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

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. 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.