Olivia Richman 
In an unsurprising but still dramatic turn of events, Magnus Carlsen won SCC 2024 in Paris and got the better of Hans Niemann.
The SCC 2024 event has wrapped up, resulting in an easy win for Carlsen. The grandmaster has now won four Speed Chess Championships, solidifying it as one of his strongest styles. In fact, he ended the event with an astonishing 23.5-7.5 score after topping Alireza Firouzja in the finals, leading chess fans to marvel at how unbeatable he is.
“I’m very happy that there is someone like Magnus that could beat me like this because, it’s weird to say, but it could get a bit depressing if at this age I could win all the games…This motivates me a lot to improve more,” Firouzja said after the event
Carlsen is now being dubbed the King of Speed Chess and continues to be the most successful player in the game. He also got a bit of revenge over a player who is now something of an arch-enemy for him.
Magnus Carlsen beats Hans Niemann at SCC 2024
On his way to the finals, Carlsen was matched up against his arch nemesis Hans Niemann.
The two hadn’t competed against one another since Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating after a win back in 2022. Carlsen was ranked considerably higher than Niemann at the time, causing officials to take the accusations seriously, with Chess.com reporting that he’d cheated in over 100 matches. After being banned from tournaments, Niemann took legal action against Carlsen and Chess.com, accusing them of sabotaging his career.
The match between the rivals became the most anticipated of SCC 2024, with many wondering if Niemann would get his revenge on Magnus Carlsen. But Carlsen beat the younger player in the Semifinals.
Carlsen had an early lead in the blitz 5+1 part of the match but Niemann was able to get the match a bit closer during the blitz 3+1 format. In the 1+1 finale, Carlsen had a large lead on Niemann but the controversial player started complaining about some technological issues.
“There’s some resistance on my mouse when I move it,” he told judges at the time, blaming the server and website.
Despite the complaints, the match continued and Carlsen built up a 10-point lead. After losing, Niemann blamed nobody but himself.
After losing to Carlsen, Niemann faced grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in a rematch of 2023’s bullet chess championship, who helped blow chess up on Twitch a few years ago. This resulted in another loss but Niemann took this one in stride as well, stating that he was grateful to play against some of the top players in the world.
