<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="8cedf95b8cfd26e0ee026702d1fa142a58a1c612"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/8cedf95b8cfd26e0ee026702d1fa142a58a1c612/583_0_5000_4000/1000.jpg" alt="Magnus Carlsen" width="1000" height="800" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Magnus Carlsen never reached a rating higher than 2889 before hitting 2909 in the latest Freestyle rating list. Photograph: Seshadri Sukumar/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock </figcaption> </figure>

For years the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, tried to achieve a 2900 classical rating but he always peaked 10-20 points short of the round figure. The Norwegian, 34, had a personal best of 2889, achieved in 2014. That was 33 points ahead of Garry Kasparov’s highest figure and 100 ahead of Bobby Fischer. Carlsen made later attempts but could never get past the 2880s, while the numbers had an eerie similarity to the 28,000s and 29,000s at the top of Everest where George Mallory and Andrew Irvine perished in 1924. In the new <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/magnus-carlsen-hits-2900-as-new-freestyle-chess-ratings-are-published">Freestyle rating list</a> Carlsen at 2909 is nearly 100 points ahead of Hikaru Nakamura in second place, with his performance boosted by his perfect 9/9 at Grenke Karlsruhe. In contrast, the Fide world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, ranks a lowly 26th with 2701 points. Carlsen will hope to maintain his new rating next month when the third leg (of five) of the Freestyle $3.75m Grand Slam takes place on 16-20 July at Wynn Las Vegas. The field of 16 will include most of the usual top names but there will be particular interest in one who could turn out a party pooper. Hans Niemann, the 22-year-old whose game with Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup led to a $100m lawsuit, was invited to the Paris leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam but withdrew for undisclosed personal reasons. Now, having turned down the easy entrance, Niemann has got in by a much harder route, qualifying for the Las Vegas leg by winning a 16-player knockout where he defeated four top-class opponents, including the former world classical champion Ding Liren. Niemann has also shown significantly improved results in <a href="https://www.chess.com/">chess.com</a>’s Titled Tuesday, where, in recent weeks, his performances have matched those of Carlsen and Nakamura. Chess in the past five years has enjoyed powerful boosts. Netflix’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/nov/26/the-queens-gambit-netflix-most-watched-series-hit-chess">The Queen’s Gambit</a> and its heroine, Beth Harman, were a viewing success, the Niemann v Carlsen lawsuit was widely publicised, Carlsen’s personality is popular, while the leading chess site, chess.com, has millions of blitz games played every day and <a href="https://lichess.org/">lichess.org</a> is also very successful. As a consequence, the incomes of the top 10 or 20 grandmasters have soared from events like the St Louis organised Grand Chess Tour and the $3.75m Freestyle Grand Slam. This year, for the first time, the Esports World Cup, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will include chess (10-minute games without any per-move increment and a $1.5m prize pool). In 2026 Fide’s $2m official world championship series will resume centre stage, as India’s Gukesh defends his crown against the winner of the eight-player Candidates. Meanwhile, back in Britain, participation remains high but financial returns do not match the stellar numbers. A new survey from chess.com reveals that its UK online membership has reached an astonishing 8.9 million players, behind only the US (43.9 million) and India (20.4 million). This stratospheric figure is 600 times that for the membership of the English Chess Federation, which in 2023 was officially 14,567. Worse for the ECF, the £500,000 government grant for elite chess, which Rishi Sunak introduced in 2023, was axed completely as part of the Treasury’s departmental cuts at the end of April 2025. One consequence of this is that the rewards for playing success in Britain do not compare with the massive amounts on offer in world events. Next month’s English Championship in Warwick (18-21 July) offers £2,000-£1,250-£750 for its top three, while the week-long British Championship in Liverpool from 31 July to 9 August has £5,000-£2,500-£1,500. The highest ever British Championship first prize was £10,000 at Llandudno in 2017. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/20/star-studded-wr-chess-repeat-world-blitz-title-amid-controversy-in-london">Star-studded WR Chess repeat World Blitz title amid controversy in London</a> </aside> There is an obvious event which could make a big difference, and ought to tempt some of the millions of UK residents who play exclusively online blitz on chess.com to try a day of over-the-board blitz chess as well. This is the UK open blitz championship, which was launched in 2018 and is now in its sixth year. Full details for the tournament can be found <a href="https://www.englishchess.org.uk/uk-open-blitz-championships-2025/">here</a>. The UK blitz championship uses a three minutes per game plus a two-second per move increment, which is also the most normal time control for chess.com blitz games. The championship will have 16 one-day regional qualifying tournaments in August and September, followed by a one-day final at Leamington Spa on 22 November. The one-day qualifiers will be in London (three events at Golders Green, Hampton, and Harrow) Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. Many masters and grandmasters are expected to take part. The total prize fund will be in excess of £10,000. To enter any of the qualifiers, click <a href="https://britchess.wufoo.com/forms/2025-uk-open-blitz-championships/">here</a>. 3978: It’s mate in six by 1 Rg6+! fxg6 2 Rxg6+ Kh7 3 Rg2+! Kh6 4 Qe3+! Bf4 5 Qxf4+ Kh5 6 Qxg5 mate.

The world No 1 abandoned his attempts to reach the round number at classical chess in 2023, but achieved it this week on the first Freestyle rating list

Chess: Carlsen finally achieves 2900 rating as Niemann aims to be Las Vegas party pooper

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="d164fcf7b8ad95579ea0f90239526538e6cf6f07"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/d164fcf7b8ad95579ea0f90239526538e6cf6f07/0_0_5914_3943/1000.jpg" alt="Magnus Carlsen (left) against Gukesh Dommaraju" width="1000" height="667" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Magnus Carlsen (left) in his opening round encounter against Gukesh Dommaraju. Photograph: Carina Johansen/AP </figcaption> </figure>

Magnus Carlsen arrived in vintage form at the start of the Norway Chess tournament. The encounter began inconclusively with the six stars – in ranking order Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh Dommaraju and Wei Yi – all launching a win or two. Gukesh, who celebrated his 19th birthday on Thursday, won in round three against Nakamura. Carlsen’s version of one of Bobby Fischer’s favourite openings set the tone last week for another clean sweep of the No 1 of the global elite. Carlsen’s comprehensive victory in the <a href="http://chess.com/">chess.com</a> Speed Championship, which this year also acted as a qualifier for the Esports World Cup, included mini-match victories over three important rivals. His win against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was a rare venture into a classical Sicilian Defence with Bc4, like Fischer used to play in his pomp. The individual twists were 6 h3 and 14 Ba4!, but the offbeat strategy was classic Bobby, with a brutal attack against Black’s light squares. White: Carlsen. Black: Vachier-Lagrave. Opening: Sicilian Defence. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 h3 Nc6 5 d4 cxd4 6 Nxd4 e5 7 Nf3 h6 8 Bc4 Be6 9 Bb3 Be7 10 0-0 0-0 11 Re1 Rc8 12 Nd5 Bxd5 13 exd5 Na5 14 Ba4! Improving on an earlier Carlsen game where 14 c3 was fine for Black. 14…Nd7 15 c3 f5 16 Bc2 Qb6 17 Rb1 Rf7 18 a4 Qc7 19 g4! Opening up the king’s side 19…fxg4 20 hxg4 Rcf8 21 Qd3! Rxf3 22 Qh7+ Kf7 23 Bg6+ Kf6 24 Bh5! 1-0 After four rounds of the 12 in the double-round Stavanger tournament, Carlsen (Norway) leads with 8pts over Caruana (US) with 7, then Nakamura (US) on 5.5, Erigaisi and Gukesh (India) both on 4.5 and Wei (China) on 4. Norway’s special scoring system is three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a replay loss. Draws are played under Armageddon rules which allow for replayed games. After two frustrating days where his skills were tested, Carlsen finally got back on track with his second win of the event, a hard-fought marathon against Erigaisi which was technically easier than it looked. Carlsen’s king gradually infiltrated into the central squares to support the Norwegian’s passed pawn in a queen and pawn ending. Queen and pawn against queen would probably be the epitome of Carlsen’s trademark grinding style. After Friday’s rest day, the top pairing for the tournament on Saturday will be Caruana v Carlsen, a 2018 world title rematch and also a meeting of the top two at Stavanger. The England and British Championships, World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships are all coming up in the next few weeks, so it will be an important time for young English talents. The soundest approach is the most stable: to aim for consistent results and high percentages rather than conjuring up dreams of instant glory. A 2300 rating is one of the most reliable landmarks displaying how a player acts under pressure and whether he or she can handle constant competition. 3974 1 Qb3+! and 2 c4! surprisingly traps Black’s queen. • This article was amended on 30 May 2025. An earlier version featured several errors in the chess puzzle, which affected all of the question, solution and the chessboard graphic itself. On the board, the Black rook on a6 was erroneously replaced by a Black knight, while g7 was originally blank and should have featured a Black bishop. The h2 White pawn should have been on h3. The year the game in question took place is 2015 rather than the earlier stated 2016. An erroneous reference to White’s queen was also amended in the solution – this should have been Black’s queen.

Home hope leads after four rounds at Stavanger following his comprehensive victory in the chess.com Speed Championship

Magnus Carlsen sets early pace as stars collide at Norway Chess

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="b6d207f1c6d15ba73b1db42ac7d1bff6c98c082f"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/b6d207f1c6d15ba73b1db42ac7d1bff6c98c082f/266_0_4245_3395/1000.jpg" alt="Shot of the Saudi Arabia lineup pregame, taken from behind the Saudi flag." width="1000" height="800" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Saudi Arabia has won only twice in eight games in the current round of World Cup qualifying. Photograph: Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters </figcaption> </figure>

Last month, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) held an official draw in Miami, Florida for the 2025 Gold Cup, the premier biennial tournament for men’s football on the continent. This summer, the Gold Cup will serve as the crucial litmus test for the US national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the vast majority of which will take place on home soil. The draw placed the Americans in Group D, alongside Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago … and Saudi Arabia. Why is a Middle Eastern country on the Asian continent in a regional competition half a world away? The answer lies in some of the strange twists that world football tends to take. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/dec/10/saudi-arabias-road-to-becoming-a-football-superpower-and-presumptive-world-cup-hosts">Saudi Arabia’s journey from 90s novelty to World Cup power grab</a> </aside> The Kingdom is Concacaf’s official “invited guest” of the tournament, continuing a tradition that started early in the tournament’s founding, during which time the likes of Brazil, South Korea, and South Africa were among the guest nations to take part. The practice was abandoned in the early-00’s, but was restarted in the 2021 edition when Qatar, another authoritarian gulf state, was invited to take part the year before the nation hosted the World Cup. They returned for the 2023 edition, as well. Concacaf announced Saudi Arabia as the guest participant just eight days after the Kingdom secured the 2034 World Cup in December 2024. “We are very pleased that through our relationship with the Asian Football Confederation we have been able to collaborate with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and their President Yasser Al-Misehal, both on and off the pitch,” Concacaf president Victor Montagliani said in the official press release. “We look forward to welcoming one of Asia’s top men’s national teams to compete with the best in Concacaf.” The top three teams in the Gold Cup – the US, Canada, and Mexico – are already qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup as co-hosts. What they needed were serious opponents in a competitive setting. Instead, they got Saudi Arabia–a team currently struggling in its own World Cup qualification campaign – granted a spot not on merit, but seemingly in exchange for a hefty financial contribution to Concacaf. Excluded from the press release announcing Saudi Arabia’s Gold Cup participation is Concacaf’s partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – the state-owned sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The injection of funds from the PIF is expected to boost soccer development in the region, with more tournaments for men, women, and youth participants. “Together, we will advance a series of initiatives to create a positive and lasting impact across all Concacaf competitions,” Mohammed AlSayyad, head of corporate brand at PIF,<a href="https://www.sportspro.com/news/concacaf-saudi-arabia-pif-soccer-investment-partnership/"> said at the time</a>. It’s not the first and will hardly be the Saudi regime’s last effort to turn the entire world of sports to its advantage. Over the past few years, the PIF has reshaped global sports through aggressive investments and strategic acquisitions aimed at bolstering the kingdom’s global influence and soft power. From acquiring top-tier soccer clubs like Newcastle United to ambitious plans in boxing, golf, and esports, the PIF has enabled the Saudi regime to exploit sports as a diplomatic and economic tool, while raising concerns about conflicts of interest, governance, and the growing authoritarian grip on world sports. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/apr/15/world-cup-expansion-64-teams-proposal">Concacaf president opposes plans for 64-team Fifa World Cup in 2030</a> </aside> Concacaf’s deal with PIF notably comes after the confederation designated Aramco, the Saudi state-run oil company, as the “official energy partner” for all of CONCACAF’s national team and club competitions. The confederation then announced that Riyadh Air would be the “official airline partner” in a multi-year deal. The PIF-owned airline, which is also a shirt sponsor of La Liga side Atlético Madrid, is yet to officially launch. The U.S. government has also shown concerns for the PIF’s dealings in the United States. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has been investigating how the Saudi state is using its sovereign wealth fund to buy influence in the US, including its ongoing bid to create a merger between the Saudi-owned LIV Golf league and the PGA Tour. In an attempt to hinder the investigation, however, the PIF has filed lawsuits in Saudi Arabia seeking to block four PIF consultants, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey &amp; Company, M. Klein &amp; Company, and Teneo–all headquartered in the United States–from responding to subpoenas issued by the subcommittee. In April, Blumenthal<a href="https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/senate-permanent-subcommittee-on-investigations-releases-final-minority-staff-report-in-foreign-influence-probe"> released a new report</a> on his findings into the 2023 framework agreement between the PGA Tour and the PIF, alleging that the PIF only tried to negotiate with the PGA Tour in order to avoid discovery. “Our report reveals how present laws may enable foreign influence without transparency,” Bluemnthal<a href="https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/senate-permanent-subcommittee-on-investigations-releases-final-minority-staff-report-in-foreign-influence-probe"> said</a>. “Very simply, our present defenses do not protect against increasingly sophisticated threats.” Blumenthal’s report lands as the Trump administration actively undermines the US government’s capacity to combat foreign influence, scaling back enforcement of things like the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and hollowing out the very departments tasked with investigating foreign influence efforts. It’s a vulnerability the Saudi government is well positioned to exploit, particularly through PIF’s expanding footprint in global sports. By weaponizing sports as part of its national strategy, the Kingdom is deepening its influence in North America, bolstering its global image ahead of the 2034 World Cup, and dismantling scrutiny over its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/08/rights-activists-urge-un-reject-abusive-bid-saudi-arabia-bid-join-human-rights-council">human rights record</a>, one critic at a time – the soft power equivalent of a perfectly timed goal. Saudi Arabia’s participation in the Gold Cup isn’t just about football. It’s a calculated strategy rooted in geopolitical maneuvering and influence management. The Gold Cup is merely the latest arena in which the Kingdom is flexing its growing influence. <ul> <li>Karim Zidan is the Sports &amp; Dictators fellow for the Human Rights Foundation. He also <a href="https://www.sportspolitika.news/">writes a regular newsletter</a> on the intersection of sports and authoritarian politics.</li> </ul>

