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Type of site | Internet chess server |
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Available in | |
Dissolved | January 31, 2024 |
Owner |
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URL | chess24 |
Registration | Yes |
Launched | 2014 |
Current status | Defunct |
chess24.com was an Internet chess server in English and ten other languages, established in 2014 [1] by German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson and Enrique Guzman. [2] [3] Chess24 also provided live coverage of major international chess tournaments, and hosted their own online tournaments, including the Magnus Carlsen Invitational.
In March 2019, chess24 merged with Magnus Carlsen's company Play Magnus AS in a transaction that made the former chess24 owners the largest shareholders in Play Magnus. [3] [4] In 2022, Play Magnus was purchased by Chess.com, which made Chess.com the owner of chess24.
In December 2023, the chess24 team announced that they will be closing their site and apps by the end of January 2024. [5] The website officially closed down on January 31, 2024, and its address began redirecting to the Chess.com news page.
A 2020 review by IM Luis Torres put chess24 as one of the three most popular internet chess servers, alongside Chess.com and Lichess. Similarly to other chess servers, Chess24 offered the ability to play online against other users or bots, enter online tournaments hosted on the site and view your own statistics. Torres ranked Chess.com the best overall, but Chess24 as the best for improving one's game. [6]
There was also an option of paying for premium membership on Chess24. [7] Going premium allowed deeper Stockfish analysis and also participation in events such as Banter Blitz, which allowed Premium members to play with collaborators of Chess24. Reviews tended to favour rivals Chess.com and Lichess in terms of the playing experience, while suggesting that Chess24 had richer educational video content. [8] [6]
Chess24 provided live coverage of major international tournaments on the website and also on YouTube with commentary by players such as Yasser Seirawan, Peter Leko, and Tania Sachdev. [9] [10] They also hosted and sponsored their own events, especially after their acquisition by Play Magnus AS. From September 2019 to April 2020, Chess24 held the first international Banter Blitz Cup, an online Blitz Chess tournament featuring players such as Magnus Carlsen, Gata Kamsky, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Parham Maghsoodloo, David Antón Guijarro and Leinier Domínguez with a $50,000 prize pool for players and $5,000 for streamers. [11] It was won by Alireza Firouzja in the final against Magnus Carlsen. [12] [13]
From April to May 2020, with face-to-face tournament play impossible because of Covid-19 travel bans and lockdowns, Chess24 held the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, an online Rapid Chess tournament which was won by Magnus Carlsen. This was expanded to form a conceptual tour including the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, and culminating in a Grand Final, featuring Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. [14] [15] The 2021 edition was hosted in March 2021, also online, and saw the favourite Magnus Carlsen being knocked out in the semifinal by Ian Nepomniachtchi, who eventually lost in the final to Dutch Grandmaster and World Championship Candidate Anish Giri.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. He is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world, while holding the record for longest consecutive reign. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games.
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Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi is a Russian chess grandmaster.
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Lichess is a free and open-source Internet chess server run by a non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an account to play rated games. Lichess is ad-free and all the features are available for free, as the site is funded by donations from patrons. Features include chess puzzles, computer analysis, tournaments and chess variants.
Andrew Tang is an American chess grandmaster. He is also a popular streamer, known online for his speed chess skills especially in bullet, hyperbullet, and ultrabullet time controls as well as for playing speed chess blindfolded.
Andrey Evgenyevich Esipenko is a Russian chess grandmaster. He won the European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship in 2017.
Alireza Firouzja is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months.
The Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2020 was an online chess tournament that ran from 18 April to 3 May 2020 as the first round of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour.
The Champions Chess Tour 2021, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, was a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world's top players, playing for a prize money pool of US$1.5 million. The tournament games are held on chess24.com and are broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, chess24.com itself, and the tour's official website. The tour started on November 22, 2020, and lasted until October 4, 2021. The tournaments were not rated by FIDE.
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Hans Moke Niemann is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He became a FIDE Grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and as of September 2023, he was the eighth-highest-rated Junior in the world. His peak global ranking was No. 31, in May 2023.
The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022, with the World Championship finishing in April 2023. As with every Candidates tournament since 2013, it was a double round-robin tournament.
The Champions Chess Tour 2022, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, was a 9-month series of nine online chess tournaments featuring some of the world's top players, who played for a prize money pool of US$1.6 million. The tour started on February 19, 2022 and lasted until November 20, 2022.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament, held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024. The tournament took place at The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada, from April 3–22, 2024. The event was held alongside the Women's Candidates Tournament. The event was won by Gukesh D, which made him the youngest ever winner of a Candidates Tournament, and the youngest ever World Chess Championship challenger.
Alisher Suleymenov is a Kazakh chess player who received the Grandmaster (GM) title in 2023. He had an upset victory over Magnus Carlsen in the second round game of the 2023 Qatar Masters.
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