A pinnacle chess participant accused of dishonest has insisted he is "not going to again down" after making his first feedback on the scandal in almost a month.
On Tuesday, a Chess.com investigation claimed it was once "likely" Hans Niemann cheated in greater than one hundred video games online.
The 19-year-old American rising celebrity had already been accused of dishonest by using world champion Magnus Carlsen.
Speaking on Wednesday after prevailing his US Championship game, Niemann stated his victory used to be "a message to everyone".
In a information convention following a convincing win towards 15-year-old grandmaster Christopher Yoo, Niemann was once requested about the "elephant in the room" - a reference to the dishonest scandal that has gripped the chess world.
Without addressing the allegations directly, Niemann said: "This recreation is a message to everyone. This whole element began with me announcing 'chess speaks for itself' and I assume this sport spoke for itself and confirmed the chess participant I am.
"It additionally confirmed I'm no longer going to lower back down and I'm going to play my exceptional chess right here regardless of the pressure."
Niemann then reduce the interview brief after much less than 60 seconds.
"You can depart it to your personal interpretation, however thank you, it's it", he stated when the interviewer tried to ask greater questions.
"That's all I can say, due to the fact it used to be such a stunning recreation I do not even want to describe it," he concluded.
Niemann, who used to be taking part in in the first spherical of the US Championship in St Louis, then walked out of the interview, prompting commentator Yasser Seirawan to chuckle and say: "What? That's it? Ok."
Until the interview Niemann had now not spoken about the scandal when you consider that 7 September when he admitted to dishonest in casual video games when he used to be youthful however strenuously denied doing so in aggressive games.
Niemann delivered that he used to be inclined to play bare to show his innocence and accused Carlsen and Chess.com of making an attempt to wreck his career.
The scandal started out closing month after 31-year-old Carlsen, regarded via many to be the biggest participant of all time, used to be defeated by means of Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup in a foremost upset.
The Norwegian made veiled accusations of dishonest towards Niemann at the time earlier than overtly accusing him closing week.
Then on Tuesday, a Chess.com investigation claimed it used to be probably Niemann had cheated "much greater often" than he had admitted to, along with in prize cash activities and towards highly-rated "well known" figures in the game.
Chess.com additionally cited "anomalies" in Niemann's price of improvement, which has viewed him start up the rankings in classical chess from round 800 in the world to the pinnacle 50 in much less than two years.
The website online stated this upward jab used to be the quickest in "modern recorded history" and had came about "much later in lifestyles than his peers".
But it observed no proof he had cheated in his recreation in opposition to Carlsen or in any different over-the-board games.
A separate statistical evaluation of Niemann's over-the-board video games by way of Prof Kenneth Regan, extensively considered as the world's main professional on dishonest in chess, has additionally determined no proof he cheated.
Not because 2006's "Toiletgate" has chess confronted a dishonest scandal at the elite tiers of the game.
Back then, world championship challenger Veselin Topalov's group accused the champion Vladimir Kramnik of dishonest at some point of his "strange, if now not suspicious" journeys to the bathroom.
Prof Regan additionally located no proof Kramnik had cheated.