Checkmate: Genius, Lies, Ambition, and the Biggest Scandal in Chess

Bestseller Mezrich (Breaking Twitter) offers a gripping investigation into a 2022 cheating scandal that stunned the competitive chess world. The book opens with the now infamous upset at America’s “most prestigious” tournament, the Sinquefield Cup, in which 19-year-old “enfant terrible” Hans Niemann beat world champion Magnus Carlsen, leading Carlsen to accuse Niemann of cheating. The author traces the two players’ divergent ascents—Carlsen became the youngest ever grandmaster at age 13 with the support of a committed father; while alienated, struggling Niemann became “notorious for baiting... his opponents.” The author also tracks the growth of Chess.com from an upstart gaming site dismissed by Peter Thiel (“There’s no money in chess”) to a billion-dollar valuation. The two threads combine as Mezrich traces Niemann’s response to the post-Sinquefield fallout, which evolved from public boasts (“It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me”) to defiant paranoia, as he comes to believe Carlsen and Chess.com, who had just struck an $80 million deal, conspired “to destroy him.” While Niemann admitted to cheating in online games—he had once been caught by Chess.com’s algorithm and suspended—he maintained that his over-the-board games were legit. The controversy deliciously spirals to include hotheaded interviews, threats in parking lots, and a staggering $100 million lawsuit. It’s an epic, swirling melodrama of hubris, money, and tech. (June)