The Middle Easterners come Stateside this summer for a regional tournament appearance enabled by sportswashing

Why is Saudi Arabia at the Gold Cup? It’s the latest in the Kingdom’s soft power campaign | Karim Zidan

<figure class="element element-image element--showcase" data-media-id="53ff995546717fc8b0256c1654da56a8efcbd242"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/53ff995546717fc8b0256c1654da56a8efcbd242/127_0_2813_1688/1000.jpg" alt="Full of gut-busting laughs … Hazbin Hotel." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Full of gut-busting laughs … Hazbin Hotel. Photograph: Courtesy of Prime Video </figcaption> </figure>

<h2>Hazbin Hotel</h2> Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, made by the same team, are as funny as anything on mainstream TV. Despite being animated, Hazbin Hotel is very much a show for adults, with both the comedy and plot lines often very not-safe-for-work. It has queer-friendly, gut-busting laughs, with surprisingly moving storylines and songs Lin Manuel-Miranda would be jealous of. The great strength of this being a YouTube show is that it would be extremely hard to pitch to a network. As they control their own content, creators can push the humour and actually build story around compelling (but risque) issues around sex, gender and identity. The show is essentially set in a version of hell. Hazbin Hotel focuses on the daughter of Satan trying to run a hotel for demons with the aim of rehabilitating them so they can get to heaven. It’s extremely irreverent, silly and subtle – a rousing story of someone coming into their own. Will Green, 35, London <h2>Bangmouth Village</h2> It’s hard to think of a soap opera that’s also unmissable prestige viewing. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Bangmouth">Bangmouth Village</a> is neither. I found this ingenious and genuinely funny new show via TikTok clips, and immediately binged the three exquisite episodes to date. Here’s hoping for more. It has everything from devastating twists to realistic phone conversations to a true antihero of our time in Billy Bangmouth (portrayed by writer and director Christopher Bliss), who we know has been in prison because he tells us. Bliss also shares insights into his writing process on TikTok which are worth a watch. But please, please don’t be tempted to play “sticky bonnet” in real life. Rob, 42, Devon <h2>Puppet History</h2> I think when you stop being a child, history becomes dry and serious, so I love having a show like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8rSRNukjnn6R_uKzQZ5LQIwOjvBoyN3I">Puppet History</a>, which feels like Horrible Histories – but for grownups. Every week they cover an event from history that’s either mildly bonkers like “Lisztomania” (the fan frenzy that surrounded Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in the 19th century) or someone you might not have heard of like Ching Shih, a pirate queen from China. They’ve always gone out of their way to shine a light on interesting bits of history that aren’t often discussed, particularly when it comes to women and Africa. It’s such a funny show and the Professor is my hero. Plus, each episode ends with an annoyingly catchy song! I would really recommend it as a historical version of the Muppets. Sabrina, Newcastle <h2>Video Game High School</h2> My favourite YouTube show has got to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsMtUWKCmBPRFzqglpk4YQlNFy8wzSXBN">Video Game High School</a>, brilliantly produced by Freddie Wong and RocketJump Studios. The series is set in a world where video games and esports are treated with the same seriousness and passion as traditional sports, following students at a high school dedicated entirely to gaming. Thanks to its crowdfunding success, VGHS had an impressive budget, which meant the action scenes were shot with exhilarating cinematic flair. At the time, this was genuinely groundbreaking for a YouTube show. But beyond the action, what made VGHS truly special was the character development driven by great acting performances. Was it cheesy sometimes? Absolutely, but in exactly the way that all high school shows are. VGHS represented a fresh era of content that was different, engaging, fundamentally nerdy and perfectly captured YouTube at its creative height. Amen Tesfay, 25, London <h2>Jet Lag: the Game</h2> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/jetlagthegame">Jet Lag: the Game</a> is a fantastic series of games played using geography and public transport. Previous examples include country-wide games of hide and seek, tag across Europe and races to claim as many states or countries in a region as possible. While it’s greatly enjoyable to see games unfold, it also functions well as a travel show showcasing quieter, more obscure locations and a solid manifesto for good public transport infrastructure. John Son, 29, Glasgow <h2>The Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the World</h2> My favourite YouTube TV show is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEzN-y0ZMgpu05ErUmW6KOXD-78ODzGRw">The Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the World</a> (MUGG) on the Grouse House channel. I recommend it to anyone who loves a healthy dose of cracked Aussie alternative comedy. It’s the highlight of my Monday evening when they upload new episodes. It gets me cackling like nothing else, and it’s a great next show for anyone new to the Aunty Donna-verse. The goal of the MUGG is for the party host to guess each guest’s “quirks”, but at the start of each episode the MC and the guests make all of the quirks as unhinged and unguessable as possible. As a result, things often go off the rails in hilarious ways. Each episode is intercut with talking head interviews where the players share their emotional states and try to explain what they were thinking as they tried to guess the unguessable. Silas Vriend, 29, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada <h2>Good Mythical Morning</h2> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/goodmythicalmorning">Good Mythical Morning</a> is a weekday breakfast show which comes out at about 11am in the UK. I started watching it during the pandemic. The mix of humour, food and interesting facts really appealed to me. In some ways it reminds me of morning TV back in the 90s. It is hosted by Rhett and Link who describe themselves as “internetainers”. It is funny, silly and mostly about food. There are a lot of spin-off shows including Last Meals, which is a chatshow like the Off Menu podcast but if they made the meals, hosted by Mythical chef Josh. Mim Gale, Leighton Buzzard <h2>Soft White Underbelly</h2> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/SoftWhiteUnderbelly">Soft White Underbelly</a> videos are documentaries that take a hard look at what abuse, neglect, drugs and untreated mental illness have done to so many Americans. It shows they are people and their lives have value. It’s tragic and heartbreaking because we can do better by them. Christy, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA <h2>UNHhhh</h2> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhgFEi9aNUb2BNrIEecCGXApgeX7Yjwz8">UNHhhh</a>’s premise is simple: two drag queens, Trixie and Katya, sit on bar stools in front of a green screen and deviate wildly from the topic they’re given to discuss. It’s a hilarious mix of observation, personal anecdotes and surreal editing that’s all done in under quarter of an hour. The first time I saw it back in 2021, I had no idea what was going on. It was such a fever dream. But I tried another episode, then another. The improvised introductions that lead to their signature “Because it’s our show, and not yours” are unpredictable, but the show itself is one of those reliable things I can reach for whenever I need to laugh. Call me basic for recommending this one, but episode 119, “Gurl, You Gay”, has 11m views for good reason. Mary, Northumberland <h2>PBS Space Time</h2> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime">PBS Space Time</a> is an educational show focusing mostly on space science but also delving into particle and quantum physics. The host Dr Matt O’Dowd does an excellent job at explaining very complicated subjects in ways that make them approachable. While some equations are covered, they are explained in a way that doesn’t make them impossible to understand if you’re not particularly gifted when it comes to maths. Mostly, however, the topics are discussed in a way that explains what is happening without you needing to understand the mathematical reasons behind it. All of this is combined with excellent visualisations that really pull the whole show together. If you’re interested in space and like to learn, I would highly recommend this show as an excellent way to enhance your understanding of space time. Callum, 32, Blandford St Mary

