Gukesh-Ding faceoff draws record viewers as chess makes the right move in India

D. Gukesh faces Ding Liren to World title. (Photo: PTI)

When it comes to the world title, 64 squares seem to throb in excitement as much as the 22 yards simmer in zest.

The chess world faces a raging storm since India's Gukesh Dommaraju challenged reigning champion Ding Liren of China for the World Championship title. "For world championship, it feels the same as the excitement we see in cricket matches," said Avadh Shah, who is the country director of Chess.com.

Shah's Chess.com teamed up with ChessBase India and Nodwin Gaming has brought the clash of the grandmasters closer to home through its broadcast in Mumbai's Habitat. Joining the audience through their commentary are three influential voices from the game - International Master Tania Sachdev, founder of ChessBase India Sagar Shah, and comedian and chess influencer Samay Raina - who are tracking and analysing every move of the chess stars.

It is one of a kind event with both on-ground and YouTube streaming the entire three-week duration, said Shah. The matches are being live streamed on Chess24 India YouTube and ChessBase India YouTube channels.

Gukesh-Liren faceoff

"One can feel the vibes when one of the players makes a brilliant move or when ends up with a blunder. The panel cracks jokes to keep the audience entertained. The on-ground vibes are very different from the online vibes," said Shah of Chess.com.

The traction is unprecedented both online and offline, he said, stating that the total viewership for the first two days has been upwards of two million with a peak viewership of 75,000 at a single point of time. "We have never seen numbers like this before, at least in India. For the on-ground event which is a pilot, we've seen around 75 to 80 percent occupancy even when the tickets are priced at Rs 500."

As the excitement builds, Shah expects the daily viewership to double online. "So, 100,000 is definitely something which we are trying to do in terms of peak viewership. In terms of overall viewership, we are hitting 1 million views on the broadcast (streaming) every day. But as the match progresses and, it depends on how Gukesh performs, if he is winning or keeping up the fight till the end, we can even see a daily viewership of 2 million."

ChessBase recorded 1.2 million views on its YouTube channel for the first game. While the viewership dropped to 0.86 million for the second match, the viewership spiked for the third game to 1.4 million.

During the third game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore, the Indian grandmaster trounced his Chinese rival to tie up the 14-match finals series at 1.5 points each. Dommaraju had lost the first game of the event but managed a draw in the second.

"The scale of this event transcends other events which have happened in the past. It's the biggest match in the chess world and Gukesh is competing, so the stakes are higher than anything else in the past," Shah said.

A revving crowd

The Gukesh-versus-Ding duel is another boost to an already growing traction for chess in India.

"Viewership is divided into two-three buckets. One is the live broadcast viewership and one is the surround content viewership which includes Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and highlights. We have seen close to 500 million views this year alone for chess matches streamed online, including the World Championships and the Olympiad. In terms of live organic views, the number hovered on 10 million," Shah said.

He noted that the numbers were recorded on Chess.com alone. "If you include ChessBase India, Chess.com, other players and streamers in the market, the views for chess are upwards of 1 to 1.5 billion in the whole of this year."

A bigger player pool

It is not just viewership for chess that is gaining steam, the pool of players is also getting bigger by the day.

India has a pool of around 200,000 offline players, as many as 250 players play the game professionally and FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs, which is French for International Chess Federation) rated players in the country are 151,942.

Shah pointed out that there are around 600 titled players and around 85 grandmasters in India today as against a solitary Viswanathan Anand till a few years back. "Chess has grown a lot since the pandemic. From just before the pandemic and till now, we have seen growth in almost every metric of chess from people playing chess to people watching chess to people learning chess to people following chess."

Chess.com too has recorded significant growth as compared to 2020. "We have a total of around 18.5 million lifetime users in India right now and we are increasing our user base by around 500,000 per month, which is roughly around 15,000-20,000 new users per day. We have 8 million MAU (monthly active users). In terms of growth since the pandemic, we are 8 times in terms of active users, 200 times in terms of views and 100 times in terms of followers on our social media," he added.

The entire generation of today's chess players, of the likes of Gukesh Dommaraju and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, have been inspired by legendary Viswanathan Anand. "A lot of his (Anand's) efforts and guidance towards the younger generation has gone a long way to this success. Of course, the new crop of players have done amazingly well," Shah said.

"It's an incredible moment for India." The Chess.com chief was full of excitement. "An 18-year-old is competing to be the youngest world champ from India after Anand. Professionally, three of our players are in the top 10 league in the world. We have the number one ranked junior women's player also from India. At the grassroot level, many young players have taken up chess professionally in the last five years. Around 200-250 players play chess professionally for a living and the top 25-30 of them are employed with big public sector companies and many of them even have big individual sponsorships by companies."

Monetisation modes

Monetisation opportunities for Indian chess players include tournament prize money, sponsorship money by brands, brand endorsements and money coming from content creation.

The prize money ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 35 lakh for local tournaments, while globally, it is $100 to $2.5 million. When it comes to sponsorship money, it ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 12.6 crore ($1.5 million).

Players like Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh are sponsored by Quantbox and WACA (Westbridge Anand Chess Academy), while Praggnanandhaa is backed by Adani and IOCL; Ambit, Persistent and ONGC are backing Vidit Gujrathi; Aravindh Chithambaram is supported by the Murugappa Group; and Nihal Sarin is backed by Akshayakalpa.

The fastest growing market

Indians are competing at the highest level and that is leading to an unprecedented growth for chess at the grassroot level, said Shah. "India is the fastest growing market for chess across the world. Even for Chess.com in terms of user base, I think the US and India are right at the top."

Shah expects the growth momentum to continue. "I see strong growth continuing next year in terms of rise in users, rise in viewership of chess, more resources coming into the ecosystem and the sport becoming more mainstream in India.  Many broadcasters in India have aired chess events on their platforms, including JioCinema and Sony Sports. We see more and more chess events coming on TV," he added.