It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Frank's Chess Match Is Based On A Bizarre True Story
One of the most outrageous bits in Season 16 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is somehow even less shocking than the true story it's inspired by.
In the episode "Frank Vs. Russia," the titular character (Danny DeVito) must compete in a chess match against a Russian opponent for the fate of American national security ... or something. This is a reference to the 1972 World Chess Championship, colloquially referred to as "The Match of the Century," which saw Bobby Fischer face off against Russian grandmaster Boris Spassky amid the Cold War. Having held his title since 1969, Spassky ultimately lost to Fischer, who became the first American ever to win the World Chess Championship. And that's only the second most dramatic chess story sourced by this episode.
As Charlie (Charlie Day) and his Uncle Jack (Andrew Friedman) fail to develop a surefire strategy to help Frank cheat, "The Gang" pools together their five remaining brain cells to send him into the match while wearing a remote control butt plug, planning to signal his moves via discreet internal communication. While this is exactly the sort of thing that happens in Paddy's Pub every week, it seems blatantly inspired by the very real and very bizarre unsubstantiated accusations made against American grandmaster Hans Niemann after he defeated popular Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen by allegedly using a vibrating sex toy during the match.
How a David and Goliath story turned into a baffling scandal
Back in September 2022, Hans Niemann executed one of the most shocking upsets in chess history by defeating the No. 1-ranked player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, at the prestigious Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri. When Carlsen seemed to accuse him of cheating without evidence and withdrew from the tournament the very next day, chess fans and casual observers alike attempted to figure out how Niemann could've done it. The popular -– if half-serious -– theory online was that Niemann had snuck vibrating anal beads in... their appropriate location... and made moves fed to him by an outside accomplice consulting via artificial intelligence. The AI would then feed him optimal moves via... internal communication. This is a family site, guys.
This "theory" is more than far-fetched, and it bears repeating that there is no evidence Niemann cheated at all, much less by using sex toys. That said, Niemann had been caught cheating twice in the past, and both prominent chess website Chess.com (which hosts a number of high-level tournaments) and "chess detective" Kenneth Regan believe that Niemann potentially cheated in over 100 previous matches. The Guardian even noted that after the implementation of new anti-cheating security measures devised in the wake of the widely publicized scandal, Niemann's once-rapidly improving performance began to decline dramatically.
Nevertheless, Niemann maintains his innocence and has filed a defamation lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com, and a number of figures whom he believes purported the cheating allegations. Whether or not he came by his historic victory honestly, the sex toy theory has been largely dismissed. After all, as we saw in Frank's chess match this evening, playing under such circumstances would probably be a little too noticeable.