Lionel Messi has a new chess opening, and he says OpenAI's ChatGPT came up with it.
The Argentinian superstar shared a chess-themed ChatGPT ad with his 517 million Instagram followers on Wednesday.
Messi is the second-most followed person on the platform, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo.
The video collected more than a million likes and 13,000 comments within a few hours.
In the clip, Messi asks the chatbot for chess instructions one move at a time.
He says in Spanish, "Chat, you know my style. Show me a good chess opening, step by step."
By the end, he is ready to try another opening.
"I asked ChatGPT to teach me a chess opening that matched my style. It suggested Goat Horns," Messi's caption read.
Many have dubbed Messi the "greatest of all time," giving meaning behind the Goat Horns move.
The caption also invites followers to try ChatGPT’s Intelligent UI, which OpenAI rolled out with GPT-6 on October 7.
The feature adds interactive visuals to ChatGPT’s answers, so a board that updates one move at a time is an easy way to show it off.
Chess.com was quick to grade the lesson, noting that top players are unlikely to approve Black's moves in Goat Horns.
OpenAI still gets a post showing the chatbot handling a request that viewers can picture making themselves.
The ad fits the company's brand strategy of showing ChatGPT at work in everyday tasks.
Chess Keeps Finding Messi
Messi first partnered with OpenAI ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
He used ChatGPT to imagine his hair in Argentina's blue-and-white colors and encouraged supporters to try the image tool themselves.
Chess also showed up in one of Messi's biggest fashion campaigns.
In November 2022, he appeared alongside Ronaldo in a Louis Vuitton campaign photographed by Annie Leibovitz.
Fans soon matched the board in the photo to a 2017 game between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura at Norway Chess.
Outside of advertising, Messi is also an executive producer on "Messi and the Giants."
It's the new animated series Disney+ plans to premiere in summer 2027 after a teaser played at San Diego Comic-Con Málaga.
Between the series and the OpenAI posts, his team is keeping his name in front of both families and adult football fans.
Stars who reach both kids and adults give brands two audiences for the price of one influencer partnership.
Four Words Sell the Personalization Pitch
Messi's line, "you know my style," shows ChatGPT adapting to the person asking.
Marketers should study this prompt most closely, since it's the one part of the ad any viewer can copy.
Both Messi and ChatGPT have the reach to make this kind of demonstration worth running.
OpenAI said at its DevDay event on September 29 that ChatGPT now reaches 1.2 billion people every week.
The competition is closing in, though. Google's Gemini app passed 1 billion monthly users in August.
A product in this position needs clear reasons for people to open it, which a Messi chess lesson supplies in one clip.
When rival apps reach similar audiences, a product launch that shows people one specific use gives them the strongest reason to pick a side.
Here’s what marketers can learn:
- Show the product answering a personal request: A prompt tied to the user’s own taste invites every viewer to imagine their version of it.
- Give the result a name people can repeat: A short, catchy label gives fans something to quote in captions and comment threads.
- Pick a visual theme the audience already recognizes: A familiar setup lets viewers skip the explanation and go straight to the product.
A repeatable prompt lets each new post swap the question and keep the setup, giving brands a content marketing series audiences can follow.
Our Take: Is a Messi x Chess Ad the Perfect Setup for ChatGPT?
OpenAI says that Intelligent UI exists mainly to make complex topics easier to learn, so a shaky chess lesson is an awkward first celebrity demo.
We'd still call chess close to the perfect setup for ChatGPT, because Messi is a football genius asking for help like any beginner would.
His Louis Vuitton photoshoot with Ronaldo already put him at a chessboard, so fans accept the premise without a second thought.
Nobody leaves the post remembering "1.e4 a6," only a funny name and the way he says "Chat" like he's calling a friend over.
To us, the argument over the opening is what keeps the name alive.
Celebrity ads have always sold how the star makes people feel, which gives Messi's post a pass on accuracy.
The pass may run out once people ask Intelligent UI to teach them things with higher stakes than a weekend game.
OpenAI’s next celebrity lesson should come with moves that a grandmaster would sign off on.
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