From a very-not-safe-for-work cartoon to a drag queen fever dream and a puppet show that’s like Horrible Histories for grownups – networks wouldn’t dare air these online hits

‘It gets me cackling like nothing else!’ Your favourite YouTube TV shows

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="aa9a26ef378a474ea0f2c0c1f232d4ae6bea164c"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/aa9a26ef378a474ea0f2c0c1f232d4ae6bea164c/116_677_3689_2213/1000.jpg" alt="Magnus Carlsen in action" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Magnus Carlsen has won the Champions Tour every year since it was launched in 2020 and has again retained his title. Photograph: Misha Friedman/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Magnus Carlsen’s dominance of online chess has continued this week as the world No 1 defeated Hikaru Nakamura in two matches to retain the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the annual Champions Tour which the Norwegian has won every year since it was launched in 2020. For 2025, the tour is also a qualifier for the Esports World Cup at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July-August, where the chess prize fund will be $1.5m. Carlsen began with a smooth 3-1 victory <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/cct-chessable-masters-2025--playoffs-winners/round-of-16--game-1/mda5Qqqy/KUUhEZ8W">against Russia’s Andrey Esipenko</a>, then defeated China’s Yu Yangyi by 2.5-0.5. He was leading 2-1 in his semi-final against India’s world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, when they reached white king at f8, white rook at g7 and white pawn at g5 against black king at f5 and black bishop at c4. Now 1 g6 Kf6 2 Rc7! attacking the bishop and following up with 3 g7 wins, but Carlsen missed it, only drew with rook against bishop, allowed Erigaisi to equalise at 2-2, and was also losing their Armageddon tie-break game as Black before escaping with a draw by threefold repetition of position. A draw counts as a win for Black under Armageddon scoring rules. On to the final against his old rival and current world No 2, Hikaru Nakamura, and Carlsen’s endgame skills again wobbled. He won the first game and was well ahead in the second, until <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/cct-chessable-masters-2025--playoffs-winners/final--game-2/4W76llrx/HQLELfH5">a shocking blunder</a> at move 89 which allowed the American to reach the textbook draw of king against rook pawn and wrong coloured bishop, where the bishop does not control the pawn’s queening square and the game is halved by stalemate. Carlsen obviously knows the bishop and rook pawn rule, so how did this happen? The clue is in the time control, which for this online Champions Tour and for the Esports World Cup is 10 minutes per player per game, crucially without a per move increment. This time control, designed to make the game more exciting for spectators, led to some chaotic scenes at last year’s Global Chess League matches, where it was used for over-the-board games. Knocked over pieces, illegal clock pressing and banging down moves were frequent until the arbiters belatedly stiffened their interpretation of the rules. In the Nakamura v Carlsen online game, they were down to less than 20 seconds each before flagfall when Carlsen blundered by 89…Kxe4?? The most plausible explanation is that the oversight was a pre-move. It also follows that Nakamura’s 90 g5!? which with a normal play would accelerate defeat, may have been a brilliant split second trap, accurately anticipating his opponent’s thought process. In the end, it made no difference, as Nakamura lost to Carlsen 0.5-2.5. A round earlier, the popular streamer had eliminated Alireza Firouzja 3-2 in Armageddon with a coup which the commentator called “one of the nicest moves I’ve ever seen”. Carlsen and Nakamura met again on Friday after the American qualified for a rematch, but Carlsen’s dominance was again clear. He <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/cct-chessable-masters-2025--playoffs-winners/grand-final--game-1">won the first game convincingly</a> as White in 41 moves as his far advanced a7 pawn tied down Nakamura’s pieces, then drew the second comfortably as Black. <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/cct-chessable-masters-2025--playoffs-winners/grand-final--game-3/tBmxfFxg/rh6oVava">Game three </a>took only 10 moves for an early draw by threefold repetition of position as Nakamura made a tactical decision to stake all on his final White. It failed, as Carlsen’s pieces controlled the board and Nakamura had to settle for another repetition. Carlsen 2.5, Nakamura 1.5.. England’s over-50s and over-65s are both seeded No2 at Prague this week in the World Senior Team Championship, which has a record entry of more than 100. After five of the nine rounds, England 65+ share the lead on 9/10 match points with Israel, who they will meet in Sunday’s sixth round (2pm start, all games live with computer assessments on lichess). Four other teams, including England 2, are on 8/10. England 50+ lost 1.5-2.5 to Italy in round four, and now share fourth place on 8/10, behind the joint leaders Kazakhstan, Slovakia, and Italy on 9/10. England will meet Iceland, also with 8/10, in round six. These are close run races in both events, and could go down to the wire in next Wednesday’s final rounds. In England v Denmark 50+ the eight-time British champion Michael Adams <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/world-senior-team-chess-championship--open-50/round-2/vpqcIYXs/34ev17YA">outplayed the chess author Jacob Aagaard</a>, gradually setting up the white king for a winning counter. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/14/chess-vincent-keymer-knocks-out-magnus-carlsen-in-freestyle-grand-slam">Chess: Vincent Keymer knocks out Magnus Carlsen in Freestyle Grand Slam</a> </aside> The future for England’s senior teams is uncertain beyond 2025, due to the withdrawal of the DCMS £500,000 grant for elite chess. This valuable government support had financed high class achievements in the past two years, notably in women’s and junior chess, and had created hopes of emulating the 1980s, when England was the No 2 chess nation after the Soviet Union. Manx Liberty, the Isle of Man-based team and 2023 champions, are strong favourites to regain the 4NCL British League title after their rivals, Wood Green, lost last weekend. Leaders after six of the 11 rounds are Manx 12/12, Wood Green 10, Cheddleton Savills Catering 9, Wood Green Youth 8. A feature of Cheddleton’s victory was a <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/4ncl-2024-2025--division-1/round-6/LsofAzR6/c83xx3Ud">mature attacking win</a> by Max Pert, 14, whose father, Richard, and sister Nina were also on the team, against Wood Green’s IM James Jackson. A critical turning point was 17 h5? d4! which gave the Brentwood School pupil central control and allowed the later 22…Qd5! attacking a2 and f3, enabling the black queen to rampage among White’s weak pawns. At the end after 41…d3 42 Rf2 Rh1+! forces mate. After six of the nine rounds in the Wightlink International, which ends at Ryde on Sunday, the top seeded Bobby Cheng (Australia), rated 2594, led on 5.5/6, half a point ahead of Boris Chatalbashev (Bulgaria), Vojtech Plat (Czech Republic), Matthew Wadsworth and Stanley Badacsonyi (both England) 5/6. The North London schoolboy Badacsonyi, 15, is in contention for his first international master norm. Wadsworth won <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/wightlink-isle-of-wight--international-masters/round-2/5vN9oluu/JcOfcBAV">a 15-move miniature</a> in round two. 3960: 1…Rxc4! 2 Rxc4 Nh3+ 3 Kh1 Nxf2+! 4 Rxf2 Qd1+ and mates. The 2025 British Rapidplay is still open to entry <a href="https://www.4ncl.co.uk/rp/2025/information.htm">here</a>. Firouzja v Nakamura: 1…Qh4! and if 2 Qxh4 Bxf3 mate. The game ended 2 Kg2 Qxf4 and White resigned a bishop down.

