Every NBA rookie has his own path, and it isn’t always a soft landing.
Quinten Post was thrown into the fire by the Warriors last season once he graduated from dominating the G League in Santa Cruz. The former No. 52 overall pick in last year’s NBA draft spent all of 2024 developing his game, but once he earned his promotion, Post was up for good.
Post played so well in his first five games of real minutes at the end of January, averaging 10.4 points on 39.3-percent shooting from three, coach Steve Kerr decided to give Post his first start in a Golden State jersey — against the eventual NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The box score wasn’t pretty for Post in the Warriors’ seven-point win, yet he survived and started the next five games, too. Post started 14 regular-season games as a rookie, and another two in the NBA playoffs. He talked trash with Luka Dončić and LeBron James in LA.
None of those experiences can be compared to who Post sat across from Saturday night in Las Vegas, staring at their chess pieces.
“It’s a completely different experience,” Post says, speaking to NBC Sports Bay Area exclusively over the phone. “As in, like, there’s no expectations obviously when I play chess against Magnus. There are expectations when I play on an NBA court against LeBron or whoever we face.”
While the initial plan was for Post to play NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas, freestyle chess is what he dominated instead. Post over the weekend was part of Chesstival at the Wynn Las Vegas, an innovative pro-am tournament hosted by former NBA MVP Derrick Rose and chess grandmaster and current world champion Magnus Carlsen. Post came out a big winner, too.
First, NBA players were paired with chess grandmasters for two-person teams in a head and hand tournament. The grandmaster called out a piece, and the NBA player had to make the move. Post and his partner Tania Sachdev of India made it all the way to the semifinals, losing to Tony Snell and Fabiano Caruana of Italy. Later in the night, Post got his revenge on Snell.
The head and hand tournament was followed by a best of the best battle, NBA players going head-to-head in singles. Post met Snell in the third round and this time was victorious. The floor-stretching Warriors center checkmated Harrison Ingram in the finals, becoming the first ever Chesstival blitz tournament champion.
More than bragging rights were secured. Post won $25,000 to charity, which he’s giving to Reading Partners, a national nonprofit he previously partnered with earlier this year.
“It’s an organization that helps kids who either struggle with reading or who are in a situation at home or at school where it’s hard for them to learn how to read,” Post said. “Just want to help these kids have a good foundation to set them up for the rest of their lives.”
He and his chess grandmaster partner weren’t pitted against Carlsen and Rose in the tournament. Rather than let a lifetime opportunity pass him by, Post took his chance the night before at the event’s welcome dinner.
It wasn’t confidence that oozed out of Post, it was living in the moment. He was in a place those who taught him the game couldn’t imagine. So, Post challenged Carlsen to a 1-on-1 game at dinner.
“My grandpa — both of them, actually — are into chess, so that’s kind of how I picked it up at a younger age,” Post revealed. “I was like, this is an opportunity for me to be able to tell my kids that I played a game against the world champion. He’s the best to ever do it, so I just took my chance to challenge him.
“Yeah, I didn’t end up winning. It was a lot of fun.”
Each player was given five minutes. Post took about four and a half minutes. Carlsen needed maybe 30 seconds to beat him, per Post’s estimation.
Like young basketball sensations, there have been numerous chess prodigies throughout the years. Carlsen is one of them. He’s a genius. He just might be the G.O.A.T.
He also has been called eccentric, cocky and even arrogant for his unusual antics and tactics that don’t always align with chess and its culture. There’s an intimidation factor Carlsen brings to the sport. Post could have felt it, maybe he did. But he also had an easy in.
“Magnus is actually a huge Warriors fan,” Post says. “He watches every single game, he told me. So that was an easy point of the conversation, and he seemed pretty well-versed in basketball. He’s a huge Steph [Curry] fan, too.
“Super cool guy. We talked about chess, the lifestyle, basketball, and I told him if he’s ever in San Francisco he should come to a game.”
The game of chess always has been a part of Post, and it always will be. His father, Arjen, plays but it’s his two grandfathers that he gives credit to.
Post remembers learning chess around 6, 7 or 8 years old. His mother’s father Kess Toorenaar taught chess at a local elementary school and instilled the basics in Post. His grandpa on his father’s side, Harry Post, played chess at the local club.
Now, it’s something he picks up recreationally in phases. Post has played against Warriors teammate Moses Moody and a handful of members on the coaching staff, and he hopes to play Draymond Green this season. Recently, Post really has delved back into it.
Aside from Chesstival, Post this offseason went to the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco to play. Founded in 1854, the Mechanics’ Institute is the oldest chess club in the United States.
“Really nice people. They hosted me very well,” Post said. “It’s cool to see. It’s actually a very famous club where a lot of people have come. It was cool to do that.”
Shooting easily is Post’s biggest strength on a basketball court right now. It’s easy to describe him in a scouting report. The exercise was impossible to do for Post when it comes to chess.
He couldn’t define himself quite yet, but did admit he’s an offensive type of player who likes to attack. Comparing and describing Carlsen’s game was much easier for Post.
“Probably the greatest to ever do it,” he said. “Modern era, he’s like a Curry or like a LeBron of the chess world.”
And Post is the Carlsen of the NBA world, at least for one weekend in terms of chess.
“I would say so,” Post said when I asked if he’s the best chess player in the NBA. “I think I got a good shot at it. Maybe not everybody was there that plays. We’ll see. It’ll probably grow next year, and we’ll see.”
His road to winning the blitz tournament began by beating former, and possibly future, Warriors teammate De’Anthony Melton. Wins then were secured against Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, Snell, Grant Williams and Ingram.
A precaution to an ankle issue kept Post from playing summer league this year. He’s still the Warriors’ biggest winner of Las Vegas, proudly wearing a new target on his back from the hoopers trying to get the privilege of boasting on a chessboard.
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