Docuseries ‘Grandmasters’ Premieres To Packed House At Tribeca

Chess stepped further into the mainstream spotlight on Saturday as Grandmasters, the new docuseries featuring GMs Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Hans Niemann, and other leading figures of the game, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The screening drew a packed crowd at the SVA Theater in Manhattan, where director Liza Mandelup was applauded when she introduced the first episode of the Boardwalk Pictures-produced series.

Grandmasters follows many of the biggest names in modern chess, including Carlsen, So, Niemann, IMs Danny Rensch and Levy Rozman, along with Freestyle Chess founder Jan Henric Buettner.

A key element in the series is the emergence of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam and the organization’s feud with the governing body of chess, International Chess Federation (FIDE).

The official synopsis describes a chess world “thrown into turmoil” after Carlsen joins forces with Buettner to launch a new league designed to revolutionize the game and “make chess cool.”

Following the screening, moderator Jessica Shaw welcomed Mandelup back to the stage alongside Rensch, Rozman, and Lea Makhloufi for a Q&A session.

Ahead of the screening, Mandelup, Rensch, Rozman, Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest, producers, and other guests walked the red carpet. 

In one of the first reactions from the premiere, critic Tina Kakadelis at Beyond The Cinerama Dome said Grandmasters “makes chess feel like an F1 race,” adding:

Mandelup does an exceptional job of making the viewer crave the next episode. Not only does it end on a delicious cliffhanger, but the cast of characters in the chess world is far more bombastic than an outsider might think.

In her review, she noted how the show centered on the different personalities of the game. While Carlsen is described as “confident, cool, collected,” Buettner as a dreamer determined to reshape the sport, and Niemann as “the bad boy of the chess world.” Her conclusion of the series is positive:

Grandmasters captures a storm that’s brewing in the chess world that is wholly entrancing, even to those who cannot tell a rook from a bishop.

The premiere is also covered by People Magazine, focusing on how Niemann pushed back at being labeled “the bad boy of chess.” 

“I think I’m actually the most polite and kindest chess player,” Niemann said in the series. “People have this reputation about me, but I’m not seeing these other chess players donating money to Nigerian kids so they can have health care.”

I think I’m actually the most polite and kindest chess player.
—Hans Niemann in ‘Grandmasters’

Following the premiere, guests gathered at the rooftop of the 5-star Hotel Gansevoort for the official afterparty. 

The premiere marks yet another example of chess’s growing mainstream appeal. It arrives just months after the premieres of Netflix productions Untold: Chess Mates and Queen of Chess, the documentary about GM Judit Polgar.

Meanwhile, Hollywood studio A24 is also developing Checkmate, a feature film about the Carlsen-Niemann controversy. A release date is not yet set, but author Ben Mezrich recently told Chess.com that it’s expected to premiere in 2027.

If the reaction at Tribeca was any indication, Grandmasters could become chess’s answer to Netflix’s Formula 1 hit series Drive to Survive and bring the game yet again to a mainstream audience.