Ben Mezrich

American writer

“I was able to talk to everyone involved and actually see some secret tape of the actual game. I got in some inside stuff.

The photographer was trying to get a picture of Hans, he was chewing gum while he was playing, and he was kind of blowing a bubble. The photographer wanted to get a picture of Hans blowing a bubble while he beat Magnus. So, he stepped over towards the board. Magnus saw that and thought: ‘This didn’t look right… This person is coming close to the board’. He said something, there were some words said.

Earlier in the match, another player had asked the photographer for the score of a soccer game that was going on. The photographer made some signals to the guy, showing him the score, and Magnus saw that. There was weirdness going on… You can look at that and say that Magnus had reasons to think something suspicious was happening.

Magnus then approached the photographer and said: ‘This is a huge tell’. Later, his father even apologized in a way. The photographer himself is highly respected. Lennart Ootes is one of the top chess photographers. He has photographed all the top players and has good relationships with everyone involved. He is a very serious person.

But he was the only person in the room who had a computer. He was sitting right there with a computer and camera equipment, moving around the hall. Magnus really didn’t like that he approached the table.

That evening Magnus even sent his father to talk to the photographer. He came to the photographer’s hotel to basically interrogate him, trying to figure out what was going on in the playing hall.

In the end, everyone concluded that the photographer had nothing to do with any cheating. But it was a very strange moment, that led to everything that followed.”