Magnus Carlsen responds after Hans Niemann accuses him of blocking tournament entries: 'I am not involved...'

World No. 1 chess player Magnus Carlsen has responded to recent comments made by American Grandmaster Hans Niemann, who accused him of blocking his entry into tournaments due to a personal grudge.

The latest exchange between the two players comes years after their controversial fallout following the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, where Niemann defeated Carlsen in a classical game and later found himself at the centre of cheating allegations.

Niemann recently criticised Carlsen’s limited participation in classical chess tournaments and claimed that the Norwegian star avoids competing against him. Niemann also suggested that Carlsen has influence over tournament invitations.

Speaking about the matter, Niemann pointed to the TePe Sigeman & Co Tournament in Sweden, where Carlsen played in 2026 and eventually won the title. Niemann said he had won the same tournament in 2022 but was never invited back by the organisers.

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"Magnus avoids me pretty well. If he’s playing a tournament — he’ll make sure I’m not invited. For example, he’s playing in a tournament in Sweden this May, which I actually won in 2022 right before I beat him in the Sinquefield Cup," Niemann had said last month.

Carlsen responds

Carlsen has now responded to those comments and denied having any role in deciding tournament invitations. "I am not involved in choosing which players will participate here," Carlsen was quoted as saying by Rook Review.

Meanwhile, Niemann had also criticised the current rating system in chess and suggested that Carlsen is maintaining his world No. 1 ranking by playing limited tournaments.

"Carlsen is kind of moved away from serious Classical chess — the typical format. He is about 10 to 20 games a year, which is like Novak Djokovic playing one Grand Slam, winning it, getting his ranking, and then never playing for the year, keeping his number one ranking," he said.

"In chess there’s no minimum activity requirement to not decay in your rating. And we don’t have a typical Grand Prix system. In chess it’s a terrible system: guys like Magnus can play 10 games a year for 10 years. It’ll be very-very hard for anyone to surpass him because he’s not going to compete against people who are chasing him. So, there’s no decay," Niemann added.

Carlsen relinquished his World Championship title in 2021 and has since been participating in select events. He has also reduced the number of classical tournaments he plays.