Carlsen start-up takes aim at Chess.com with move into play and learn tools
- Carlsen restricted from promoting Take Take Take due to Chess.com agreement
- Take Take Take partners with Lichess, aims to serve players between casual and serious levels
- New chess platforms like Endgame.ai and ChessMonitor also target niche segments in growing market
PARIS, April 6 (Reuters) - Magnus Carlsen's chess startup Take Take Take announced on Monday it was pushing into the play and learning markets central to Chess.com's core business, despite commercial ties preventing him from promoting the venture directly.
Five-times classical chess world champion Carlsen is a major shareholder and co-founder of Take Take Take, which is expanding from a content platform into tools for playing and improving at chess, long seen as the backbone of Chess.com’s dominance.
Yet Carlsen will step back from promotion as part of an agreement when Chess.com acquired Carlsen’s Play Magnus group in 2022, a deal that brought several leading products — including Chess24 — under its umbrella and cemented its position at the centre of the online chess ecosystem.
“Because my co-founder and the biggest shareholder is Magnus Carlsen, and he is also an ambassador for Chess.com... there are limitations to how Magnus can then promote Take Take Take because it’s in conflict with the agreement with Chess.com,” co-founder and CEO Mats Andre Kristiansen told Reuters.
"It's not a great situation to be in for either us or Magnus. I think for Magnus, it’s frustrating because he’s super excited about what we’re building."
Take Take Take has sought to accelerate its entry into the market through a partnership with Lichess, the free, open-source platform that has long positioned itself as a non-commercial alternative to Chess.com.
The tie-up gives the startup immediate access to an existing player base, avoiding the need to build a network from scratch.
Take Take Take’s move marks a shift for a company that had until now stayed clear of confrontation with Chess.com.
“My first meeting with Chess.com was in 2023... literally the first thing he (CEO and co-founder Erik Allebest) ever said to me was, never enter play and never enter learn. That’s ours,” Kristiansen said.
"And I found that quite intimidating.”