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$1 Million Buy-In Tournament Cancelled Following Niemann’s Withdrawal

Posted on by angelo

Maybe it seemed too crazy to be true. The $1 million buy-in tournament with GMs Hans Niemann, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, scheduled for November 21, 2024 in Düsseldorf, Germany, was canceled by organizer Wadim Rosenstein after Niemann tweeted Thursday that he had stepped down. of the event.

Nothing appeared to stand in the way of the $4 million one-day poker tournament taking place when Rosenstein confirmed to Chess.com on June 11 that all four players’ funds had been secured and that he had received the signed contract from Niemann. 16 days later, the 21-year-old American grandmaster ended the event.

In a tweet posted Thursday, Niemann said he withdrew from the event “due to contractual disputes,” saying it was “unfortunate considering I had already secured the necessary funds, signed a contract and started my preparations. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to. »

In a phone call with Chess.com, Rosenstein declined to go into details about what exactly happened. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” he said Thursday night, European time.

Rosenstein noted that while all four players had received their $1 million, the actual funds had not yet been transferred. The deadline was a month before the tournament, so October 21.

According to Rosenstein, a lot of time and effort has already gone into preparation. When asked if he was upset about Niemann potentially breaking his contract and if any action would be taken, Rosenstein replied: “It doesn’t make sense to discuss the details or anything. The tournament is over, that’s all. Nobody wants a scandal.”

Minutes after the phone call, Rosenstein confirmed on will not take place. As a passionate chess fan, I was looking forward to this event.”

Less than an hour later, Niemann reiterated his tweet. He wrote that he had “begun to have doubts about the legitimacy of the tournament and how it was handling business,” and that he had “heard rumors that the organizer may have funded other players’ entry fees, and after asking the organizer to confirm or deny this information, he did not comment.”

Niemann also revealed that he agreed to play a blitz match against GM Wesley. So that was kind of related to the buy-in tournament. According to Niemann, the commercial terms of this match “were subsequently changed when an additional contract was issued. Private messages were also deleted, showing my acceptance of the previous terms, which only increased my distrust and my skepticism.

Chess.com has reached out to Niemann for comment. The other four players involved in the case, Abdusattorov, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi and So, are currently competing in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania and were not available for comment.

In another phone call Friday morning, Rosenstein provided comment to Chess.com on some of Niemann’s claims in his second tweet. He denied that the contract was poor: “My goal is to make things easy for chess players, which is why I work with easy-to-understand contracts. With many players, I work with handshake agreements. There is no penalty for not participating. Because? I wouldn’t judge someone for not participating in something they don’t want to participate in.

On the subject of financial support for the entry fees of other players, Rosenstein indicated that he intended to pay So for a “warm-up match” against Niemann before the main event. Rosenstein denied that “additional commercial terms were changed later when an additional contract was issued,” as Niemann had stated. “I prepared a separate contract for the warm-up match, as it was a separate event, but H“years didn’t want to sign it.”

“I made an offer to play in this tournament, and ultimately it didn’t work out,” Rosenstein said. “I’m fine with it, and I’m glad the situation came to light now, and not a month before the tournament.”

Rosenstein said it was surprising that Niemann signed his contract and only started talking about “contract disputes” more than two weeks later. He added: “Niemann is a strong, young, talented player. I wish him the best. But if you ask me whether I will invite him to my other tournaments, that’s a big question now.”

The graphics were already prepared for the event. Image: WR_Chess_Masters on X.

The buy-in tournament was scheduled for November 21, 2024, in Düsseldorf, Germany. The format was a double round-robin between four players with six rounds of rapid play (15+0). All four players were required to bring $1 million to the table; the winner would take home $2 million. The second-place player would receive $1.5 million, the third-place player would win $0.4 million (losing $0.6 million on the deal), and the fourth-place player would receive $0, losing a full million. $100,000 would go to the organizer.

The remarkable event grew out of a conversation in May on the social media platform X between Niemann and Rosenstein, a businessman and owner of a conglomerate of companies called WR Group. Rosenstein also organized last year’s WR Masters in Düsseldorf (February 2023) and the World Team Sprint Championship (August 2023). He will compete in only the second edition of the latter event from August 1-6 in Astana, Kazakhstan, and will host two brand new tournaments from October 31-November 3 in Dubai and October 14-18 in London.

When Niemann request Regarding the London event, Rosenstein proposed the buy-in format and invited the American GM, also on X. A week later, he confirmed the event and players to Chess.com.

Although the event is now cancelled, Rosenstein wrote on X: “We hope our idea can help other organizers organize tournaments like this in the future.”

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