The Norwegian world No 1 beat Hikaru Nakamura twice at the Chessable Masters despite endgame lapses

Chess: Carlsen wins again as he qualifies for the $1.5m Saudi Esports World Cup

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="b0f9211dc346f6a085e6791b7f7ed9fcd0472733"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/b0f9211dc346f6a085e6791b7f7ed9fcd0472733/0_65_5134_3081/1000.jpg" alt="Courting the nerds … Musk." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Courting the nerds … Musk. Photograph: Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Last year on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk claimed to be one of the world’s best Diablo IV players – and surprisingly, the leaderboards backed him up. For those that haven’t had the pleasure, Diablo is one of the most mercilessly time-intensive video games out there; you build a character and carve through armies of demons, spending hundreds of hours refining skills and equipment for maximum hellspawn-cleansing efficiency. I played it for maybe five hours last year and immediately quit, for fear that it would consume my life. Most of the people who play it are young, often male, and have plenty of time to themselves to spend on the internet and playing games – so, the exact demographic of many Musk stans. It suited these hardcore gamer guys to believe that someone who tweets all day and runs several businesses was also an elite player who poured hundreds of hours into Diablo. This made him relatable. It fed into his preferred image of being the hardest-working man alive. But then Elon made the mistake of actually playing a game live on X, and it became clear very quickly that something was amiss. It seems Elon Musk might be a fake gamer. On 7 January, Musk played Path of Exile 2, a very Diablo-like hack-and-slash game that came out towards the end of last year. His character was extremely well-equipped; suspiciously so. Viewers noted that he had better gear than some of the professional streamers who play this game all day every day, and he didn’t seem to know what their stats meant. I have not played Path of Exile 2 and so I can’t independently assess these claims – unlike Musk, apparently, I am quite happy to admit when I’m not an expert on a particular game – but within a few hours the many inconsistencies in his play and commentary were laid out exactingly <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1hwxc17/documenting_the_saga_of_elon_musks_account/">on Reddit</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_o1dzWKvM&amp;ab_channel=Empyriangaming">in YouTube videos</a>. (He also posted a suspiciously rubbish <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1528955104463814656">Elden Ring build</a> back in 2022, which was dredged up as further evidence.) Evidently Musk forgot that we nerds are known for our attention to detail. The implication is that Elon Musk is paying other people (most probably in China) to play these games for him, on his account, to make him look far more accomplished than he is. This practice is known as boosting, and it’s deeply embarrassing. This has enraged the exact people that Musk has been trying to court with his gamer shtick. Asmongold, a successful streamer and YouTuber who is himself very popular with right-leaning young men, called Musk out on it. He responded by accusing Asmongold of being “not his own man”, beholden to his “bosses”, posting a screenshot of their DMs as proof – proving that Musk also doesn’t understand how YouTube works, because in those DMs Asmongold talks about the video editors who chop up clips for him, and they are definitely not his bosses. The feud, hilariously, is ongoing. Over the weekend the musician Grimes, who has three children with Musk, <a href="https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1880685503009443921">tweeted</a> in his defence. “Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first american druid in diablo to clear abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA,” she wrote, definitely of her own free will. “I did observe these things with my own eyes. There are other witnesses who can verify this. That is all.” Her next tweet sounded rather more heartfelt: “sigh.” There is no shame in being bad at video games. I honestly believe that most people are, by the standards of the internet, bad at video games. The shame is in being bad at video games and pretending otherwise. You cannot claim to be an elite gamer without putting in the work. It amazes me that, at some point, appropriating nerd credibility became a thing. When I was growing up, there was absolutely zero value in being good at games (most unfortunately for me, a young Mario Kart and GoldenEye 007 prodigy). Not one of my university friends offered to buy me a pint when I completed Dark Souls. Now, though, there’s respect and credibility on the table for people who are talented gamers. You can make a good living out of it, on YouTube or Twitch or the esports circuit. Apparently being good at games earns you so much respect now that the richest man in the world might believe it’s worth his while to fake it. The true irony here is that Musk stands accused of doing exactly what toxic nerds have been accusing women of doing for decades. Let’s say you’re playing a first-person shooter online and you get anywhere near the top of the leaderboard: an aggrieved man in the voice chat might accuse you of letting your boyfriend play for you. Women writing about video games in any capacity have to deal with comments threads asserting that, actually, you know nothing about them, and you’re faking it. Women who play games on Twitch are constantly told that they’re doing it for attention (please, guys, nobody wants your attention). This very gendered condescension used to enrage me so much when I was a teenager that I made a point of becoming extremely good at the games I played, because I so deeply relished the looks on the faces of the boys who told me I didn’t belong when I would hand them their asses at Halo. I am far too old for that now, and too time-poor, but happily there now exist entire TikTok and Twitch accounts dedicated to this: women who are excellent at male-dominated games such as Call of Duty, obliterating men who shit-talk them in the lobby. I would pay so much money to see one of these women in a live match against Elon Musk. In his endless X stream of bad jokes, grievances and cringe memes, Musk has tweeted a lot about “DEI” in games, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/mar/08/gamergate-trolls-woke-game-consultants">manufactured controversy</a> that the left has infiltrated sacred gaming spaces in order to ruin them with woke. This rhetoric is designed to court the kind of people that were taken in by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/01/gamergate-alt-right-hate-trump">Gamergate</a> many years ago, disaffected young men that former Trump strategist Steve Bannon cleverly recognised were invaluable to his cause back then. What delicious irony that it is not women and minorities pretending to be hardcore gamers in order to manipulate people to their own ends, but, it seems, Musk himself.

Musk desperately wants to appropriate gamer credibility, but he may be faking it – and doing exactly what toxic nerds have been accusing women of doing for decades

Elon Musk stands accused of pretending to be good at video games. The irony is delicious | Keza MacDonald

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="ece5121b6879be32eaa4437f9df46cccb3dafe9e"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/ece5121b6879be32eaa4437f9df46cccb3dafe9e/93_214_2626_1576/1000.jpg" alt="Magnus Carlsen marries Ella Victoria Malone" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, marries Ella Victoria Malone in Oslo. Photograph: Amanda Pedersen Giske/AP </figcaption> </figure>

