American GM Hans Moke Niemann commented on Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest’s offer to publish their personal text message history to the public. Niemann says he did not reply to Erik and Chess.com CCO Daniel Rensch while the lawsuit was ongoing, and calls the offer performative.
Hans Moke Niemann
American GM“The weird thing is… They said they wanted to show the text exchanges while the lawsuit was ongoing. But I had no communication with them at all!
Maybe they’re referring to the text they sent me? But the concept of an exchange implies that there’s a response. So, I don’t really understand the threat.
While the litigation was ongoing, there was absolutely no contact. The lawyers were communicating. They did try to reach out to me, but I never spoke to them and never replied.
And the messages that they sent me could not really negatively reflect on myself, because I never sent anything. To me, that’s just sort of a blatant lie. Maybe they’re referring to communication post litigation? But there’s nothing that’s really a bombshell.
It’s kind of weird also, if they were serious about that, why are you posting it on Reddit? If you want to seriously discuss all these things, they should reach out to me directly. It’s very performative. All they’re trying to do is score social media points trying to evoke an emotional reaction. That’s not a serious way that you go about reaching an agreement.
But in general, as you see in the documentary, they were sort of exposed in many lies. So, I would hope that people don’t really take them seriously anymore.”
American GM Hans Moke Niemann held an ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit on May 2. Chess.com co-founders Erik Allebest and Daniel Rensch posted their questions in the thread. Rensch suggested Niemann publicly release information protected by a non-disclosure agreement. Allebest invited Hans to publish their personal text message history to the public. Niemann did not respond to either post.
Hans Niemann filed a $100 million defamation and antitrust lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com, and Hikaru Nakamura in October 2022. The cause of the lawsuit was a cheating accusation following Niemann’s victory over Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup 2022. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in June 2023.
Credit: Lennart Ootes
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