Few chess players have the fame that Magnus Carlsen enjoys.
Becoming a grandmaster at just 13, choosing not to compete against an American player facing cheating allegations, and exploring online chess gaming helped make Carlsen a well-known figure in Norway and beyond.
Carlsen stands out among chess players because of his celebrity status. Only legends like Russia’s Garry Kasparov and American Bobby Fischer come close to his level of recognition, and many consider Carlsen to be an even stronger player. Recently, he was named the greatest chess player ever by the International Chess Federation, surpassing both Kasparov and Fischer.
However, his drive to collect professional titles is fading. Now at 33, Carlsen wants to use his fame to make chess more appealing to spectators.
“I am in a different stage in my career,” he told The Associated Press. “I am not as ambitious when it comes to professional chess. I still want to play, but I don’t necessarily have that hunger. I play for the love of the game.”
To offer a fresh way to engage with chess, Carlsen recently launched his app, Take Take Take. This app will track live games and players, providing easy-to-understand explanations that he feels are often lacking on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. “It will be a chiller vibe,” he says.
Carlsen plans to share his insights and analyses through the app, starting with the World Chess Championship in November between China’s Ding Liren and India’s Gukesh Dommaraju. He will not be competing in this event, as he chose to give up his title in 2023.
Carlsen knows a lot about chess apps. He started the Play Magnus game in 2014, which allowed users to play against a chess engine designed to mimic his own style. This game grew into a collection of apps and was sold for about $80 million in 2022 to Chess.com, the biggest chess website.
Carlsen and Mats Andre Kristiansen, the CEO of his company, Fantasy Chess, believe that their new chess app will attract casual viewers. This app lets users follow individual players and pieces, provides filters to explain different parts of each game, and offers light analysis. The app is free for now, as they aim to build a user base before trying to make money from it. “That will come later, maybe with advertisements or deeper analysis,” says Kristiansen.
While Take Take Take provides a new option with its streaming features, it is entering a busy market that includes Chess.com, which has over 100 million users, as well as YouTube, Twitch, and the FIDE website. World Chess was valued at about $54 million when it was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The availability of chess engines that can easily defeat any human makes cheating easier than ever. However, these engines can also help players improve their skills much faster than if they were only studying from books or playing against human opponents.
“I think the games today are of better quality because players are preparing more thoroughly, and artificial intelligence is helping us improve our play. It is changing how we assess the games,” especially for younger players, says Carlsen.
However, he acknowledges that after being a grandmaster for two decades, his mind doesn’t process information as quickly as it used to. “Most people have less energy as they get older. The brain slows down. I have noticed this for a few years. The younger players think faster.”
Still, he aims to be the best in the world for many more years.
“My mind may be a bit slower, and I might not have as much energy. But chess combines energy, thinking power, and experience. I am still closer to my peak than my decline,” he said. Chess has been gaining popularity, partly because of Carlsen.
He became the top-ranked player in 2011 and won his first World Championship in 2013. In 2014, he achieved the highest chess rating ever at 2882 and has been the world number one for the last 13 years.
Outside of competitive play, chess influencers like world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura are using social media to reach more people. The Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” boosted chess’s appeal when it became one of the platform’s biggest hits in 2020.
In 2022, Carlsen chose not to compete against Hans Niemann, an American grandmaster who had admitted to cheating in online games using technology. This decision brought a lot of attention to the usually calm world of chess. Although there is no proof that Niemann cheated in live games, the conflict between them made chess even more popular.
It’s unclear if chess can keep growing without the full involvement of its biggest star.
