Anish Giri on Carlsen resigned against Niemann

Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri didn’t hold back while talking about ‘the big elephant in the room’ that was Magnus Carlsen quit his much awaited preliminary matchup against Hans Niemann after just two moves in the Julius Baer Generation Cup on Monday. The 28-year-old lended his thoughts on the entire saga that has unfolded between the two since their round at the Sinquefield Cup earlier this month.
“It’s like when you play Poker. You bluff on the first, then comes another card and you keep bluffing and then another card and you keep bluffing,” Giri said in a conversation with Chess24.com. “It looks like he’s clearly insinuating something but until you catch someone you cannot do anything. It just looks very odd now. It all makes sense if supposedly Hans is cheating and he doesn’t want to play him but if he doesn’t, then it is really very wrong.”

Let the bead drop.🎵 https://t.co/C8rZHx9c2s
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) September 19, 2022
“We have to see. Everybody is expecting some kind of big rabbit from the hat with Magnus. He doesn’t want to play Hans, it seems. And it is all quite interesting, the game after that he played so well. I was thinking he might be durbed but he was just undurbed. A special human being for sure.”
The match, which took place virtually on Microsoft Teams was hosted chess24.com, was the first meeting between the two since Carlsen had turned heads earlier this month after he quit the $500,000 Sinquefield Cup following a defeat against Niemann, confirming his withdrawal posting a video of a famous quote football manager Jose Mourinho: “If I speak, I am in big trouble.”
When being asked if he was of the opinion that Magnus needed to provide some evidence against Hans, as is the belief among many in the chess community, Giri said, “I think its pretty clear that he doesn’t have it. Because if he had, there would be no need to do that. It’s pretty clear to me that he is convinced or near convinced. Based on the evidence that is already public, he just took that call.”

“It’s a big problem playing people who have been banned, especially people who have admitted to cheat online before. You lose trust in these people.”
“It’s not clear how it will end because as we see, I don’t Magnus has anything more than what’s there. There’s the repeated cheating online. There’s the quietly weird character that Hans is portraying. It doesn’t mean he cheats all the time or doesn’t mean he cheats over the board. It’s just very confusing.”
Giri will next face Niemann in Round 10 of the Julius Baer Cup. A meeting he is looking forward to.
“I am eager to play Hans, I have done very well against him before,” he said. “He plays very poorly against me so I am not concerned but he seems to be improving. His rating is rising. I don’t know what the reason is. Whether he is just legit very strong or Magnus is trying to insinuate but either way it is of course an exciting game.”
Indian grandmaster R. Praggnandha also shared his opinion on the matter and said that he “was shocked shocked to see it” but added that, “It’s his (Magnus) decision. I don’t have any opinion about it now.”