Around the time Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest world champion in history of chess in December, Indian chess also made its mark elsewhere. On the popular Chess.com app, India overtook the USA as the “most active country” on the platform, another indicator that not just the protagonists in the thick of action, but spectators following it were also overwhelmingly from India.
Right after the three-week battle between Gukesh and Ding Liren in Singapore culminated with the teenager from Chennai become the second Indian to be crowned the world champion after Viswanathan Anand, Chess.com saw what it called a “Gukesh wave”: for three straight days, the app hosted 17 million games daily — the highest daily number in 2024 — at a rate of 15 more games starting per second during peak hours.
In the eye of this online chess storm was India. The world’s most populous country currently has 19.5 million registrations, says Avadh Shah, who is the India Director for Chess.com. He points out that an average of 500k new users download the app every month with nine million monthly active users and one million daily active users on average.
The app — conceived in the USA in 2005 by two college friends Erik Allebest (who is currently the CEO) and Jay Severson — was named by TIME Magazine on its 2023 list of the 100 Most Influential Companies.
Just how much influence the app wields in the sport became apparent in December 2024, when the world of chess was almost torn apart into two neat halves with some of the world’s top players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura taking on the global governing body of chess, FIDE, over their participation in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Carlsen accused FIDE of threatening players who wanted to play on the tour (an allegation strongly refuted by FIDE) while Nakamura admitted if he had to choose between playing in FIDE events or playing on the Freestyle tour, he would secede from FIDE. When the eventual rapprochement between the feuding parties was announced on December 21, the Freestyle Chess Players Club’s statement mentioned that Carlsen, Nakamura and Chess.com’s Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch had played a role in facilitating the agreement between the Freestyle Chess Players Club and FIDE.
Unlike other popular one-sport news portals that exist in football or cricket, Chess.com has long transcended being just a news portal or an app for chess enthusiasts to play the game.
“Chess.com’s role is to serve the chess community at every level. Whether it’s one of the world’s best players or someone just discovering the game, we want to create a welcoming space for everyone,” Rensch told The Indian Express. “Growing chess isn’t just about running the biggest chess site — it’s about supporting the incredible creators, streamers, and coaches who inspire millions of people to play each month.”
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Chess.com has almost become an ecosystem in itself in the sport, a must-have app on the phones of everyone, from the casual chess enthusiasts to the super-elite grandmasters. Just consider the following instances over the past couple of months: at the recent World Chess Championship, the 18-year-old challenger Gukesh was “warming up” his mind for the battle against world champion Ding Liren by solving puzzles using Chess.com’s Puzzle Rush feature. And after Ding Liren was defeated by Gukesh, the Chinese grandmaster tried to get over the heartbreak… by playing a variant called bughouse chess on Chess.com just four hours after losing the crown.
Ding and Gukesh were not the only world champions spending their big day on the app. On the day he got married in Oslo, former world champion Magnus Carlsen was famously up at 4 am playing online blitz games on the app against Daniel Naroditsky.
“The app has made chess accessible to everyone, everywhere. There’s puzzles, game analysis, lessons, tournaments… it’s a chess universe!” Tania Sachdev, who is an active player and a popular analyst, told The Indian Express. “A quick round of puzzle rush before over-the-board games helps me get into the zone. With regular events like Titled Tuesday to high-stakes tournaments such as the Champions Chess Tour, players can compete globally from their homes. It’s revolutionized tournament opportunities for players at all levels. It’s a 24/7 training ground to practice, learn, improve and play.”
The app creates financial opportunities for top players. It organises popular events like the Champions Chess Tour and Titled Tuesday (which happen twice on Tuesday each week). In 2024, the Champions Chess Tour had a total prize fund of $1.7 million across four events and the season-ending finale. The Titled Tuesday event — played online twice every Tuesday of the year and sees a prize fund of $1,000 for the winner — has also seen almost all the top players compete in 2024.
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“We love how Titled Tuesday has become a mainstay of the chess ecosystem. Each week, we see hundreds of titled players participate from around the world. In addition to Titled Tuesday we have the Speed Chess Championship, the Women’s Speed Chess Championship, the Bullet Chess Championship, Freestyle Chess Play-Ins, and many different community championships,” Michael Brancato, the head of events for Chess.com, told The Indian Express.
The app is not without criticism. It was one of the defendants in the $100 million lawsuit by American GM Hans Niemann where he disputed claims that he had cheated in games. Chess.com had investigated and released a 72-page report in October 2022 where it concluded that the American had “likely cheated” in online matches between July 2015 and August 2020. Niemann flatly denied those allegations before dragging the app and players like Carlsen and Nakamura to court. The case was settled later with Niemann’s ban from the app also being rescinded.
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik also routinely and frequently trains his guns on the app and its anti-cheating mechanism.
Despite the criticism, the app has earned plenty of goodwill in the sport. Currently, Chess.com runs an Affiliate Program that supports 3,000 affiliates, including over 300 titled players and 71 Grandmasters.
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“The affiliate program is one of the many ways we support the professional chess community. It’s a revenue share program that allows creators to benefit from any premium memberships they generate. The goal is to reward our most loyal players and community members when they introduce chess to new people,” said Brancato. “We want the app to be a place where everyone can play, learn, and grow.”
