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‘Every conversation I have about chess”, says Hans Niemann, “leads to anal beads.” In any other context that might seem something of a non-sequitur. But in the context of Niemann, it makes a lot of sense. For the uninitiated, Niemann was the chess prodigy accused in 2022 of cheating against world champion Magnus Carlsen – some said by using a vibrating sex toy to direct his play, leading him to a shock (pun intended) victory.
As ridiculous as it sounds – the sort of thing that would be laughed out of the Black Mirror writers’ room – the theory gained ground online, and in the press. This Netflix one-off draws heavily on archive footage ridiculing the incident, featuring everyone from Piers Morgan to Trevor Noah, who quips that, with anal beads, “even if you lose, you still kinda win”.
Untold: Chess Mates retreads the story of the media furore, and the bitter rivalry that has since festered between Niemann and Carlsen. Niemann was the young American upstart who got his big break playing chess online, and who says things such as, “What price do we pay for genius?!” while staring straight into the camera lens. Carlsen, from Norway, has a talent for damning Niemann with faint praise, and remains totally incredulous that his rival could have beaten him without cheating: Niemann, he says, was merely “trying to cosplay as a top chess player”.
Niemann was never found guilty of cheating over the board against Carlsen or any other player, and would later go on to sue his opponent (among other defendants) in a $100m lawsuit. The suit was dismissed by a federal judge, and all the parties later agreed a settlement. But here, Niemann details an alleged conspiracy between Carlsen and the heads of the influential chess.com website where he used to play online (and where he admitted to having cheated when he was younger). Their aim, says Niemann, was to bring him down, prior to a merger between chess.com and Carlsen’s own gaming websites. These allegations fuel much of Untold: Chess Mates, Niemann railing against the “chess mafia” while Carlsen and the heads of chess.com essentially call him delusional. (While Carlsen still insists that Niemann cheated in their 2022 match, the chess.com bosses found no evidence that his online deceit had extended to the real world.)
Like many a Netflix documentary before it, Untold: Chess Mates relies on a larger-than-life supporting cast – not least chess.com co-founder and CEO Erik Allebest, and “chief chess officer” Danny Rensch. We get a not-entirely-necessary refresher on the pandemic (Joe Exotic! The celebrity Imagine medley!) and learn how the isolation of millions took the online chess industry to dizzying new heights (chess.com says its active user count rocketed from 1 million to between 5 and 6 million a day). Plus, Netflix gets to remind us of its crucial role, with its drama The Queen’s Gambit attracting new players to the sport. Streaming and influencing also became a crucial part of the game during Covid, giving opportunities to outsiders such as Niemann – a self-proclaimed “chess outcast” who honed his craft in Marty Supreme-esque fashion, playing with hustlers in New York’s Washington Square Park.
We segue from Niemann now to his teen years, and the many videos of him playing online with a wild, adolescent mop of hair. There are clips of him screaming and hitting the table when he loses, and roaring “I am a god!” when he wins. Hikaru Nakamura – a grandmaster, who, although it isn’t mentioned here, was also named in Niemann’s $100m suit – says he “didn’t particularly care for [Niemann’s] brand of antics”. The way he played, in other words, was seen as unbecoming by some, offensive even. And, even though the idea of a “mafia” plotting to send him swimming with the fishes feels far-fetched, it’s clear that Niemann’s swift progression from obnoxious streamer to real-life competitor irritated some of chess’s more established names. That an online conspiracy theory about anal morse code turned him into the butt of the joke doesn’t feel fair, but it does feel oddly fitting.
Ultimately, this remains a case of “he said, he said”, and Untold: Chess Mates scarcely finds anything new to say about it all. At the end of the documentary, Niemann and Carlsen face off once more, in a game that took place a year and a half ago. It seems strange to end things here, way back in 2024, but really this is a drama that has long faded from the headlines. The viral story and those extraordinary allegations will live on, of course. Or, as Allebest puts it: “Anal beads have been super good to us.”
