Hans Niemann recently lost to GM Daniil Dubov in a 18-game blitz match in Moscow. The Russian GM won with a 9.5-8.5 score, and the loser was supposed to answer a single question in a lie-detector polygraph test.
The match took place after their controversy at the 2024 World Blitz Championship, where Dubov didn’t turn up for the game, and Niemann by default.
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Hans Niemann backs out of lie-detector test
Speaking on YouTube, the American GM complained that he would not take the lie-detector test due to disrespect from his opponent.
“I have no intention of giving someone like Dubov, who behaved like a child, the honor of asking me a question on the lie detector, which is pure pseudo-science, when I have nothing to prove,” he said.
“Despite all the things that have been done to me, I have continued to perform. I have nothing left to prove. The onus is on them to prove. These are terrible people who tried to destroy a 19-year-old kid's life because of a personal and sick vendetta.”
{{/usCountry}}“Despite all the things that have been done to me, I have continued to perform. I have nothing left to prove. The onus is on them to prove. These are terrible people who tried to destroy a 19-year-old kid's life because of a personal and sick vendetta.”
{{/usCountry}}Niemann also accused Dubov of speaking and disturbing him during the match, followed by refusing to shake hands. “It's just mindboggling the level of disrespect from the chess world and chess players,” he said.
Niemann also revealed that Dubov wanted the test to be conducted in Dubai and the American would need to cover the expenses. “I'm not going to pay for an entire trip and put Dubov in a nice hotel just for this,” Niemann said.
Meanwhile, Dubov has already made it clear in an interview to a Russian news website, where he revealed that he would ask Niemann if he ever cheated over the board over the past five years.
Niemann will also be in action in the upcoming Paris Freestyle Grand Slam event, where he will take on the likes of Magnus Carlsen and D Gukesh. He is also set to appear in a Netflix documentary with Magnus Carlsen, where they will open up on their controversial cheating scandal. The documentary is set to be released in April.