Play Magnus Group (PMG) - Chess World’s Top Educators to be Celebrated at Chessable Masters Starting July 31st

Interest in learning and improving at chess has spiked since the start of the pandemic and Chessable, the event’s title partner, has been at the forefront of that. The online learning platform, which uses cutting-edge MoveTrainer technology, has fuelled its parent company, Play Magnus Group’s Q1 course revenue growth of 337% year-on-year, enabling both established and many emerging authors to make a living from the game during a difficult time. From the start of 2020, over $3 million has been paid out to chess educators from Chessable. 

The Chessable Masters, organized by Play Magnus Group, is the eighth leg of the year-long Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and carries a $100,000 prize pot and an elite line-up of 16 top stars. 

Among the stars invited to compete is 12-year-old Chessable fan Abhimanyu Mishra, from New Jersey, who made headlines worldwide when he broke the Grandmaster title age record last month. He will be pitted against an elite field featuring Hikaru Nakamura, the US speed demon and hugely-popular Twitch streamer, alongside fellow American Wesley So. The young hotshot Alireza Firouzja will be back to battle for a place in the Tour Final along with another rising star Jorden Van Foreest. Azerbaijan’s number 1 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also lines up with Vietnam’s Liem Quang Le and the Venezuelan Eduardo Iturrizaga, who qualified via the Iberoamericano tournament. Viewers will also see recent entrant in the Tour, Vladislav Artemiev, as well as one of the Tour leaders, Levon Aronian, playing again after strong performances in the Tour’s last tournament, the Goldmoney Asian Rapid. 

Play Magnus Group has also stepped up its support for female players by inviting two of the world’s top women to compete in its next elite event. The reigning Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun and India’s reigning Women's World Rapid Champion Humpy Koneru will also make their Tour debuts alongside Mishra and Iturrizaga. Norway’s Aryan Tari, Adhiban Baskaran and Pentala Harikrishna of India, and Spanish Champion David Anton complete the player list.

Among the authors highlighted by the event is International Master Yuriy Krykun, a Ukrainian chess coach who recently graduated from Webster University in Saint Louis. Yuriy said: "As someone who aspires to share my passion for chess with as many people as possible, both via private coaching and writing, I find it extremely rewarding to see that more and more people in the chess world are able to comfortably do this and focus all their energy on sharing their passion and growing our game full-time.”

“This is in no small part possible due to the amazing royalties on Chessable’s interactive courses and I am thankful to Chessable and Play Magnus Group for the opportunity to not only enjoy passive income, but also deliver my content to thousands of people all over the world!"

With more authors like IM Krykun providing their content on Chessable, there has been a significant increase in the quality and quantity of the content leading to a much improved user experience and making it as easy as it ever was to improve at chess.

Chessable aims to solve the problem of how to actually remember chess openings, using spaced-repetition learning and other scientifically-based approaches. Chessable’s co-founder is John Bartholomew, an International Master and chess coach who also runs a popular YouTube channel with 170,000 subscribers. IM Bartholomew said: “The demand for online coaching has absolutely skyrocketed in the past year.”

“It’s crazy,” he added. “Chess education is hot - as it should be! It's a dream come true that Chessable is able to regularly pay out substantial sums to deserving chess teachers and publishers."

All matches in the Chessable Masters will be hosted in chess24.com’s playzone and available to watch on the platform’s Twitch and YouTube channels for free. The Chessable Masters is the penultimate leg of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour before the Tour Final in September, where the ultimate winner will be crowned the world’s best online chess player.

 

For further comments contact: 

Andreas Thome, CEO Play Magnus Group

andreas@playmagnus.com 

About the 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour

The 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will, for the first time in history, determine the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. Beginning in November 2020, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour features monthly tournaments culminating in a final tournament in September 2021. The best chess players in the world are competing in a total of ten tournaments of rapid chess. All games take place online on www.chess24.com  with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.6 million. For more information visit https://championschesstour.com/.

About Play Magnus Group

Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, CoChess, Aimchess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group's mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess. Play Magnus Group is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo under the ticker PMG. For more information visit pmg.me.