As he earlier announced, Hans Niemann published a video and fully addressed Saint Louis Chess Club’s claims which resulted in Niemann’s ban at the club’s tournaments. Hans confirmed that he caused some damage in the hotel room during the US championship but said that he apologized and paid the fine to the hotel. However, he said that damage in the hotel is not a real reason why Saint Louis Chess Club blacklisted him from their events.
Summing it up for those who don’t have the patience to watch a 20-minute video, Hans wrote: “To summarize: for the entirety of 2023, STL ignored calls emails and didn’t invite me to numerous tournaments that I would usually be invited to based on my rating. This shows that before any incident with the hotel, they had made up their mind about blacklisting me and this is only their newest excuse. They still have provided 0 reason for their action in 2023.“
