Across the time Gukesh Dommaraju grew to become the youngest world champion in historical past of chess in December, Indian chess additionally made its mark elsewhere. On the favored Chess.com app, India overtook the USA because the “most energetic nation” on the platform, one other indicator that not simply the protagonists within the thick of motion, however spectators following it have been additionally overwhelmingly from India.
Proper after the three-week battle between Gukesh and Ding Liren in Singapore culminated with {the teenager} from Chennai grow to be the second Indian to be topped the world champion after Viswanathan Anand, Chess.com noticed what it known as a “Gukesh wave”: for 3 straight days, the app hosted 17 million video games each day — the very best each day quantity in 2024 — at a charge of 15 extra video games beginning per second throughout peak hours.
Within the eye of this on-line chess storm was India. The world’s most populous nation at present has 19.5 million registrations, says Avadh Shah, who’s the India Director for Chess.com. He factors out that a median of 500k new customers obtain the app each month with 9 million month-to-month energetic customers and a million each day energetic customers on common.
The app — conceived within the USA in 2005 by two school pals Erik Allebest (who’s at present the CEO) and Jay Severson — was named by TIME Journal on its 2023 listing of the 100 Most Influential Corporations.
Simply how a lot affect the app wields within the sport grew to become obvious in December 2024, when the world of chess was nearly torn aside into two neat halves with a number of the world’s prime gamers like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura taking over the worldwide governing physique of chess, FIDE, over their participation within the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Carlsen accused FIDE of threatening gamers who wished to play on the tour (an allegation strongly refuted by FIDE) whereas Nakamura admitted if he had to decide on between enjoying in FIDE occasions or enjoying on the Freestyle tour, he would secede from FIDE. When the eventual rapprochement between the feuding events was introduced on December 21, the Freestyle Chess Gamers Membership’s assertion talked about that Carlsen, Nakamura and Chess.com’s Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch had performed a job in facilitating the settlement between the Freestyle Chess Gamers Membership and FIDE.
Not like different well-liked one-sport information portals that exist in soccer or cricket, Chess.com has lengthy transcended being only a information portal or an app for chess fanatics to play the sport.
“Chess.com’s function is to serve the chess neighborhood at each degree. Whether or not it’s one of many world’s greatest gamers or somebody simply discovering the sport, we wish to create a welcoming house for everybody,” Rensch advised The Indian Categorical. “Rising chess isn’t nearly working the most important chess website — it’s about supporting the unimaginable creators, streamers, and coaches who encourage hundreds of thousands of individuals to play every month.”
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Chess.com has nearly grow to be an ecosystem in itself within the sport, essential app on the telephones of everybody, from the informal chess fanatics to the super-elite grandmasters. Simply contemplate the next cases over the previous couple of months: on the current World Chess Championship, the 18-year-old challenger Gukesh was “warming up” his thoughts for the battle in opposition to world champion Ding Liren by fixing puzzles utilizing Chess.com’s Puzzle Rush function. And after Ding Liren was defeated by Gukesh, the Chinese language grandmaster tried to recover from the heartbreak… by enjoying a variant known as bughouse chess on Chess.com simply 4 hours after shedding the crown.
Ding and Gukesh weren’t the one world champions spending their large day on the app. On the day he acquired married in Oslo, former world champion Magnus Carlsen was famously up at 4 am enjoying on-line blitz video games on the app in opposition to Daniel Naroditsky.
“The app has made chess accessible to everybody, all over the place. There’s puzzles, sport evaluation, classes, tournaments… it’s a chess universe!” Tania Sachdev, who’s an energetic participant and a well-liked analyst, advised The Indian Categorical. “A fast spherical of puzzle rush earlier than over-the-board video games helps me get into the zone. With common occasions like Titled Tuesday to high-stakes tournaments such because the Champions Chess Tour, gamers can compete globally from their properties. It’s revolutionized match alternatives for gamers in any respect ranges. It’s a 24/7 coaching floor to observe, study, enhance and play.”
The app creates monetary alternatives for prime gamers. It organises well-liked occasions just like the Champions Chess Tour and Titled Tuesday (which occur twice on Tuesday every week). In 2024, the Champions Chess Tour had a complete prize fund of $1.7 million throughout 4 occasions and the season-ending finale. The Titled Tuesday occasion — performed on-line twice each Tuesday of the 12 months and sees a prize fund of $1,000 for the winner — has additionally seen nearly all the highest gamers compete in 2024.
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“We love how Titled Tuesday has grow to be a mainstay of the chess ecosystem. Every week, we see tons of of titled gamers take part from all over the world. Along with Titled Tuesday now we have the Pace Chess Championship, the Ladies’s Pace Chess Championship, the Bullet Chess Championship, Freestyle Chess Play-Ins, and many various neighborhood championships,” Michael Brancato, the pinnacle of occasions for Chess.com, advised The Indian Categorical.
The app is just not with out criticism. It was one of many defendants within the $100 million lawsuit by American GM Hans Niemann the place he disputed claims that he had cheated in video games. Chess.com had investigated and launched a 72-page report in October 2022 the place it concluded that the American had “possible cheated” in on-line matches between July 2015 and August 2020. Niemann flatly denied these allegations earlier than dragging the app and gamers like Carlsen and Nakamura to courtroom. The case was settled later with Niemann’s ban from the app additionally being rescinded.
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik additionally routinely and steadily trains his weapons on the app and its anti-cheating mechanism.
Regardless of the criticism, the app has earned loads of goodwill within the sport. At the moment, Chess.com runs an Affiliate Program that helps 3,000 associates, together with over 300 titled gamers and 71 Grandmasters.
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“The associates program is without doubt one of the some ways we help the skilled chess neighborhood. It’s a income share program that enables creators to profit from any premium memberships they generate. The purpose is to reward our most loyal gamers and neighborhood members once they introduce chess to new folks,” stated Brancato. “We would like the app to be a spot the place everybody can play, study, and develop.”