Turning Chess into Spectator Sport

In 2014, World Chess by Agon Limited was accorded long-term commercial rights by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, with a mandate to turn chess into the spectator sport and attractive platform for brand and partners alike. 

“We’re changing the financial model of the game,” says Ilya Merenzon, chief executive of Agon, the company that holds worldwide marketing rights for the World Chess Championship. “We have major sources of revenues that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” — FINANCIAL TIMES

Spectators at the Fulton Market Building in Lower Manhattan, many of them students of past championships, declared the match outstanding, with each player pressing minute advantages or finding inventive defenses against whatever attack the other threw at him.

“It’s one of the highest-quality matches on both sides,” said Lev Alburt, a grandmaster who has followed championship matches since 1954. “Even the fact of many draws, almost all have been achieved in very sharp play. Both players are trying to squeeze something almost from nothing. Where other players would play safe, both keep playing for a win, creating problems for their opponent at a risk to themselves.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES