Chess star Hans Niemann sues over cheating allegations

Chess Grandmaster Hans Niemann, 19, studies the board (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann alleges in a federal lawsuit that chess world champion Magnus Carlsen and others destroyed his career by falsely accusing him of cheating.

Niemann is seeking 100 million dollars in damages in the lawsuit filed on Thursday in US District Court in St Louis, elevating a controversy that has troubled the chess world since September, when Carlsen suggested Niemann cheated during his upset win over Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup tournament in St Louis.