Magnus Carlsen’s start-up takes aim at Chess.com

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen smiles as he answers a question during a press conference after winning the match against India’s Viswanathan Anand during the Chess World Championship match in Chennai, India, Friday, Nov. 22, 2013. (AP / Arun Sankar K.)

PARIS -- Magnus Carlsen’s chess startup Take Take Take announced on Monday it was pushing into the play and learning markets central to Chess.com’s core business, despite commercial ties preventing him from promoting the venture directly.

Five-times classical chess world champion Carlsen is a major shareholder and co-founder of Take Take Take, which is expanding from a content platform into tools for playing and improving at chess, long seen as the backbone of Chess.com’s dominance.

Yet Carlsen will step back from promotion as part of an agreement when Chess.com acquired Carlsen’s Play Magnus group in 2022, a deal that brought several leading products — including Chess24 — under its umbrella and cemented its position at the center of the online chess ecosystem.

“Because my co-founder and the biggest shareholder is Magnus Carlsen, and he is also an ambassador for Chess.com... there are limitations to how Magnus can then promote Take Take Take because it’s in conflict with the agreement with Chess.com,” co-founder and CEO Mats Andre Kristiansen told Reuters.

“It’s not a great situation to be in for either us or Magnus. I think for Magnus, it’s frustrating because he’s super excited about what we’re building.”

Take Take Take has sought to accelerate its entry into the market through a partnership with Lichess, the free, open-source platform that has long positioned itself as a non-commercial alternative to Chess.com.

The tie-up gives the startup immediate access to an existing player base, avoiding the need to build a network from scratch.

Take Take Take’s move marks a shift for a company that had until now stayed clear of confrontation with Chess.com.

“My first meeting with Chess.com was in 2023... literally the first thing he (CEO and co-founder Erik Allebest) ever said to me was, never enter play and never enter learn. That’s ours,” Kristiansen said.

“And I found that quite intimidating.”

Kristiansen stressed the aim was not necessarily to displace the market leader, arguing the competitive landscape could broaden.

“First of all, our goal is not necessarily to kind of dethrone Chess.com. They are a great product and they’ve done a great amount of things for the chess ecosystem,” he said.

Pushback

Kristiansen stressed that Norwegian Carlsen intends to respect the obligations he has with Chess.com, even if it limits how visibly he can back Take Take Take.

“I think also Magnus has tremendous respect for Chess.com and the agreement and is going to honor their agreement, and that’s why he’s pulling out of ... the promotional stuff for us,” he said.

“It’s hard to sort of silence Magnus Carlsen.”

The move comes as new ventures emerge across the chess ecosystem.

Endgame.ai, promoted by American grandmaster Hans Niemann, is targeting performance and development tools, while ChessMonitor, backed by grandmaster Anish Giri, is focusing on analytics and preparation.

Kristiansen said Take Take Take would try to win users with products rather than personalities and expects Chess.com to respond.

“I don’t expect Chess.com to kind of ignore this, and it will certainly come with a reaction on their side.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)