Hans Niemann

Hans Niemann
Full name	Hans Moke Niemann
Country	United States
Born	20 June 2003 (2003-06-20) (age 21) San Francisco, California
Title	Grandmaster (2021)
Peak rating	2645 (December 2021)

Hans Moke Niemann (born 20 June 2003) is an American chess Grandmaster and Twitch livestreamer. He was awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE on January 22, 2021. In July 2021 he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. Niemann first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019. As of January 2022, he is the 6th-highest-rated Junior in the world and 103rd overall.

Education

Niemann was born in San Francisco, California, and is of mixed Hawaiian and Danish ancestry.

Before moving to the Netherlands at the age of 7, he attended Top of World Elementary School in Laguna Beach, California.

While attending Leonardoschool gifted school in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Niemann began playing chess at 8 years old.

After moving back to California at 10 years old, he finished his elementary school education at Del Rey Elementary School in Orinda.

He graduated from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, which is known for its chess culture, in New York City after moving there in 2019. He previously lived in Weston, Connecticut, where he attended Weston High School.

Chess career

Niemann qualified for the Dutch National Youth Chess Championship in 2012.

A self-taught player, Niemann rose from an ELO rating of around 2450 to 2650 in just over 3 years after returning to the US. He does not have a coach.

Niemann first competed in a rated US tournament in December 2012. Just under 4 months later he participated in the 2013 SuperNationals V in Nashville with a rating of 1486, scoring 4/7.

In March 2014, Niemann's rating was just under 2000 at 10 years old, which allowed him to get an invitation to his first U.S. Chess School camp in St. Louis with coaches Greg Shahade and John Bartholomew

On December 16, 2014, Niemann became the youngest-ever winner of the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Tuesday Night Marathon, the oldest chess club in the United States, earning him the title of USCF Master.

Niemann competed at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships held in Durban, South Africa in the U12 category, winning 6 of his 11 games. Earlier that year he lost against Annie Wang at the National Junior Chess Congress in Irvine, which made Wang the at the time youngest FIDE Master, breaking an 18-year-old record.

At the 2015 National Open of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival, then 11-year-old Niemann became the last person to play a rated game against GM Walter Browne, who died shortly after competing in the tournament. Browne won the game after 35 moves.

Niemann has been part of the US Chess Federations All-America Chess Team since 2016.

After becoming an FM in early 2016 he competed at the 2016 Saint Louis Invitational IM Norm, Niemann was among the youngest players competing along with Carissa Yip.

At the 2016 North American Youth Championship, Niemann tied for first place in the U18 category and earned his first IM norm.

At the 2017 SuperNationals VI, Niemann, with a rating of 2412, entered the tournament as the top seed and finished 1st in his K-8 category.

After initially winning his first 6 consecutive games, Niemann finished in third place at the 2018 U16 Olympiad in Konya, Turkey.

In August 2018 Niemann competed at the 2018 U.S. Masters Championship, earning his second IM norm and also his first GM norm.

Later in August 2018, Niemann earned his 3rd and final IM norm at the Cambridge IM Norm Invitational and met all the requirements for the title of International Master.

In December 2018 he won the National K-12 Blitz Championships undefeated, finishing 12-0. Three days later he went on to tie for 1st in his grade in the overall K-12 Grade Championships, while also tying for first in the bughouse duo, achieving a perfect win.

in June 2019 Niemann won the inaugural ChessKid Games hosted by Chess.com, accruing 20 straight victories and qualifying for the 2020 Junior Speed Chess Championship.

Niemann won the 2019 Foxwoods Open Blitz tournament with a perfect 10-0 score. Later at the 2019 US Junior Championships Niemann, then Connecticut's top junior player, tied for 6th.

During the 2019 World Youth Championships Niemann occupied 1st place for the first 8 out of 11 rounds in the U16 Open with a performance rating of nearly 2600, ending up finishing 9th in a field of 78.

At the 2019 Grade Nationals Niemann achieved a perfect 29–0 victory, achieving 12–0 in the Blitz Championship, 10-0 in the Bughouse Duo competition and finally 7–0 in the 11th Grade Championship.

In November 2019 Niemann competed in the 103rd Edward Lasker Memorial, tying for 1st place and achieving his second GM norm.

Niemann placed 6th at the American Continental Selection Open of the 2020 FIDE World Youth Championship.

He achieved his third and final GM norm at the Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy (CCCSA GM Norm Invitational) in October 2020, placing first. Originally his third norm was meant to be achieved in the GM Berger Tournament during the 3rd Summer Chess Festival 2020 in Belgrade, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2020, he won the 75th Annual Texas State and Amateur Championship, held in Fort Worth, Texas.

Niemann has competed in the PRO Chess League since 2017, competing for the Las Vegas Desert Rats (2017), Saint Louis Arch Bishops (2019, winning team) and Norway Gnomes (2020), respectively.

In December 2020, Niemann won the blitz competition at the VII Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival, surpassing the 2500 ELO threshold required to become a grandmaster.

In January 2021, he placed third at the Vergani Cap, held in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. In February, he won both the classical round robin (7.0/10) and blitz (10.5/11) tournaments at the Winter Chess Festival "Paracin 2021" in Serbia.

In April 2021, Niemann was featured on the front cover of Chess Life magazine, with the cover story documenting Niemann's journey to becoming a Grandmaster. He talked extensively about his journey to achieve the title in the Cover Stories with Chess Life Podcast released alongside the issue.

In July 2021, Niemann won the World Open held in Philadelphia after beating John Burke in tiebreaks. It was also in this tournament that Niemann surpassed the 2600 threshold with a draw against Ukrainian grandmaster Illia Nyzhnyk. Later that same month he won the U.S. Junior Championship hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club, which entitles him to compete in the 2022 U.S. Chess Championship.

In August 2021, Nieman finished second (8.0/10) behind GM Aleksandr Lenderman (8.5/10) at the 121st U.S. Open Chess Championship in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

In March 2022, for the classical time control, Nieman broke into the chess top 100, ranked in 98th position. He was also the 12-highest-placing American.

Streaming career

Niemann streams both online and over the board chess on Twitch, competing against fellow chess streamers like GMs Andrew Tang and Daniel Naroditsky, WFM Alexandra Botez or Super-GMs Hikaru Nakamura and world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. In his streaming career, Niemann served as a coach and co-commentator for the second PogChamps online chess tournament, coaching participating Twitch-streamers like XQc, Ludwig, Forsen and Hafu, as well as strongman and actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.

Niemann first started streaming in the summer of 2018 but was quite inconsistent and averaged a few viewers on each stream. After stopping in October 2018, he returned to streaming in the spring of 2019. After achieving moderate growth, his viewership skyrocketed in early 2020, when Niemann started streaming more consistently during the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming chess almost daily, Niemann’s audience grew more than ten-fold, coinciding with an overall boom in the chess category on Twitch.

In May 2021, during a live stream, Niemann drew controversy by refusing to play in a $10 charity for tournament, insisting he should be able to play for free as a grandmaster. He was then offered a 50% discount at $5, but he still refused. Niemann was derided by online commentators and by the press.

Personal life

While attending U.S. Chess School with fellow streamer and GM Andrew Tang, Niemann received training from GMs Joshua Friedel, Ben Finegold and Jacob Aagaard.

While in the Netherlands, Niemann cycled competitively, being one of the top cyclists in his age group.

External links

• Hans Niemann rating card at FIDE
• Hans Niemann player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Hans Niemann player profile at Chess.com
• Hans Niemann on Twitch.tv
• Hans Niemann on Twitter
• Hans Niemann on Instagram