Magnus Carlsen, the 34-year-old world No&nbsp;1 and candidate for the greatest of all time, <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/ella-victoria-on-magnus-carlsen">married Ella Victoria Mallone</a> last Saturday in Oslo, where the congregation included a film crew from Netflix. The new Mrs Carlsen, 26, was born in Hong Kong to a Norwegian mother and an American father, was educated in the US, the UK and Canada, and has spent several years in Singapore. Carlsen’s stellar chess career, boosted by his controversial shared World Blitz title, is set to resume as early as this weekend, when the Norwegian will lead the newly promoted St Pauli team in the German Bundesliga, the strongest chess league in Europe. St Pauli’s team, which has scored only a single point out of eight from its four matches so far, is preparing a welcome for the No&nbsp;1, who is scheduled to compete against Düsseldorf and Solingen in matches to be played in Hamburg on Saturday and Sunday. Carlsen’s games will be live streamed, with play due to start at 1.15 pm GMT on Saturday, and 9.15am GMT on Sunday. The games can also be followed live <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/german-bundesliga-202425/round-5/m8vOgIzy#boards">on lichess</a>. Solingen’s probable top board is the Netherlands GM Max Warmendam, but the real interest will be in St Pauli v Düsseldorf, whose No&nbsp;1 is India’s classical world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju. It would be the first Carlsen v Gukesh encounter since the 18-year-old defeated Ding Liren for the crown last month. Carlsen is still a reigning world champion, thanks to his agreement with his old rival, Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, to share the World Blitz title on Wall Street with the scores level at 3.5-3.5 during their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/03/chess-jeans-clad-carlsen-defies-critics-to-share-blitz-with-nepomniachtchi">sudden death tie-breaker</a>. Their pact was upheld by Fide’s Russian president, Arkady Dvorkovich, despite the lack of any precedent in chess or in wider sport apart from the Tokyo Olympic Games high jump, whereas reaction from grandmasters and chess fans was mostly critical. The shared title furore will soon die down, but two of Carlsen’s other recent commitments are likely to affect chess in 2025 and beyond. Online qualifiers have taken place this week for the first leg of the five-event $3.75m <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/22/richest-chess-tour-announced-for-2025-as-freestyle-wins-global-appeal">Freestyle Grand Slam</a>, to be staged at Weissenhaus, North Germany, from 7-14 February. Subsequent legs will be staged in Paris in April, New York in July, Delhi in September, and Cape Town in December. In Freestyle, previously known as Fischer Random, Chess 960 and Chess 9LX, the placings of the back rank pieces are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUTZYXX7iTM">drawn randomly</a>, thus eliminating the need to prepare and memorise openings before a game. Nine players, all from the world top 20 and including Carlsen, Gukesh, and the world Nos&nbsp;2 and 3 Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, are seeded for all five tournaments, which are organised by the entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, with $12m backing from sports financiers Left Lane Capital. Carlsen said: “We believe this is a better game than what we’ve been playing in classical chess.” He added that he sees Freestyle as an opportunity to reshape the sport, likening it to “making chess players into race car drivers, with a culture that extends beyond the board”. He forecast “massive potential” for reaching new followers. The 10th player for Weissenhaus was decided by qualifiers this week, in which dozens of strong GMs took part. It was won by Slovenia’s Vladimir Fedoseev, and included a quarter-final game where Hans Niemann allowed Nepomniachtchi to <a href="https://x.com/chess24com/status/1876739831289508055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1876739831289508055%7Ctwgr%5E8a9a900c06d99c8df73afc858af7394515d29239%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chess.com%2Fnews%2Fview%2F2025-freestyle-chess-grand-slam-weissenhaus-play-in-day-2">checkmate him in one</a>. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/09/the-wrong-trousers-how-sporting-dress-codes-can-create-an-image-problem">The wrong trousers: how sporting dress codes can create an image problem | Emma John</a> </aside> The history of Freestyle raises some doubts, suggesting only limited interest by the millions of existing players who are satisfied with the game as it is. St Louis stages an annual Chess 9LX event, in which Garry Kasparov <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/01/chess-garry-kasparov-still-has-it-at-61-as-he-holds-his-own-against-the-us-elite">starred last year.</a> Last month, the Esports World Cup announced that online chess would be included in its programme at Riyadh this year, with Carlsen as the global ambassador. The $1.5m event, a 16-player knockout, is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, and is part of a soft power strategy designed to rebrand the country as a tourism and entertainment source. Carlsen called the Riyadh World Cup “an incredible opportunity to grow the game”. However, Riyadh will have fewer than a tenth of the participant numbers of Fide’s biennial World Cup and Women’s World Cup, The four-day competition will have a time limit of 10 minutes per player per game, with no additional per move increment, which is effectively fast rapid. As with last year’s Global Chess League in London, this means that clock scrambles will decide many results. England’s annual New Year Caplin Hastings Masters will be covered in next week’s column. Meanwhile, enjoy the Hastings tactic in this week’s puzzle. 3954: 1 Qg6! and Black resigned. If 1...fxg6 2 Nxg6 mate. If 1…Qxe5 2 Q or Rxh7+! Nxh7 3 R or Qxh7 mate. If 1...h6 2 Rxh6+! and mates. If 1…Bxh3 2 Nxf7 mate. 1…Qd1+ delays mate, but is hopeless.

The World No 1, who married Ella Victoria Malone last Saturday, will play for St Pauli in the Bundesliga, where he may meet the new classical champion, Gukesh Dommaraju

Chess: newly married Carlsen signs up with Bundesliga, Freestyle and Saudis

<figure class="element element-image element--showcase" data-media-id="39475addce8111382429bd0ee0fa28dce53b69ce"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/39475addce8111382429bd0ee0fa28dce53b69ce/0_399_6016_3611/1000.jpg" alt="A man in headphones, sat in a gaming chair, holds a mobile phone in his hands, his elbows resting on a pillow. Fellow team-mates from esports team Aura 233 are sat beside him" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Kweku Mensah aka Babushka of Ghana’s Aura 233 team at the Carry1st Africa Cup finals in Nairobi on 24 November. Photograph: Edwin Ndeke/The Guardian </figcaption> </figure>

On a recent Sunday afternoon in an upmarket neighbourhood of Nairobi, Daniel Badu was rapidly pressing the screen of his mobile phone, headphones wrapped around his head, his elbows resting on a pillow. Badu and his four teammates in the Aura 233 team, all decked in black-and-yellow kits and representing Ghana, were taking on Kenya’s Delta eSports in the finals of the inaugural Carry1st Africa Cup, a continental tournament for the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Mobile. Esport events are on the rise in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, driven in part by increased access to the internet and devices such as smartphones, PCs and consoles. Popular titles include EA Sports FC, Call of Duty and Tekken. Professional teams, university leagues, national federations and competitions such as the Carry1st Africa Cup have been set up to cater to burgeoning interest. The trend is part of a growing interest in video games in general in Africa, the continent with the youngest population. <a href="https://gamesindustryafrica.com/2021/11/29/gaming-in-sub-saharan-africa-more-than-doubles/">A 2021 report</a> said the number of video game consumers on the continent rose from 77 million to 186 million from 2015-21. Some of those have now transitioned to professional gaming. Badu, better known by his gaming alias Ruin, started playing Call of Duty: Mobile in 2019 after playing console games for years. “I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember,” said the 19-year-old. Badu began his journey to becoming a professional by joining various low-tier teams to gain experience, showcase his skill and get his name out. Last year, he was scouted by Ace Gamers Esports, a professional esports organisation based in Accra, which signed him after a trial. Ace Gamers also recruits, trains and manages players of EA Sports FC, Apex Legends, Mortal Kombat and other games. Badu said being signed has given him a chance to improve his game by playing with people with the same mindset, as well as get access to tournaments. “I’ve been playing the game, grinding the game, and we’ve got it to this point. So, I’m able to compete among the best in Africa,” he said. At the event in Nairobi, a production crew sat behind large monitors, selecting shots for a livestream. One floor below, spectators cheered and shouted while watching the action unfold on TV screens. Six teams made it to the two-day Carry1st Africa Cup finals, which followed seven months of qualifying events in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa involving more than 100 teams, and was eventually won by South Africa’s Noxious Gaming (NxG). “Esports events at a high scale are a great way to synergise the attention of all gamers and also grow the interest of new gamers,” said Dominion Eromosele, senior community manager and events lead at Carry1st, an Africa-wide game publisher headquartered in Cape Town. The organisation has hosted more than 400 tournaments – mostly through universities – since it was founded in 2018. Its online network, Tribe, has attracted hundreds of thousands of gamers from across the continent. Grassroots, national and continental tournaments are becoming an important way to spot talent, sharpen players’ skills and increase the popularity of esports. Other events organised this year include the IESF African Esports Championship, held in Casablanca in August, and the women-only Kongo Esports Championship for Tekken in Kinshasa in November. “Tournaments bring life to the ecosystem,” said Magdaline Mumbi, who represented Kenya at the Kinshasa tournament and came fourth. Mumbi, whose gaming moniker is Bambina, was a casual PlayStation gamer until six years ago when she entered a Tekken tournament at a university event and came second. From that point, she started playing several games competitively while seeking mentors in Kenya’s esports community. She got her breakthrough in 2022 when she was selected to join the national team to play the Dota 2 battle arena game in the Global Esports Games in Turkey. “2022 allowed me to see the bigger picture of what esports looks like,” said Mumbi. “I can actually make money from this.” In order to grow further and compete in the global <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/06/multi-billion-dollar-esports-industry-commonwealth-games">billion-dollar esports industry</a>, the African scene will need to overcome challenges around technology and finances. Underdeveloped internet infrastructure often leads to poor connectivity. And because servers for most games are hosted outside Africa, there are often delays between playing devices and servers – a problem known as “high ping” – which makes intercontinental matches and matches between players in different African countries difficult. “A good amount of esports is rooted in online multiplayer games and Africa doesn’t exactly have the best infrastructure [for this],” said Badu. “[African players] are at a heavy disadvantage.” Carry1st is working to address that. In the past two years, it has partnered with game developers to help launch servers in Africa for Call of Duty: Mobile and the tactical shooter game Valorant. On the financial front, player sponsorships are hard to come by and top, big-money tournaments are few and far between. The total prize pool for the Nairobi tournament was $15,000. “Limited funding and sponsorship is really taking a toll on the scene,” said Mumbi, who is also a chess instructor. Eromosele said: “If we’re able to prove just how entertaining esports is and how many people watch it, people will put money behind it.”

