Russian tycoon Wadim Rosenstein confirmed on X that WR Chess Masters High Roller with $1 million buy-in is cancelled.
Following Hans Niemann’s announcement that he is “withdrawing” from the WR Chess Masters High Roller due to “contractual disputes”, Rosenstein wrote:
“I regret to inform you that the WR Chess Masters High Roller Event, which had commitments from 4 players under signed contracts, will not take place. As a passionate chess fan, I was eagerly anticipating this event.”
The 1-day rapid tournament with 15-minutes time control was supposed to feature four players with $4 million stakes in prizes.
Rosenstein said that Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov were confirmed participants and offered Hans Niemann with 4th invite, provided that Niemann can provide a $1 million buy-in.
Niemann suspected that Rosenstein was supporting other player’s entrance fees, which would be a conflict of interest.
In the follow-up post Niemann wrote:
The contract I signed was very poor. There was no obligation to partake in the event unless funds had been paid, and there was no consequence for non-payment. After securing the funds to enter the event, I started to have doubts about the tournament’s legitimacy and way of handling business.
I heard reports of the organizer potentially financially supporting other player’s entrance fees, and after requesting the organizer to confirm or deny this, they failed to comment. Any fiscal support from the organizer to other players would amount to a conflict of interest too large to move forwards, and would be disrespectful to my sponsor to accept.
In addition to this, I agreed to additional commercial terms to play a Blitz match vs Wesley So which were later changed when an additional contract was issued. Private messages were also deleted that showed my acceptance of the previous terms, only increasing my distrust and skepticism.
