Chess champion and activist Garry Kasparov is launching an online platform called Kasparovchess that will allow chess fans to play and learn online, and for other experts on the game to share their tips and tricks with the wider community.
The platform will offer a mix of content, including in-depth tutorials, podcasts, documentaries, and exclusive content from Kasparov himself.
The grandmaster said the idea was years in the making.
"Look, I always had a dream of doing something for [the] global chess community," Kasparov told Cheddar. "I even had a first try 20 years ago, but the technology was not there yet and [the] chess community was not big enough."
Kasparov got a taste of the possibilities of online engagement four years ago when he led a MasterClass on chess technique, but he was frustrated with the platform's limitations. He wanted to be able to tailor his lessons for players of different skill levels.
Kasparovchess is designed to provide that flexibility, while also offering an online home to chess players all over the world, including in countries that have yet to produce chess champions of their own.
"The chess community is growing at an enormous pace, but I don't think that we yet had a platform to bring together people from all over the world and to emphasize the community element of the game of chess," Kasparov said.
He said now the time is ripe due to a renewed interest in chess during the pandemic and the release last year of the wildly popular Netflix mini-series The Queen's Gambit, which concerned an orphaned chess prodigy's difficult rise to the top of the game.
Kasparov, who was a consultant on the show, said he was initially offered a role as the Soviet champion, Vasily Borgov, who faces off with Anya Taylor-Joy's Beth Harmon, but he turned it down due to time constraints.
"Instead I suggested I would play a consulting role, and I said I would guarantee the authenticity of the game and the integrity," he said. "So the games that you saw, they're real."
The Russian-born chess player added that he also assisted in making sure the show captured the look and feel of the Cold War-era Soviet setting, as well as the specific environment of chess championships in general.
The platform is now accepting pre-registrations for a chance to be among the first 6,400 players to gain early access.
