KEY POINTS

  • Magnus Carlsen is the reigning five-time world champion
  • Hans Niemann defeated Carlsen earlier this month 
  • The defeat at the Sinquefield Cup ended Carlsen's unbeaten streak of 53 games

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen on Monday resigned after making just one move in an online match against American chess grandmaster Hans Niemann.

The incident happened during Carlsen and Niemann's Julius Baer Generation Cup match. They were playing the game online, using Chess24 and Microsoft Teams to broadcast the games and images.

The five-time reigning world champion played a single move Monday and then simply resigned by turning off his webcam without saying anything, reported Chess Base.

His action took chess players and commentators completely by surprise.

Monday's game was the first meeting between the two since Niemann's controversial victory over Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup earlier this month.

"Magnus Carlsen just resigned. Got up and left. Switched off his camera, and that's all we know right now. We're going to try to get an update on this," said Chess24 commentator and grandmaster Tania Sachdev, reported The Guardian.

Niemann stunned Carlsen earlier by defeating him at the $500,000 event in St Louis, but the Norwegian then withdrew from the tournament. The loss in the Sinquefield Cup game ended Carlsen's unbeaten streak of 53 games. The legendary chess player broke the news of his withdrawal from the tournament on Twitter as he shared a video of football manager José Mourinho saying: "If I speak, I am in big trouble."

While Carlsen has not said anything more, the world's best blitz player, Hikaru Nakamura, claimed the withdrawal was because the former suspected Niemann had "probably cheated."

Nakamura revealed that the American player was previously banned by the world's most popular chess website, Chess.com.

Since Carlsen's defeat was a massive upset in the chess fraternity, the teenage chess star was accused of using anal beads connected to a computer, which would use artificial intelligence to find the best moves and provide directions through vibrations.

Magnus Carlsen won his fifth world title in 2021
Magnus Carlsen won his fifth world title in 2021 AFP

A popular cam site had even offered $1 million to the U.S. chess player to broadcast himself playing a live game of chess completely naked. The offer was to help him prove he did not cheat in his controversial victory over Carlsen.