To some, chess might be a boring game that requires one to sit for hours in one spot formulating moves and strategies, but to those who know what really goes into the game, it is the most exciting thing ever. Chess was never a mainstream topic until The Queen’s Gambit came along. The show changed the way the sport was perceived earlier. Now there is a genuine interest in the game and a rising demand for stories from the world of chess. And Netflix just brought a new chess documentary to fulfill this need.

Untold on Netflix takes the audience through one of the darkest chapters of chess history - a scandal that shook everyone.

The second edition of Netflix's Untold sports documentary series, Untold: Chess Mates, premiered on April 7, 2026. The events after Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann’s clash at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, a tournament match that garnered international notice and generated a widespread discourse within the chess community, are the main focus of the documentary.

At the time of the 2022 Sinquenfield Cup, Magnus Carlsen was one of the most prominent players in the sport and the current world champion. During the competition, Carlsen faced Hans Niemann, a younger player whose stature increased in tandem with the rise in popularity of online chess platforms. To everyone's surprise, Niemann won their match, and it soon became one of the most talked-about aspects of the event.

But a bigger shock arrived a day later when Magnus Carlsen officially accused Niemann of cheating, filing a complaint with the organizers. A report that Niemann may have cheated by using remote-controlled vibrating anal beads to get signals from a co-conspirator about what moves to make made headlines.

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A big allegation and an elaborate theory to prove that accusation, but the main question is whether it was actually substantiated that Niemann really cheated.

Untold: Chess Mates follows Hans Niemann as he pursues his sporting career while attempting to resolve those accusations. The story also explores the controversy's broader effects on the professional chess community. Throughout the documentary, he maintained that he did not cheat, and there is no evidence presented that suggests that the theory of the vibrating anal beads holds any ground.

However, after Carlsen’s accusation, Chess.com released a report revealing that Neiman might have cheated in more than 100 games on the site. But that does not prove whether he cheated in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. For now, the damning scandal in the sport’s history still remains unresolved, but Untold, like its other documentary episodes, successfully spreads awareness about the incident in an engaging manner.

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Did you know about the scandal? If yes, do you think Hans Niemann cheated in the match against Magnus Carlsen? Share your thoughts.