Untold: Chess Mates

There are as many possible chess games

as atoms in the visible universe.

31-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen

is the current World Chess Champion.

...reigns supreme in a sport played by 500 million people.

Magnus must remember the position of 320 pieces

while calculating ten moves and countermoves on each board.

Magnus wins on all boards.

I can see these things immediately, where other people see chaos.

That is that, ladies and gentlemen. Carlsen has won...

Magnus Carlsen...

Magnus Carlsen has this edge mentally that nobody else possesses.

I've been the definite best player in the world now for 12 to 13 years.

Magnus Carlsen is doing things no human being I've met before can do.

Do you consider yourself a genius?

Do I ever wonder why he was given this gift?

Are we living in a simulation?

I'm Magnus Carlsen.

Magnus Carlsen.

The Mozart of Chess! One of the great geniuses of our time...

- Please welcome Magnus Carlsen! - The reigning five-time world champion.

Magnus Carlsen was defeated in a major upset at the Sinquefield Cup.

Magnus Carlsen just resigned.

Carlsen lost to this younger player.

Sending the chess world into chaos.

Does chess make you insane?

Or does chesskeepyou sane?

One of the greatest chess champions of all time

is accusing a fellow player of cheating.

He explicitly accused 19-year-old American Hans Niemann.

All I did was play a chess game, and I beat him.

He's entered a level of paranoia that is not, like, sane.

He's created a monster.

And while he's old,

I'm gonna be young, improving.

And the best player, he's gonna have to watch.

And every fucking day of his life, he's gonna have to realize that

he did this to me.

The community doesn't like people who cheat.

Of course it's fucking coordinated. It's a genuine conspiracy against me.

Just, people think he's cheating. It's as simple as that.

They think I'm cheating. Are they crazy?

- Is Hans cheating over the board? - This is war, isn't it?

They did this all because of a personal vendetta.

Have you ever used anal beads while playing chess?

Sometimes I wonder how my life would be without chess.

And I think it's a blessing and a curse.

I've thought about this a lot. Like, what price do you pay for genius?

Because of course, my mind, you know,

is capable of things that, you know, make me a pretty good chess player

and good at other things, but that comes with an emotional price,

and that's probably why I was never normal.

When I told my parents at 16, "I'm gonna move to New York,

I'm gonna live alone, pay for rent," they... everyone called me crazy.

But I knew that I needed to prove to myself

I could be the best chess player in the world.

And that took precedent over living with my family

and having security.

There was periods where I didn't speak to a single person for two months.

But... I used to go on these 30-hour benders. I wouldn't sleep.

And I would literally just stay up, solving chess puzzles nonstop.

I just consumed everything I could about chess.

I liked to watch interviews with past players.

I'd analyze their games.

I'd be working on the openings, absorbing everything I could.

Bobby saw six moves ahead here. He just didn't seesevenmoves ahead.

I'd sit at my computer for 12 to 16 hours a day,

just playing thousands of games a month.

And I understood that the only way for me to improve

was to play against people much better than me.

Every opportunity for me to play against the best players in the world

was a chance to just absorb that strength.

It's the entire fucking chess ecosystem.

There's no alternative.

They have a monopoly over online chess.

It would be correct to say we don't look like the average chess player.

When I say "chess player," people think of an old white guy from Russia.

"Chess is not cool. It's super hard."

"It's only for nerds. It's not something that's for me."

Because chess is for the pawns.

The pawn potential to move up the board and be whatever you want to be.

Chess is for everybody.

Welcome to another Under the Green Pawn.

that I wanted to build the MySpace of chess.

We officially opened in May of 2007.

Here's the hall. Wish me luck. See you on the other side.

But it was really small potatoes.

I was turning down jobs at Facebook and Palantir and YouTube,

and everybody in Silicon Valley was telling us

chess would never be big enough to be investable

and just kind of like laughing us out of the office a bit.

We were always the underdog.

Till COVID.

Today the World Health Organization

officially announced that this is a global pandemic.

Imagine there's no heaven

The murder hornet...

- I think it's a filter. - I don't know how to remove it.

The pandemic was absolutely bonkers,

but for chess, it was unreal.

We could see it in the server logs and registrations.

Each country that got locked down, registration spike.

Italy was first to lock down.

Registrations in Italy, boom.

And next was India. Registrations in India, boom.

And every country, as it got locked down,

registrations bumping up, four or five x. Overnight.

I thought we'd play some chess.

I'd like to play chess.

And thenThe Queen's Gambitshow on Netflix came along.

Those waves hit each other and spiked.

We literally did go from a million daily active users

to five, six million daily active people, playing chess.

It was crazy.

What's the company currently worth?

Probably... gettin' close to a billion dollars in value.

That's my guess.

Do I care? Not really, but that's my guess.

Fuck!

During the pandemic, we were constantly thinking about,

where is our next growth opportunity?

What the fuck just happened here?

And we saw influencers playing chess en masse,

like we'd never seen before.

And it became my job to choose the next stars

and build the streaming program.

- Send this to overtime! - Change of queen!

Danny became maybe the most important person

in the entire chess community.

We changed chess yet again today.

I love you andsalud.

You're in this position where you're the gatekeeper,

the key master to someone's hopes and dreams.

And everybody wanted to be a star.

Get out of here!

You just got owned!

Before the pandemic, I didn't really know Hans Niemann.

I knew...

Hans!

You just got owned!

All of the biggest chess creators,

people you see now with millions of subscribers,

they were nobodies.

Okay, finish him.

Chess became a fad. It became a trend.

When there's a trend, everyone follows.

Yo, 2,700 viewers. Damn.

These guys are... You guys are enjoying this.

There's always opportunity if you look for it.

So, I just start streaming on Twitch every single day.

Dude, you watch Twitch?

- Are you Hans Niemann? - I'm Hans Niemann!

Oh shit! Yo!

Here was a young talented American...

...with an insane amount of self-confidence.

Let's be civil, let's be mature, and let's continue with the show.

He's got bravado.

Yeah!

And it made sense for us to work together and help him become a streaming star.

I became someone who was mentoring him.

Speaking of our participants, they're ready to roll.

As we see Hans Niemann,

he's got his Doritos, which is hisfavoritossnack.

Everything about our relationship was met with a full partnership.

And Hans was special to us.

Rook e7.

Suck my balls.

I had quite a big fan base.

The rage is not for the camera.

Unfortunately, it's just how I am.

Tick tock, tick, tick, tick!

What set me apart from other streamers

was everyone else was so boring that I seemed interesting in contrast.

How! How is he so smart?!

All right, let's play something slow.

Nothing fancy-schmancy. Just keep it very slow and controlled.

I am Hikaru Nakamura.

I am a grandmaster.

Currently ranked number three in the world at the great game of chess.

Computer will tell you guys if I'm wrong, but I think king f6, is the only...

Hans, he's someone I would compete against,

playing blitz games online.

It was very clear he was a strong player. No doubt about it.

Whoa, what? No, this is insane.

But I didn't really particularly care for his brand of antics.

The old-school chess establishment, the view is you have to be very proper.

You win, you say, "I won the game." You lose, "Guy played better than me."

My congratulations, sir.

A brilliant coup.

But Hans is very wild.

When he lost games, he would scream, he'd yell.

When he'd win games, he'd be like, "I'm the greatest in the world."

I am a God.

Now, sit the fuck down and get with the flow.

You know, why not? Why not speak my mind?

Some people like that. Some people don't.

So while the fans enjoyed it, there are people in the chess world

who were not fans of that and thought it was disrespectful,

and it wasn't fitting for someone who was a serious player.

Players would talk about it.