The Rise of Chess

Chess might seem a boring sport to many people, including myself until recently. You essentially have to sit and move a few pieces here and there for quite some time. And even then, you might end up in a draw after a few hours.

But if you pay attention, chess is anything but boring. Granted, there is not much physical movement unlike most other sports, but the mental strength and fortitude that is needed to be good at this is enviable. And more than anything else, playing chess teaches you to be accountable, because if you do lose, it is because you made some mistake at some point in the game. And like a very famous influencer says, that is the perfect analogy for life (if you know, you know).

More people play chess every day than any other sport or game. It has been there for centuries and has been a way to show superior strategic prowess. In recent times, chess was brought into the limelight particularly in 1972, when the world championship match was held between Bobby Fischer (from USA) and Boris Spassky (from USSR). This match was particularly interesting because of the cold war going on between the two countries at the time.

During the pandemic in 2020, interest in chess rose again. One reason was obviously that people were looking to pass their time during the lockdowns and chess was one of the many games you can play online with your friends and strangers both. Another big reason was the release of the Netflix show, The Queen’s Gambit, in 2020. It was the third most-watched series in 2020 by the way.

With the rising popularity of streaming during the lockdowns, a number of people commentating on chess games, or simply breaking down the intricacies and strategies of the sport, became very popular on social media platforms. The advent of short-form content (reels, stories, etc.) definitely helped with increasing the viewership of these channels/people. Another thing that brought the world’s attention to chess was the alleged cheating scandal in 2022. You can read more about that here.

One of the best to ever play the sport, Magnus Carlsen, has been another factor in attracting audiences. He obviously plays the game extremely well, but what he has also done, is bridge the gap between the chess world and pop culture. He has been sponsored by brands like Puma and MasterCard, and even has his own line of sneakers. And this ability to attract people to the sport means he makes a good amount of money too.

“Play Magnus” was an app he launched, in which you could test yourself at different levels with Carlsen himself (using data from his recorded games). This app was acquired by Chess.com in 2022. Getting that domain name (Chess.com) is itself a big accomplishment. The founders got it for $55k in 2005 from another company, and safe to say, it was a good decision. There can’t be many simpler sites to go to play a game than game.com.

Searching “chess” on a browser takes you directly to chess.com and that means a good amount of daily traffic as it is. The site now has 100 million players worldwide, with more than 10 million daily games being played on the site. They have a number of cool features to make playing more fun too. They even organise tournaments with monetary prizes, hence attracting top talent.

The use of content has been instrumental to the rapid rise of the sport of chess in recent years, and it just goes to show that timely use of an opportunity can create wonders. So much so, that a photo of football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess (ad by Louis Vitton) is currently the 4th most liked post on Instagram. Who would have thought that chess would benefit so much from the rise of content creation?

And while that’s it for this article, you can read more from here. And do let me know if you want a specific topic covered! Subscribe for free to receive more posts like this every day!