There are thirty people in the world today who earn the title of being a chess grand master, including Hans Niemann. An off putting personality, he left home as a teen (with what money!?) to play lots of chess. He entered the sport during COVID, when people like him were playing chess on online platforms. Gaining a massive fandom, the Gen Z-er does the impossible and beats millennial Magnus Carlsen, the world’s top ranking chess player. The defeat in one of these tournaments makes Carlsen withdraw, indirectly accusing Niemann of cheating, an obviously massive scandal. Netflix’ new installment of this volume’s Untold, Chess Mates, tells a story that sparked its share of media coverage.

I haven’t seen a lot of the Untold series but maybe this is the first time I’m noticing gaps. The other three installments I’ve seen barely show women or, if they do, they show them as mere wives. There’s the occasional female chess influencer here, as well as Niemann’s fans and news anchors covering his ‘career-ruining’ scandal. There are women in ‘real chess’ but this installment depicts the sport as male but with a different energy. It’s either Niemann or other chess grand masters who have a better awareness of how to act in public. As a non-traditional male, my impression of Chess Mates‘ depiction of the sport is ‘fascinating, but keep it’.

Chess Mates is both a portrait of Niemann and a meta narrative of the media coverage around him. This installment speaks to the death of a singular culture in how all of this is ‘blowing up’ media. And yet, I have never heard of him and maybe have heard of his nemesis, Magnus Carlsen in passing – he met Jay-Z! However, the simultaneous fame and obscuring of these figures is what makes them inherently fascinating. This installment is aware of how relative fame and obscurity is without belaboring that point to viewers. It also has a good mix of archive footage of Carlsen and Niemann’s games, treating that time as a past era.

My only note for Chess Mates concerns its depiction of Niemann, capturing his vibe but not certain life facts. I would have loved to know about his Hawaiian side as much as it treats him as a teen. I also almost crashed out after looking him up, I discovered that he’s only 22 years of age. Age is a relative concept, especially in the different media that even streaming services Netflix puts out these days. Twenty-two is too young to date older people but is old enough to beat them at a board game. All in all, Chess Mates is a fascinating look at a young man who’s growing wrong, thinking of only chess and revenge. I get him as a neuro atypical person but there has to be a better way of doing this than his method – others can do it.

Chess Mates is only available to stream on Netflix.