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Norwegian chess world champion Magnus Carlsen and online platform Chess.com have urged a US federal court to toss out a libel suit brought against them by US teenage grandmaster Hans Niemann, who Carlsen has accused of cheating.
- Chess.com and Carlsen claim Niemann is an "admitted" cheat
- They claim Niemann failed to identify defamatory statements in his lawsuit
- Niemann's lawsuit claims the defendants are colluding to blacklist him from professional chess
Chess.com executive Daniel Rensch and Carlsen said in their filings that Niemann was an "admitted" cheat who failed to identify any defamatory statements by them in his lawsuit in US District Court in Missouri.
"After years of trying to curate a reputation as the bad boy of chess, plaintiff Hans Niemann wants to cash in by blaming others for the fallout from his own admitted misconduct," Carlsen's filing said.
Niemann's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Niemann, 19, said in his $US100 million ($147 million) lawsuit that the defendants were "colluding to blacklist" him from professional chess.
He said he had been shunned by tournament organisers since five-time world champion Carlsen, 32, accused him of cheating at the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Missouri in September.
Carlsen's surprise defeat and unusual decision to immediately withdraw from the tournament set off a flurry of speculation in the chess world that Carlsen believed Niemann had cheated.
Rumour erupted into scandal later that month when Carlsen resigned after one move in a match against Niemann during an online tournament.
Carlsen then released a statement saying he believed Niemann had cheated "more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted".
Chess.com, an internet chess server, banned Niemann after the first match against Carlsen and later published a report saying he had likely cheated more than 100 times in online games.
Niemann has admitted to cheating in online chess matches when he was 12 and 16 years old but has denied ever doing so in during tournaments involving prize money.
Tournament organisers say they have not found any evidence that Niemann cheated.
Reuters/ABC