Esports teams, leagues and competitions are flourishing, but poor connectivity and rarity of Africa-based servers are hampering expansion

Esports are booming in Africa – but can its infrastructure keep pace?

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="ec19bfa4cadee8d0833cd6918674ee8d5574f96c"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/ec19bfa4cadee8d0833cd6918674ee8d5574f96c/82_0_2397_1438/1000.jpg" alt="King Fahd Sports City Stadium" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> King Fahd Sports City Stadium is set to host matches in 2034. Photograph: Saudi2034 </figcaption> </figure>

Saudi Arabia has struck more than 900 sponsorship deals across the sporting landscape and made dozens of formalised agreements with football federations as it prepares for a controversial coronation to host the 2034 World Cup. The country’s stranglehold has been <a href="https://www.playthegame.org/projects/saudi-arabia-s-grip-on-world-sport/">laid bare by Play the Game</a>, a Danish-run organisation that aims to promote democracy, transparency and freedom of expression in sport. It maps what its authors describe as Saudi Arabia’s “strategic effort to reshape the Kingdom’s global image while leveraging sport as a tool of geopolitical influence” and underlines how football, in particular, has been targeted in the buildup to the World Cup announcement next week. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/30/fifa-ignores-own-report-into-qatar-world-cup-over-workers-compensation">Fifa ignores own report into Qatar World Cup over workers’ compensation</a> </aside> Over the past two and a half years, Saudi Arabia has sealed more than 35 memorandums of understanding with different countries’ federations, most recently with the Football Association of Ukraine in October. In total it has 48 with individual nations and further agreements with the Oceania Football Confederation and the Confederation of African Football. All bar the Ukraine deal and additional accords with France and Croatia involve countries from outside Europe. While such arrangements, which generally involve pledges to knowledge share and collaborate on aspects of development, are not uncommon in football, the scope of Saudi Arabia’s influence and diplomatic clout is eye‑catching. Its unopposed bid for the 2034 tournament will be passed on 11 December without a formal vote, meaning the world’s federations will effectively wave it through via a round of applause in an online meeting. The Guardian understands there is disquiet among a number of federation chiefs about the remote, rushed-through nature of the decision. Of the 910 Saudi sponsorships charted by Play the Game, 194 are specifically concentrated on football. These include deals closed by Aramco, the state oil company, to sponsor the 2026 men’s World Cup and 2027 women’s World Cup, as well as further global age-group tournaments and 17 major competitions in the Concacaf region. Among Aramco’s 71 deals is a $100m annual partnership with Fifa that was described as a “punch in the stomach” six weeks ago in an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/21/top-female-footballers-urge-fifa-end-deal-saudi-nightmare-sponsor-aramco-oil-human-rights">open letter</a> signed by more than 100 women’s footballers. Their call for it to be reconsidered on humanitarian and environmental grounds, in reference to ongoing concern over Saudi Arabia’s record on both fronts, has thus far fallen on deaf ears. The Saudi Public Investment Fund, which owns Newcastle United, and its subsidiaries account for 346 sponsorships across a range of sports. Boxing, esports and golf have joined football in becoming major targets for the country’s involvement in sport. The wide-ranging “Riyadh Season”, which will include Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight world championship fight against Tyson Fury on 21 December, has become a focus of its ability to host big-ticket events. Play the Game’s research has also underlined the fundamental connection between Saudi Arabia’s state mechanisms and key positions in sport. It finds that 1,412 positions in 207 Saudi entities are held by key members of the country’s political elite, with the Newcastle chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a key confidant of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, holding 22 roles. The report alleges various conflicts of interest among figures who are involved in both sport and state entities. “The sharp spike in investments and strategic partnerships speaks volumes about Saudi Arabia’s ambitions and expanding grip on international sport,” said Stanis Elsborg, one of the study’s authors, who also claims the country’s thirst for involvement has “reshaped the sports world”. On Saturday Amnesty International accused Fifa of an “astonishing whitewash” after it released its Saudi 2034 bid evaluation report and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/30/fifa-saudi-arabia-2034-world-cup-football-evaluation-report">awarded a highest-ever score</a> of 4.2 out of five.

Saudi Arabia has made more than 900 sponsorship deals as it prepares to be named as host of the 2034 World Cup

