'Cool' & popular: How chess became a content machine

A couple of days ago, Paris St. Germain (PSG) tweeted a photo of D Gukesh, a very rare crossover between the world champion and an elite football club, to their 5.2 mn followers. It was a reaction of the Indian teen immediately after Magnus Carlsen had resigned during their Norway Chess encounter.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

The French club had tweeted Gukesh's expression with the caption: "What it felt like winning our first UCL." At the time of writing, it had 427 replies, 7.3k reposts, 141k likes and 2.8mn engagements.

A week or so before that, Carlsen, after he beat Gukesh on the opening day of Norway Chess, shared a quote from The Wire, the hit US TV series, on his own X account. "You come at the King," it said, "you best not miss." At the time of writing, it had 1.1k replies, 1.5k reposts, 9.9k likes and 1.6mn engagements.

To a lot of people, chess remains a very serious pursuit. But it's also at odds with how the game, over the last few years at least, has become 'cool'. It's snackable, memeable and there's content to be had in a lot of ways. You open Insta and there's a chess influencer giving you a breakdown on how to do a Fool's Mate (one of the quickest ways to checkmate).