“People don't trust Hans still to this day. They will never trust Hans.” — GothamChess

Levy Rozman

American IM, content creator

“Hans has always been a really brash kid.

He reminded me of me, just to a whole another level. He’s always kind a little bit arrogant, a little bit in your face, very aggressively extroverted, very smart.

And I think there were rumors already before he beat Magnus, that this dude cheated online. He did it, Chess.com published that — it wasn’t public then. Other people have cheated too, but they don’t have the same personality as Hans.

Hans is very unapologetic. You almost get the sense that he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong. I actually asked him in the interview, that he could have just said, ‘Hey, I cheated. I’m really sorry. I’ve never cheated over-the-board’. But I think people still to this day don’t trust Hans. They will never trust Hans.

Hans is now playing one-on-one matches against people. He doesn’t get invited to tournaments. Because, if you’re a really strong player and you’re inviting people, you don’t want him there. You don’t trust him. And the organizers are going to listen to that.

I don’t think people will ever fully trust him. Just because of the way he is, combined with the fact that he cheated when he was a teenager, but he doesn’t seem like he’s sorry for it.”