The penultimate event in the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will bring together the world’s best players vying for a place in September’s Tour Final while celebrating the incredible growth of online chess.
The Aimchess US Rapid, which starts on Aug 28th, will explore how technology has evolved the sport over the last decades and spotlight the rising popularity of online chess and streaming in recent years.
From an initial boom on Twitch and streaming platforms to the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, chess has grown and evolved significantly over the last 18 months which saw online tournaments bring the popularity of chess broadcasting to new heights. More than 25 million hours of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour have been watched so far in its inaugural season, already 25% more than all hours watched of chess on Twitch in 2019 with the Aimchess US Rapid and Tour Final still remaining.
Billions of chess games have been played online in 2021, and over 100 million hours of chess content have been consumed on Twitch alone, up from 37 million hours for the same period last year according to Twitch statistics service SullyGnome.
The increased popularity of chess has encouraged the entrance of new services. One such startup is Aimchess, a fast-growing chess analytics service that was founded by 33-year-old Russian Anton Gora and joined the Play Magnus Group in May 2021.
“I am very excited that Aimchess will be featured in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour celebrating the tremendous growth of the online chess market that I have witnessed since founding Aimchess in early 2020.” said Anton Gora, Founder and CEO of Aimchess.
“We believe Aimchess fills a gap in the market, and will rapidly grow in the coming years. We are excited to dedicate a tournament of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour to showcase the capabilities of Aimchess to our audience.” said Andreas Thome, CEO of Play Magnus Group.
With the Aimchess US Rapid, the regular season of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour concludes and will determine the players set to compete in the Tour Final starting on September 25th. Tour leaders Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Levon Aronian front the 16-player lineup which will see 7 players competing from the United States. Only 10 of the 44 Tour players will qualify for the Final, which will determine the world’s best chess player across a full competitive season of online chess.
For further comments contact:
Andreas Thome, CEO Play Magnus Group
Anton Gora, CEO Aimchess
About the 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour
The 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will, for the first time in history, determine the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. Beginning in November 2020, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour features monthly tournaments culminating in a final tournament in September 2021. The best chess players in the world are competing in a total of ten tournaments of rapid chess. All games take place online on www.chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.6 million. For more information visit https://championschesstour.com/.
About Play Magnus Group
Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, CoChess, Aimchess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group’s mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess.
Play Magnus Group is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo under the ticker PMG. For more information visit pmg.me.