Saudi Arabia makes more than 900 sponsor deals in 2034 World Cup plan

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="325c6637d13c8f8754f012d5d43c9c71c95e243b"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/325c6637d13c8f8754f012d5d43c9c71c95e243b/0_0_7028_4219/1000.jpg" alt="A giant screen suspended from the celing showing video game play, with players sitting on a podium below." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> The League of Legends world championship finals in the O2, London, on Saturday. Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Given the deluge of bad news emanating from the games industry over the past 10 months, it was somewhat reassuring this weekend to sit in a crowd of 20,000 happy, passionate fans, watching the biggest event in the esports calendar: the League of Legends world championship finals. The event, at the O2 arena in London, was the culmination of a globetrotting five-week competition to discover the best team in the world. Never having attended before – mostly because the final is usually held in Asia, where the best players tend to come from – I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Would I be able to follow what was happening? Would I care? It turns out the answers to those questions were “sort of” and “hell, yes”. For the uninitiated, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game (Moba for short) in which two teams of five players choose warriors from a selection of 170, and then battle to control a fantasy-themed map before destroying the other’s home base. The arena is divided into three lanes with an area known as the jungle in the middle, and each of the team members patrols their own specific section – like any traditional team sport. Adding complexity is the fact that all the champion characters have their own skills, weapons and magical attacks, and throughout the game, they also have to defeat monsters and dragons to earn experience points that make them more powerful. It’s both a deep strategy game and a bewildering riot of stomping warriors, galloping horsemen and levitating wizards. This year’s final was between experienced South Korean side T1 and Chinese newcomer Bilibili Gaming (BLG for short). The latter were riding high after smashing local rival Weibo Gaming in the semi-finals, but T1 were the firm favourites having claimed the cup four times already. They’d almost been knocked out of the competition in an earlier stage, but apparently have a habit of charging back into contention just when everyone has written them off. In the arena, I manage to get a seat next to James Lynch from esports news site <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/">Dexerto</a>, who volunteers to talk me through the action. He describes T1 as the League of Legends equivalent of the 1974 Dutch World Cup side – freewheeling, unconventional and filled with neurotic genius. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, widely considered to be the greatest player in League history, is the master at the centre of it all – their Johan Cruyff. “His movement is so weird and unpredictable,” says Lynch. “He is so hard to kill.” Before the final even commences, there’s a 10-minute mini-concert featuring US rapper Ashnikko and Linkin Park, boasting astonishing art direction with pyrotechnics, giant LED displays and dozens of dancers. The whole thing has the feel of a major sporting event mixed with a K-pop gig – a riot of colour, passion and stagecraft. In the hours leading up to the final, fans gathered at the venue, buying personalised merch, meeting friends from the community and of course dressing as their favourite League of Legends characters. It turns out I was extraordinarily fortunate that this was my League of Legends spectatorship debut. It’s a thrilling encounter. Once the showdown begins, the best-of-five-games format gets pushed to the limit, with the two teams taking it in turns to slaughter each other for the first four matches. Throughout the final, Faker is the dominant playmaker, continually leaping in and out of skirmishes, taking down enemies and then somehow escaping with barely a millimetre of his health bar remaining. In the arena, we view the action on huge screens suspended above the stage where the 10 young players duke it out. Rather than separating us from the action, these displays draw us in. The crowd of mostly twentysomething fansloudly roar their approval at clever moves and chant when their side gains the upper hand. The decider is a cagey affair, the warriors prodding and poking at each other while warily skulking around the map – until the whole thing explodes into a sprawling clash that makes the Battle of the Bastards look like a minor scuffle outside a kebab shop. It was T1 that emerged victorious, but this was also a win for the whole concept of esports. The scene has struggled – at least economically – to live up to the hype of the 2010s, when inflated estimates of its global value attracted big investors and sponsors, which lead to oversized team organisations and bloated salaries for star players. Last year saw a slew of those organisations, events and tournaments closing, including Activision Blizzard’s much-hyped Overwatch League. However, this weekend’s event attracted a peak viewing audience of 6.94 million – most watching from home on streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube – a new record for esports. It’s easy sometimes to think about video games as an industry, rather than a culture that brings people joy. Sometimes, it’s important to look beyond sales and viewing figures, and to sit in an arena with 20,000 adoring fans. Outside the O2 megaplex, I spoke to one attendee, Morgan, perfectly dressed as Aphelios (in his Heartsteel outfit, to be precise), who explained the appeal: “There’s such a competitive spirit, everyone is here to root for their favourite teams, but it’s very good-natured. There’s also so many different communities in League, it’s great to see them coming together and being able to bond over the one thing they have in common and are really passionate about. That’s the really beautiful thing about this.” <h2>What to play</h2> Released in 1996, the original Metal Slug was an exciting pastiche of the side-scrolling military shooter in which lone muscular soldiers took on whole armies of swarming bullet fodder. The brand has never really gone away, with dozens of sequels and spin-offs over the past 30 years – the latest of which is Metal Slug Tactics, which takes the look and feel of SNK’s franchise and turns it into a compelling, stylish turn-based strategy game. Here you assemble a team of warriors and face-off against the Rebel Army, using a huge range of customisable weapons and special attacks. Acknowledging its heritage as a “run and gun” game, the emphasis is on movement and dodging, with characters powering up their defences as they take more steps, giving each turn a dynamic feel. And while there’s genuine depth to the strategic play, the isometric pixel art visuals perfectly capture the lighthearted feel of the series. Metal Slug veterans will love it, of course, but fans of Advance Wars, XCOM and Into the Breach will get a real kick out of it, too. Available on: PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC Estimated playtime: 20+ hours <h2>What to read</h2> <ul> <li>PC Gamer has a great feature about <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/a-college-student-put-on-a-free-stage-adaptation-of-silent-hill-2-to-make-a-truly-frightening-theatrical-experience-all-without-an-appearance-by-pyramid-head/">an immersive stage production of</a> Silent Hill 2 by Niko Wilkins, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. I’m certainly looking forward to the West End musical adaptation.</li> <li>Thank you, Polygon, for this handy guide to the best board games of 2024. It’s a diverse bunch <a href="https://www.polygon.com/what-to-play/24144632/best-board-games-2024-new">featuring everything from city building to alien spotting</a>; I particularly like the sound of Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen.</li> <li>GamesIndustry.biz has an interesting piece on the accessibility issues facing <a href="https://www.gamesindustry.biz/how-accessible-is-being-a-gaming-content-creator">video game content streamers</a>, including the punishing demands of YouTube and Twitch audiences.</li> <li>Minecraft fans looking to populate their Christmas lists may be interested in The World of Minecraft, a <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-world-of-minecraft-edwin-evans-thirlwell?variant=40786447958094">hefty new tome featuring lots of concept art</a>, archive materials and interviews with the team at Mojang about the creation of the game.</li> </ul> <h2>What to click</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/oct/29/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-review">Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – annual military shooter fixture hasn’t felt this fresh in years | ★★★☆☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/04/mario-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch">Mario &amp; Luigi: Brothership – seafaring adventure will help your troubles sail away | ★★★★☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/oct/31/life-is-strange-double-exposure-review-supernatural-drama-gets-caught-up-in-its-tangled-timelines">Life Is Strange: Double Exposure – supernatural drama gets caught up in its tangled timelines | ★★★☆☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/02/wilmot-works-it-out-review-hollow-ponds-richard-hogg-finji">Wilmot Works It Out – gently therapeutic puzzler that turns jigsaws into works of art | ★★★★☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/05/the-sega-saturn-at-30-pioneering-console">The Sega Saturn at 30: a pioneering games console ripe for rediscovery</a></li> </ul> <h2>Question Block</h2> This week’s question comes from reader Turlough: “I always avoided the FromSoftware games thinking they would be too difficult. Then, in 2021, I experienced a very painful bereavement and started playing Elden Ring. It helped me work through my grief and was one of the best games I have ever played. I have worked through all the FS Souls and Souls-like games, which also helped me through a particularly rough patch at work (I’m a child psychiatrist). Are there any other Souls likes that are as good? I’m playing Lords of the Fallen, which is definitely fun but lacks the magic of the others. I fear that FromSoftware have slightly ruined all other games for me, apart from the Zeldas.” Thank you for your question and for your reminder that games can help us through difficult experiences. I hope things are getting easier for you. On the subject of Souls-likes, a lot of my colleagues really enjoyed Lies of P, a complex adventure based on the Adventures of Pinocchio – although the narrative is extremely dark. Alternatively, I really enjoyed the Nioh series from Team Ninja, which provides incredible depth in terms of the combat and weapons systems; the Nioh Collection on PS5 brings together remastered versions of the original game and its sequel. If you’re prepared to move a little further away from the Souls archetype, I’d also recommend Hollow Knight, Stellar Blade and Nier Automata,which all contain elements of what makes FromSoftware’s games so beguiling and immersive.

The industry may be struggling, but sitting among 20,000 devoted fans in London, I was reminded that it’s not just a business but a culture that brings endless joy