Magnus Back At Saint Louis For First Time Since THAT Hans Niemann Cheating Scandal

It's finally happened! GM Magnus Carlsen has walked through the door at the Saint Louis Chess Club for the first time since he sensationally stormed out of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.

This time, Carlsen is competing in the star-studded Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown—an event intended to round off a month of amazing chess at America's chess capital in Missouri.

But there is no big controversy this time.

The Saint Louis Chess Club, bankrolled by the American multi-millionaire Rex Sinquefield, has been throwing money at the world's top chess players for many years now. Long may it continue. And this year, America's foremost chess club has outdone itself.

Clutch is the event intended to round off a month of celebration to mark a renovation of the Saint Louis club buildings.

It follows the annual U.S. Championships—which remains dominated by GM Fabiano Caruana and (in the Women's) IM Carissa Yip—and the Clutch Chess: Legends event which featured two icons of the game GM Garry Kasparov and GM Vishy Anand.

And now, starting on Monday, and with a monstrous $412,000 on the line, Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown could top them all for excitement.

We know what happened the last time Carlsen was in Saint Louis: the then-world champion lost to GM Hans Niemann in Round 3, and he wasn't happy.

Carlsen went on to accuse Niemann of cheating, which the American strongly denied, and this action set off a firestorm in chess. A series of high-profile events followed, which included a (now settled) $100 million lawsuit, several entertaining TV appearances by Niemann and finally a FIDE ethics investigation which found against Carlsen.

This time, there is no Niemann. While the dust has settled on that controversy, Niemann doesn't tend to be invited to Saint Louis outside of the U.S. Champs (but, we understand, for different reasons).

Instead, Carlsen is up against his long-time nemesis GM Hikaru Nakamura, the reigning World Champion GM Gukesh D and newly re-crowned U.S. Champion and world number-three GM Fabiano Caruana.

So that's four of the absolute elite in one room, and it isn't even a world title event. Saint Louis are billing Clutch as "the highest-rated chess tournament of the year."

The format is also right up Carlsen's street: an 18-game 10+5 rapid double round-robin. The scoring will see point values escalating each day: Wins are worth 1 point on Day 1, 2 points on Day 2 and 3 points on Day 3.

In short, the whole idea (masterminded by GM Maurice Ashley) is designed to create "clutch" moments, hence the name, to ramp up tension until the last round.

“Having these four giants of the game here in Saint Louis shows the city’s importance on the world chess stage,” said GM Yasser Seirawan, event commentator and four-time U.S. Champion.

It should be very watchable, and you can take it in at the Saint Louis website here. The event runs until October 29.