Untold: Chess Mates

⭐ 9/10

This is a documentary about the biggest chess scandal of 2022! I followed this story very closely at the time, and I found this retelling really excellent in laying out all the players and external factors. Basically Magnus is the GOAT, lost to Hans who is a cocky young American, then threw a fit and quit the tournament and accused him of cheating. The fallout was immediate, Twitch streams deep diving how he could have possibly cheated, with the joke becoming that he used anal beads.

I loved how this documentary made no one the good guys. The leaders of chess.com, a site I despise, are first shown throwing around kettle bells and being like, we don't look like your average chess players. Yes you do! Cocky and cringey. Anyways, they run the worlds biggest chess site, and are completely beaming talking about this scandal because it coincided with COVID and Queen's Gambit, which led to a huge surge in usage on their site. All publicity is good publicity for them, even if it means banning Hans with basically no evidence and essentially ruining his reputation and livelihood.

But that's where this gets interesting. He has a history of cheating online, on that very site, and they have the proof! Sure it doesn't mean he cheated against Magnus, he almost certainly didn't, but Magnus makes it clear that its hard to play a known cheater knowing they might be cheating, which is fair. Magnus is also arrogant, but in a way that's like Michael Jordan. I'm the best, I know I'm the best, and that's just what it is. When he speaks he is confident, but not in a conceited way. He's a fascinating guy that also doesn't look great here, kind of throwing the chess.com guys under the bus. But his company was also being acquired by them at the same time! So many interesting factors.

And then there is Hans, the star of this whole thing, and what a star he is. Reminded me so much of Marty Mouser from Marty Supreme, completely unlikeable, but you also empathize with him for basically no reason. I felt bad for him, having to answer to these anal bead jokes in every single interview, having to defend himself, having every single recorded interaction poured over for traces of hidden cheating. He was honest about his early cheating in a brave way, and it basically ruined his career. But then he keeps talking and you are like, wow this guy is the worst! It's so fascinating, you couldn't write it better. My favourite movies are all these tortured geniuses who are terrible people, from Tar to Whiplash to even the just mentioned Marty. The idea of genius requiring this sole focus, completely eliminating everything in your life in this maniacal drive to be the best, its intoxicating to me! You will be happy to know Hans is still playing chess, still crawling out of this PR nightmare, and is currently ranked #12 in the world! But that's not good enough, he's going for that top spot.

I would highly recommend this, I think its an excellent retelling that includes a ton of detail, although it almost misses a bunch of nuance. Magnus loses all the time, for example, just way less than everyone else, so it wasn't just him losing that made him suspicious. A bunch of small things like that, motivational beats that were simplified. Hikaru Nakamura is in this as basically a narrator, which I found fascinating because he is the world biggest chess streamer and he poured gasoline all over this at the time! He's one of the main parties in the law suit Hans filed! Very strange that his role is basically never mentioned. Anyways, watch this! Also, Nathan Field and Emma Stone, I am still waiting on your rumoured adaptation! After seeing this doc I can totally see the vision and its the most exciting pairing of project and producers, I couldn't have dreamed of something better.