Et was a Monday evening in February 2021 when hundreds of thousands of people sat spellbound in front of the screens. Just a few minutes into the game, Canadian Félix Lengyel came under a lot of pressure against Spaniard Rubén Doblas Gundersen. However, the spectators did not see a single tennis match or a boxing match.
They watched a chess game between two influencers live on the Internet – amateurs, mind you. However, a record attendance was set. The broadcast catapulted chess to the most-watched game on the Twitch streaming platform during that period, which otherwise Sugar dominate.
Erik Allebest in particular had every reason to be happy. It was his portal Chess.com through which the game was played. Allebest is the head of the largest online chess platform in the world. Chess.com has grown tremendously over the past few months.
“The future of chess is incredibly promising,” says Allebest optimistically. The reasons for this are not just the unexpected start-up help from the Corona-pandemics. The portal has invested heavily in campaigns to make the former nerd sport suitable for the masses. But the success is now also presenting the operators with problems.
On Chess.com, players compete against each other or against a computer, get analysis of their moves or can practice using chess puzzles. The recent growth story is impressive: In February alone, around 1.1 billion games were played, according to the company.
That equates to around 38 million games per day. For comparison, that’s roughly triple the average number of daily games played across 2022. The number of daily active users has skyrocketed to eleven million most recently.
The company has recently invested a lot in daring campaigns. Not only the duel rows with well-known influencers should make the platform known. Chess.com also hired students to fill its social media channels. They were encouraged to write particularly quick-witted and funny contributions – something that until now has not fitted into the posh world of chess.
However, the portal took it to extremes with a digital cat chess bot. Mittens, as the green-eyed tabby predator was called, was designed to beat the best in the world. With her slow style of play, Mittens always pretended her opponents had a chance.
Chess.com is also targeting the next generation. The greatest growth came from players aged 13-17, followed by the 18-24 age group. With ChessKid, the operators have developed a platform that is explicitly aimed at children – and advertises specifically at schools. A few weeks ago, Chess.com gave free accounts to 100 public elementary schools.
But Chess.com also gained its power through large-scale acquisitions. In December of last year, Chess.com took over the chess empire of world champion Magnus Carlsen – the Play Magnus Group. The company owns popular brands such as Chessable, Chess24, the Magnus Academy and New In Chess. At the same time, Carlsen was hired as the advertising face for the new owner.
Chess.com boss Allebest explains the success with a picture: “A lot of seeds have been planted, a lot of fertilizer, a lot of irrigation has been added, and everything is now bearing fruit,” he says. We have worked for almost two decades to change the way the game is perceived. That means: away from brain teasers for nerds towards a hip game.
“It worked,” says Allebest. And Danny Rensch, the company’s head of chess, is certain: “This isn’t a boom, this is the new normal.”
The corona pandemic has kept billions of people in their homes around the world. Only then could itself Chess as a popular living room sport establish – as a substitute for previous leisure activities. Suddenly, many people found time to read books about chess, watch tournaments on the internet, and play against friends.
Chess boom by football stars
The trend was fueled by successful series such as “The Queen’s Gambit“. In its first 28 days of release, the fictional story set a record for most viewers of a miniseries on the streaming service Netflix on.
During that time, at least one episode was viewed on more than 62 million accounts. The drama is about an orphan girl who learns to play chess in a children’s home – and rises to become one of the best in the world.
Some stars recently advertised to an audience that had previously been more inclined towards other sports. For a campaign by the luxury brand Louis Vuitton, the two multiple world footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had their picture taken at a staged chess game in December last year.
The response was overwhelming: on the Instagram platform alone, Ronaldo collected almost 43 million likes for the photo – far more than for his other pictures. Half a million users commented on the photo with the two stars on the board.
And last but not least, the chess world has also had real thrillers to offer in the recent past. World champion Carlsen raised serious allegations of fraud against Hans Niemann. The American had beaten the five-time world chess champion from Norway last September.
Two weeks later, the two met again – this time online. But Carlsen stopped the game after just one move. Afterwards there was dirty speculation as to how Nobody cheated should have. It would be possible to receive certain signals, i.e. vibrations, through anal beads, some thought. Niemann denies the allegations and then even offered to play naked.
Incidentally, world champion Carlsen also received support from Chess.com – before the official takeover of his chess company. Niemann probably has more than 100 online games cheated, was the result of an investigation of the portal. The American then not only sued his opponent Carlsen, but also Chess.com for damages.
Other conflicts don’t seem to be doing any harm either. In February last year, Chess.com issued a statement condemning Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Replace the Russian flag with a neutral one. This is probably one of the reasons why the platform was blocked in Russia shortly afterwards – a bitter blow, after all Chess in Russia as a kind of national sport with millions of potential users.
However, the rapid rise also poses challenges for the platform, namely technical ones. If too many users play at the same time, the servers sometimes cannot keep up. The result: an error message and the game is lost. “People play an average of 16,000 chess moves per second, add friends, comment and chat,” explain the Chess founders.
“All of this generates data that first has to be processed in our databases.” Solving the problem has recently had top priority at Chess.com, according to a statement. “And we will also hire new employees as soon as possible.”
Also, success doesn’t come for free. The takeover of Carlsen’s chess empire last year is said to have cost an estimated 82.5 million euros. In order to attract prominent show players, the portal lures with prize money, sometimes in the six-figure range.
Although the portal allows its users to play for free, their model is primarily based on subscription fees of between 4.17 and 17.99 euros – then for additional functions such as instructional videos and computer analyses. After all: The annual turnover of the platform is now around 100 million dollars.
For the spectators of the game between Lengyel and Gundersen it was worth tuning in. After 25 minutes and 57 seconds, the Canadian checkmated his rival from Spain. And that, although it looked like a victory for Gundersen at the beginning.
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