For more than a decade, the Sinquefield Cup has been a key stop on the Grand Chess Tour, bringing together some of the world’s top players in a competition that helps define the highest level of the game. The ninth edition of the tournament, held in 2022, followed that pattern until the third round, when Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen lost to American grandmaster Hans Niemann, who was still a teenager at the time, The Athletic reported.
Shortly after the loss, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament and posted a cryptic message on social media that many interpreted as an accusation that Niemann had cheated. The move sparked widespread online speculation, including unverified theories that Niemann used electronic devices to gain an advantage. Niemann later filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Carlsen and two others; the case was ultimately dismissed and settled out of court, according to Chess.com.
Nearly four years later, Netflix’s Untold series revisits the Carlsen–Niemann controversy that shook the chess world. The documentary features interviews with both players, as well as Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest, Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com Danny Rensch, chess master Bruce Pandolfini, grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, and Carlsen’s father, Henrik Carlsen, among others, offering insight into the incident and its lasting impact. The documentary marks the first time Carlsen has spoken about the incident since addressing it on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2025.
Here’s what to know about Untold: Chess Mates and the true story behind the documentary.
Carlsen questioned Niemann’s gameplay ahead of the Sinquefield Cup
Untold reveals that Carlsen had concerns about Niemann’s play well before the events of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. According to Chess.com, questions about Niemann’s performance had circulated after he posted unusually strong results in smaller tournaments across Europe and Asia. Carlsen’s suspicions grew further after he lost to Niemann at the 2022 FTX Crypto Cup in Miami. The two had also played a casual game prior to the tournament, which Carlsen won swiftly.
In Untold, Carlsen says he was particularly put off by comments Niemann made at the tournament’s opening ceremony about being ready to “replace” the world champion.
“What did he really expect from this tournament? Because he is a significant underdog in every single match. If he comes here and expects that he can beat everybody, that seems completely delusional,” he says in the documentary.
Carlsen’s doubts carried into the Sinquefield Cup, but tensions escalated after he withdrew from the tournament and posted a meme featuring football manager José Mourinho saying, “If I speak, I am in big trouble.” The post fueled speculation across the chess world about what he was implying, The Athletic reported.
That’s when, as Nakamura puts it in Untold, “all hell breaks loose.”
‘It felt like I was playing somebody who didn’t appear to be putting in a whole lot of effort in this game.’
A week after the Sinquefield Cup, at the Champions Chess Tour — an online event — Magnus Carlsen resigned against Hans Niemann after just one move. That moment marked a turning point, as the Carlsen–Niemann controversy escalated further.
In Untold, Henrik Carlsen says his son confided in him about suspicions that, when facing Niemann, he did not feel he was playing against a human opponent.
“It felt like I was playing somebody who didn’t appear to be putting in a whole lot of effort in this game,” Carlsen says, echoing comments he had made in September 2022 describing Niemann’s over-the-board progress as “unusual.” “I’m fuming. This just did not feel right at all.”
Niemann, for his part, reaffirms his innocence in the documentary and says he takes pride in having “broke[n]” one of the best players in the world.
Untold also reveals that a day after Carlsen’s loss to Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen’s father contacted Rensch to arrange a meeting. According to Chess.com, Henrik later met with Rensch, who said he had been “hearing whispers” from staff since 2020 and ultimately confirmed that Niemann had been caught cheating on the platform.
“I didn’t want to believe it. We had been putting on a lot of effort, resources, energy, and frankly love, into Hans’ career. Unfortunately, when we peeled back the onion, we saw that Hans had been cheating since the first day he joined Chess.com,” Rensch says in Untold. “We had to do what we had to do.”
Those findings, along with Carlsen’s accusations, contributed to Chess.com’s Hans Niemann report, which concluded that Niemann likely used computer assistance in more than 100 online games. However, the report found no evidence that he cheated in over-the-board play.
Niemann was banned from Chess.com but was later reinstated after the defamation case was settled. He acknowledged cheating in online games during his younger years in a post-game interview on the fifth day of the Sinquefield Cup, and he expands on that history in Untold.
“You make mistakes as a kid — it doesn’t mean that everything you do for the rest of your life should be discredited,” Niemann says in the documentary.
In that same post-game interview, Niemann denied the over-the-board cheating allegations while admitting to prior cheating in online games.
Niemann discusses beads theory, says he was offered $1 million to play chess naked
According to The Athletic, amid the scandal, an internet theory that Niemann used anal beads to cheat went viral — largely after Elon Musk shared the rumor on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Talk about something getting out of control,” Rensch says in Untold.
Security at tournaments like the Sinquefield Cup is typically strict, with players required to pass through airport-style scanners, and in some cases, matches are broadcast with a delay to prevent outside assistance or spectator interference.
Niemann says the theory still follows him today. In the documentary, he shares that he was once offered $1 million to play chess naked.
“People might laugh about it, but there’s actually a very sad story behind it,” he says, later adding in Untold, “It’s just anal beads this, anal beads that, and I have to live with that.”
Niemann says Chess.com ban was strategic retaliation
Looking back on the scandal, Carlsen described it as “an unpleasant situation,” The Athletic reported.
“I know that I was way in my own head, I recognize that then, and I recognize that now, but that’s just the way it felt to me both in Miami and at the Sinquefield Cup — that this was somebody who had the ability to cheat,” he said.
He also addressed the lawsuit, acknowledging that while he did not want to settle, “the U.S. legal system is expensive and not very practical.”
Niemann, meanwhile, has raised concerns about Chess.com’s $82 million acquisition of Play Magnus, the app founded by Carlsen, in December 2022. The deal also included Carlsen serving as an ambassador for Chess.com.
“They banned me because they’re in the process of finalizing the most important merger of chess history, a merger that will give them complete, untouchable power in the chess world,” he says.
While Carlsen has dismissed Niemann’s theory as “a bit too much,” Niemann maintains that Chess.com is intent on his downfall.
“I’m just a little speck, a little ant that they decided to step on and destroy,” the American grandmaster, who is now ranked No. 20 in the world, says toward the end of Untold, before reiterating his innocence.
“Unfortunately for them, I’m innocent and I always have been innocent,” he adds.
Untold: Chess Mates is now for streaming on Netflix.
