#Kid chess online portal professional#

We’ve connected lessons to the puzzles, which I think is new. We have puzzles, more than 52,000, and we’ll keep adding them. That’s why we’ll always try to connect these elements.įor instance, we have lessons, more than 700 lessons already. They want to get something more than simply moving pieces. You can add this or that element, but the biggest chunk of the crowd is looking for a way to learn, a way to be entertained. But that’s not what will make the site successful. We’re building our play zone, adding elements to that. Kasparov: You cannot do without the gameplay. GamesBeat: How much of it is split between this educational side versus just playing the game? One of the key elements is that you can learn, you can be entertained, you can do whatever you want with respect to your own playing strengths and skills. We have eight different categories for players. Also, the platform ranges from beginners to masters. We took that influence from Netflix, to try to make it similar to entertainment, to the image of chess in Queen’s Gambit.

#Kid chess online portal professional#

When you look at our video materials, they’re produced in a professional studio. If they’re not revolutionarily new, they’re of very high quality. We believe that when you look at the quality of our intellectual entertainment, the quality of the lessons, and the way the platform is structured, it could be very appealing to a general audience. You don’t have to be totally new, but you need something of superior quality to bring the public to your platform. Competing means you have to bring something. You have two major websites, and Chess24, which is led by Magnus Carlsen, the world champion. You have many chess projects online, obviously. We concentrated from the very beginning on the educational parts and, as I said, the intellectually entertaining parts of the platform. Chess is an ideal tool to be both a part of education but also intellectual entertainment. We know that we have to start rethinking many of the traditional practices of the past. The fact that I was a consultant on the show worked in our favor.Įven if we put aside the latest hype with the game of chess, though, people are now, because of the pandemic, looking for a reorganization of many of our activities online. All of a sudden, chess became far more popular. We have a factor of multiplication due to The Queen’s Gambit. The positional factors, the regular increase of the chess audience. Now, the timing has proved to be perfect. But we had to correct our plans, of course. We had plans to launch in the beginning of the summer last year. We would have been ready a year earlier if not for the pandemic. They’re expanding their businesses, and they were very friendly. It’s this mega-conglomerate that has interests in entertainment and the internet. Several years we spoke about next steps, and a platform came into mind. With a few people on top of the venue being chess fans, it led to an expansion. The venue wanted to become a sponsor of one of the events. It started with our Grand Chess Tour events being offered at a venue in Paris. Some ambitious ideas we had just couldn’t be sustained. My guess is that the technology was not there. All those factors contributed to the demise of the venture. I don’t know whether the timing was wrong, or maybe mistakes were made. I had my first try more than 20 years ago with Kasparovchess, and that was not a success. Garry Kasparov: You never know what’s the best time.

I wondered if this opportunity had been here for a long time. GamesBeat: I’m interested to hear about this content platform.