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik following public tensions and skepticism in the chess community.
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Hans Niemann later described Kramnik as his "coach, mentor, and friend" in interviews.
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Hans Niemann first started streaming in the summer of 2018, with activity picking up in 2019.
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Hans Niemann's viewership grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, coinciding with an overall boom in the chess category on Twitch.
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In 2020, Hans Niemann served as a coach for the inaugural PogChamps tournament.
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Hans Niemann continued the tournament with four draws and two losses, finishing in seventh place.
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Hans Niemann stated that he was limited in what he could say openly without "explicit permission from Niemann," and that he would not play chess with Niemann in the future.
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Hikaru Nakamura alleged that Hans Niemann had previously been suspended from Chess.
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Hans Niemann admitted in a post-game interview to having cheated in online games when he was 12 and 16 years old, but strongly denied ever cheating in an over-the-board game.
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On October 20,2022, Hans Niemann filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.
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On June 27,2023, one of Hans Niemann's claims was dismissed by a federal judge.
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Carlsen agreed to play Hans Niemann if paired in the future, stating:.