After 20 years at the top of chess, Magnus Carlsen makes his next move

STAVANGER – Few chess players enjoy the celebrity status of Magnus Carlsen.

Refusing to play a 13-year-old grandmaster, an American dogged by allegations of cheating, and entering the world of online chess games made Norway’s Carlsen a household name.

Few chess players have produced the magic feature that distinguishes Norway’s Magnus Carlsen from his peers: fame.

Only legends like Russia’s Garry Kasparov and American Bobby Fischer can match his name recognition, and Carlsen is arguably the far more dominant player. Last month he beat both men to be named the International Chess Federation’s best ever player.

But the motivation to win professional titles is waning. Carlsen, 33, now wants to use his fame to turn the game he loves into a spectator sport.

“I’m at a different stage in my career,” he told The Associated Press. “I’m not that ambitious when it comes to professional chess. I still want to play but I’m not that hungry. “I play for the love of the game.”

Providing a new way to engage with the game, Carlsen on Friday launched its app called Take Take Take, which will track live games and players and explain matches in an accessible way that Carlsen said is sometimes missing on streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch. . “It will be cooler weather,” he says.

Carlsen plans to use his experience to provide summaries and analysis in his new app, starting with November’s World Chess Championship tournament between China’s Ding Liren and India’s Gukesh Dommaraju. He will not race against himself because he voluntarily forfeited the championship in 2023.

Carlsen is no novice when it comes to chess practices. Play Magnus, a game it launched in 2014, gave online users the chance to play against a chess engine modeled after its gameplay. The company expanded into an app suite and was acquired by Chess.com, the world’s largest chess site, for approximately $80 million in 2022.

Carlsen and Mats Andre Kristiansen, chief executive of his company, Fantasy Chess, describe a chess game where users can follow individual players and pieces, with filters and light-touch analysis accounting for different elements of each game, causal viewers with chess’ sometimes diluted flair. The free app was launched with the aim of building its user base before trying to make money. “This will come later, perhaps with advertising or deeper analysis,” says Kristiansen.

While Take Take Take offers a different perspective with its streaming services, Chess.com, which has more than 100 million users, is expanding into a still-crowded market with YouTube, Twitch and the website of the International Chess Federation FIDE. World Chess was valued at approximately $54 million when it was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The availability of chess engines that can beat anyone means that cheating has never been easier. But they can still be used to shave off thousands of hours of book-related research and hone skills impossible against human opponents.

“I think today’s games are of higher quality because preparation is getting deeper and AI is helping us play. This is reshaping the way we evaluate games,” says Carlsen, especially for the new generation of players.

He also admits that two decades after becoming a grandmaster, his mind no longer operates at the whirlwind pace it once did. “Most people have less energy as they get older. The brain slows down. I’ve already been feeling this for a few years. “The processing power of young players is much faster.”

Still, he aims to be the best in the world in the coming years.

“My mind is a little slower and maybe I don’t have as much energy. But chess is about energy, computing power and experience coming together. “I’m still closer to the top than the bottom,” he said.

Chess is riding the crest of a wave of popularity started by Carlsen himself.

He became the best player in the world in 2011. In 2013, he won his first of five World Championships. He achieved his highest ever chess rating of 2882 in 2014 and has remained the undisputed world number one for the last 13 years.

Chess influencers such as world number 2 Hikaru Nakamura use social media to bring the game outside the table to a wider audience. Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” shined the offbeat sex appeal of chess when it became one of the streamer’s biggest hits of 2020.

And in 2022, Carlsen’s refusal to play against American grandmaster Hans Niemann, who has admitted to using technology to cheat in online games in the past, has created a rare edge in the usually tranquil world of chess. There is no evidence that Niemann cheated in live games, but the feud between the pair pushed the game further into the public consciousness.

It remains to be seen whether chess can continue to grow without the full professional involvement of its biggest celebrity.