Hans Niemann’s $100 million lawsuit against Chess.com, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, the Play Magnus Group and Danny Rensch was dismissed by the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, but that doesn’t mean that Niemann’s legal options are finished. The Court dismissed the anti-trust components of the suit “with prejudice”, which means that Niemann can’t relitigate that part of his lawsuit. The remaining elements of the case, focusing on defamation claims, were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds and without prejudice, which leaves open the possibility of Niemann re-filing on those parts of the lawsuit elsewhere. In fact, this is apparently what Niemann and his attorneys intend to do, so it’s (probably) not over yet.
More here (HT: Allen Becker).
Chess continues to grow, but professional chess grows increasingly chaotic.