Ok class, raise your hands if you would be excited to watch a nearly three-hour film about chess? I’m sure there are plenty of In Review Online readers who would enthusiastically raise their hand at such a premise, but the masses are certainly less likely to be so stoked about spending their evening undertaking such an endeavor. Director Liza Mandelup, whose previous films also examined similar dynamics through a hyper-specific lens (Caterpillar, Jawline), seems to know that Grandmasters needs to grab viewers’ attention immediately, or it will sit in “continue watching?” queues for eternity. Thankfully, she proves more than up for to the challenge, and the first section of the film establishes everything you need to know about the world of competitive chess. Within 15 minutes, you might as well be watching a new episode of The Last Dance or ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 (it’s worth noting that the film was first presented as a limited series). What follows is an immensely entertaining, high-stakes, well-crafted film that is much more about humanity, about how power and money and religion corrupt, and about the lengths people will go to see their name in lights, than it is about the game of chess.
There are a few characters here you might have even heard of: chief among them is Magnus Carlsen, the cocky Norwegian prodigy who became a grandmaster at 13 and was World Champion for 10 years straight. Carlsen made waves on social media in June 2025 when he threw a tantrum (at 34 years old, keep in mind) after losing to reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Less dramatically, he was thrown out of a competition for wearing jeans, and (rightfully) made a big stink about how outdated the dress code rules are. On the other end of the spectrum is Wesley So, a shy Filipino-American player who, as of this review, is currently leading in this year’s World Championship. So’s family abandoned him in Manila when they left for Canada, and he subsequently made his way to the U.S., where he was eventually adopted by former actress Lotis Key. So is very religious, with answered prayers (when he wins) and punishments from God (when he loses) representing a significant portion of his presence in the film. To the viewer, Key seems to be the motivating influence for So’s evangelicalism; she doesn’t let him drive or have social media, and often speaks for him because she insists that he’s too shy to participate on his own.
More tertiary members of the chess illuminati include Hans Niemann, an egotistical maniac who frequently puts Carlsen’s outburst to shame — especially when Carlsen accused him of cheating in 2022, and the ensuing viral accusation that he had done so with vibrating anal beads. Jan Henric Buettner, an entrepreneur — who made his fortune at AOL before the bubble burst — and a classic showman, meanwhile, is trying to make chess “cool” through a new league. Then there’s also Danny Rensch, arguably the only voice of reason in the whole project, co-founder and CEO of chess.com.
With this many cooks in the kitchen, Mandelup could have easily gotten lost in the sauce of competing personalities, but instead she steers Grandmasters in an interesting and productive way. There isn’t actually a lot of chess featured in the film, beyond its implicit driving force for the film’s existence. Buettner repeatedly talks about how his freestyle chess league is bringing Formula 1 to chess and will make it an international sensation. Of course, it seems unlikely that wish will be granted, but Mandelup has brought a similar formula to the film, which is successful. The framing of shots is just dramatic enough to hold attention despite capturing a topic that isn’t typically attention-grabbing to non-chessheads or kinetically provocative. In so doing, Grandmasters manages to communicate the tension — so illusory to lay observers —that is inherent to the sport and those who play it.
But if the film’s technical achievements function as a welcoming cherry on top, Grandmasters is so enticing because of its meat and potatoes: Mandelup’s approach to dissecting the personal and professional dynamics at play. Bits and pieces of information are shared with the audience, lending sway to viewer allegiances each time a new tournament begins. But this isn’t mere audience manipulation. Mandelup give space for each of the film’s primary playes, and throughout each chapter of the film the perspective pivots from one subject to the next, often repeating stories or events through the lens of different participants.
This delivery is particularly effective when So is the featured player. All the other competitors have significant sponsorship deals, online followings that have lifted them to influencer status, or, in the case of Carlsen, a cushy upbringing and enough early success that they (mostly) get away with being a cocky asshole. But So’s segments are more mundane. We see him shopping at a thrift store with his family, while Key explains that he can’t wear stripes or patterns, that jackets have to fit him well, shoes have to be black, and so on. We see that his adoptive sister takes him everywhere. So and Key also meet with a social media manager, who explains how they could make money with Instagram, and So’s biggest goal is to partner with Purina so he can get free cat food. In this dual emphasis on the personal and professional, Mandelup takes full advantage of the divergent lives of So and other competitors in order to put the sheer improbability of the whole professional chess world on display. Grandmasters is at its best, then, when these two spheres of drama dovetail. At one point, after beating So, Carlsen quips, “Unfortunately, whatever god Wesley believes in did not help him in that second game.”
Also quite telling is the fact that there aren’t any female chess players featured. It’s true that they are more rare than the men, and even Buettner’s league doesn’t have any women, but the total exclusion from Mandelup seems intentional. The only women featured in Grandmasters are those who are partners or family or employees of the film’s men. With this simple decision, Mandelup places a Sharpie double-underline to the world of professional chess, and makes the self-centered, ego-driven nature of everything and everyone on display all the more acute.
If this all amounts to a rich and surprisingly dramatic portrait of the chess world in 2026, what ties it all together is Mandelup’s insistence that the people here sit with and even confront the ludicrous nature of what’s happening. Buettner created his freestyle chess league with Magnus as the face and keystone, but a few years in, when Magnus isn’t supporting it how he wants, he has to admit that he should be focusing on the future of chess, not just what’s popular right now. It’s moments like this that make the three-hour film so eminently watchable, even for those who couldn’t tell you the layout of a chessboard. These basic human moments of defeat — sometimes even in victory — shown here so effectively, are what truly drive the film. Which means, near the end of Grandmasters, one finds themself not really rooting for anyone; after all, your choices basically boil down to a handful of narcissistic manchildren. But rather than dwelling on these figureheads of male fragility, Mandelup wraps up the film with So, who is learning to drive, and bagging groceries at the local store. It’s an apt reminder of timeworn truth: fame, power, and money never bring you the satisfaction you want. Sometimes, for some people, all it takes is being able to buy food for your cat.
DIRECTOR: Liza Mandelup; CAST: Magnus Carlsen, Jan Henric Buettner, Wesley So, Hans Niemann; DISTRIBUTOR: Good Deed Entertainment; IN THEATERS: October 11; RUNTIME: 2 hr. 50 min.
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