Chess.com is set to take over the Play Magnus Group in an $82m merger between major chess organisations that will leave the US-backed chess.com as the dominant force in online events. PMG, which went public on the Oslo market in 2020, began with a flourish as a growth stock, but its revenues failed to grow at the hoped for rate, and its share price has halved from its peak.
It appears that PMG’s business model of providing high class commentaries for top tournaments on its chess24 website brought in too few subscribers, even though the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, was and still is a regular participant. PMG’s chessable learning site is its most successful area, whereas the chess24 playing zone has attracted far smaller numbers than chess.com or lichess.
In contrast, chess.com has always been primarily geared towards providing a competitive playing arena for the hundreds of thousands who flocked to online chess during lockdown. Its viewing events have a successful formula of a mix of 5/1 and 3/1 blitz and 1/1 bullet, using a knockout format rather than the all-play-all of chess24’s Meltwater Champions Tour.
Chess.com also provides a platform for chess streamers, of whom the most famous is Hikaru Nakamura with more than a million followers. Women are underrepresented in chess generally but far less so in streaming, where around 25% are female. Among the most popular is Anna Cramling, daughter of Pia Cramling who last month won her third Olympiad gold medal. Chess.com’s news coverage is good, and its chief reporter, Peter Doggers, is widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.
Whether the merger will work in the long run is questionable. The world champion made it his mission to try to make PMG succeed, and admitting failure by selling out could prove another step on the road to retirement. Much may depend on whether Carlsen’s currently stalled aim of reaching a record 2900 rating can be revived by a strong performance in the Sinquefield Cup, which is under way in St Louis this week. So far this year the Norwegian, 31, has been unable to reproduce his pre-pandemic performance levels of 2019.
The future looks doubtful for chess24. One of chess.com’s earlier acquisitions was the viewing site chessbomb which now functions in a scaled down form only covering major events without live commentary, whereas chess24 gives live games from quite minor competitions.
However, chess.com will not have a monopoly in the near future. Lichess remains as a non-profit rival, and is the site of choice for many due to its easy and fast access to a willing opponent. A handful of clicks, and you are in action at your preferred time limit.
Back at the board at St Louis, Alireza Firouzja, 19, returned to top form at the Grand Tour rapid/blitz, where he lost only one game out of 27 and collected the $40,000 first prize with four rounds to spare. Nakamura was second. Carlsen joined in on Thursday for the Sinquefield Cup and the prospect of a battle with Firouzja.
Last week’s article mentioned that England’s star seven-year-old, Kushal Jakhria, was within reach of a 2000 national rating. Jakhria was in contention to break the age record of Abhimanyu Mishra, who became the youngest US Expert (defined as a 2000 rating) at seven years six months and 22 days, and went on to become the youngest ever grandmaster.
It did not take Jakhria long. On Bank Holiday weekend, with an English Chess Federation rating of 1989, he travelled to Lancashire for the Leyland U2200, defeated both the top seeds, then missed the final day due to travel problems back to London.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 c5 4 d5 b5?! 5 dxe6 fxe6 6 cxb5 d5 7 e3 Bd6 8 Be2 O-O 9 b3 Ne4 10 Bb2 Qa5+ 11 Nbd2 Nc3 12 Bxc3 Qxc3 13 O-O Nd7 14 e4 Black’s Blumenfeld Gambit 4...b5?! doesn’t give enough for a pawn. Here 14 Ng5! Qf6 15 f4 is even better. Bb7 15 Rc1?! 15 Nc4! Bc7 16 e5 is stronger. Qf6 16 Qc2 Rac8 17 exd5 exd5 18 Bd3 g6 19 Rce1 Kg7 20 h4 The familiar Harry the h-pawn push, angling here for a g5 outpost. Bf4 21 Re2 Rf7 22 Rfe1 Nf8 23 Nf1 Giving options of Ng3/e3 or Nf1-h2-g4 c4 24 bxc4 dxc4 25 Be4 Rc5 26 Bxb7 Rxb7 27 a4 c3 28 Re4 Rd7 29 g3? White has stayed a solid pawn up, but unnecessarily gives it back. Instead, Ne3-c4 would increase the pressure. Bxg3 30 Nxg3 Qxf3 31 R4e3 Rd2?? The losing miscalculation. Qf4! keeps it level. At this point, Jakhria already visualised the final position. 32 Rxf3 Rxc2 33 Re7+ Kh6 34 Rxf8 Rc1+ 35 Kg2 c2 36 Rff7 Rg1+ 37 Kh2 Rh1+ 38 Kxh1 c1=Q+ 39 Kg2 g5 40 Rf6 mate. Jane Richmond is a former British women’s champion and an Olympiad silver medallist.
At seven years, five months, Jakhria broke Mishra’s record by nearly two months. Mishra had beaten the previous record set by Awonder Liang, who also became a grandmaster, by a full six months.
Some English events are not Fide-rated so that figure is lower, but Jakhria has still made it to No 1 on the world chess body’s September list for seven-year-olds. England’s other talent Bodhana Sivanandan shows as fourth overall and world No 1 among girls aged seven.
Among England’s former prodigies, Luke McShane stands out. At eight and a half, he won the world U10 championship in Duisburg 1992 ahead of several future grandmasters, probably performing above 2300. It also seems likely that Nodirbek Abdusattorov, now at 17 the youngest World Rapid champion, was playing at around 2000 at seven, because at nine he defeated two GMs in a tournament at Tashkent.
In less than two weeks, Jakhria faces his biggest challenge yet. The 11-round Fide World U8 championship opens in Batumi, Georgia, on 16 September, with a huge field of 144. Nine are from the United States, which has won two of the last three titles, and many other strong chess nations are also represented. This event has proved a barometer to greatness in 2012, when Abdusattorov won, and in 2013, when Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa captured gold for India.
3831: 1 Qxc8+! Bxc8 2 exd3 Qxf3+ 3 Bg2 wins with the double threat of Re8 mate and Bxf3.
