About the Book: In September 2022, chess champion Magnus Carlsen suffered a shocking defeat to nineteen-year-old Hans Niemann, then withdrew from a major tournament while implying Niemann had cheated-igniting the sport’s biggest scandal. This book traces the parallel rises of the stoic Carlsen and the disruptive Niemann, exploring past cheating allegations, the involvement of billion-dollar platform Chess.com, and the broader collision between chess tradition and its new, internet-fueled generation. It’s an account of ambition, genius, and greed as a once-niche game explodes into a global phenomenon.