A little background might help. Chess is a 1500-year-old game that was invented in what is modern-day India. (The original game had some differences, like elephants instead of bishops and not all of the pieces moved the same way, but those are just details). The game spread through Persia (modern-day Iran), before entering Europe through the Iberian Peninsula sometime in the 9th century. From there, the game spread far and wide, soon becoming the most popular in Europe and even becoming part of the chivalric code in some countries (in other words, a real knight had to demonstrate prowess in chess). The current rules of the game were codified at the end of the 15th century in books written in Spain and Italy.

Today, Yougov, the polling and research company, estimates that about 600 million people know how to play the game and chess apps have been downloaded more than one billion times. Chess has made the transition from ancient “game of kings” to modern fixture of the Internet-age seamlessly. Indeed, as chess lends itself to being played on the Internet, there are now many Internet sites where people play regularly, day and night. In short, the game is more popular than ever.

Further proof of how the Internet has affected chess is that the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, 32, is from Norway, a country with little chess tradition. But, growing up, Carlsen always had access to competition, which allowed him to rapidly perfect his skills. He became a grandmaster, the highest title awarded by the World Chess Federation, at 13 — one of the youngest ever.

There are tens of thousands of chess tournaments taking place every year, including the largest, like the World Chess Championship cycle — the pinnacle of the sport. These events are followed by the world’s leading media and become the events of the century, such as the famous Fischer — Spassky match in 1972 that captivated the world, or the 2016 Carlsen — Karjakin Match in New York (we organized it). It became of the most watch sporting events in the world.

World Chess has unprecedented experience in chess sponsorship, having organized three World Chess Championship cycles, including the most watched events in the business.

We develop or partner with the sport’s most important events, leverage partnerships with professional players and streamers to reach larger audiences and manage

Please contact Nadia Panteleeva, head of partnerships at World Chess (panteleeva@worldchess.com) to discuss chess!