When Magnus Carlsen joins David Howell and Tania Sachdev to commentate on the Candidates Tournament today he’ll do so with full live video coverage of the players in Yekaterinburg. Those rights are part of a 6-year agreement with the World Chess Federation FIDE for footage of the most important events. The deal sees our sister site Chessable become sponsors of the Candidates Tournament and the full World Championship cycle, while also contributing to a new chess talent development program, the FIDE Chessable Youth Development Fund.

Ding Liren and MVL try out the chairs in Yekaterinburg - chess24 will have video of the players while Chessable is among the sponsors of the FIDE Candidates Tournament | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website

The landmark agreement means that chess24 will not just have video rights for the Candidates Tournament and the 2021 World Championship match in Dubai, but also for big FIDE events that include the World Cup, the Chess Olympiad and the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. 

Chess24 CEO Gerald Tan commented:

Broadcasting and commentating on chess tournaments has always been core to our activities and passion at chess24. Over the last year, we have made significant strides in developing new ways to bring chess to a wider audience with our Champions Chess Tour broadcasts and are excited to apply our insights to the World Chess Championship broadcast in 2021 and beyond.

The six-year commercial agreement sees our friends at leading E-learning platform Chessable become sponsors of the World Chess Championship cycle. Chessable CEO David Kramaley commented:

We see great potential in helping to realize the chess world championship cycle for the hundreds of millions of chess fans in the world. Since 2015, Chessable has communicated a love of science-backed learning, celebrating chess education and curiosity. The chess world championship cycle is the perfect fit for this concept, as it showcases the world’s best players, many of whom are already published Chessable authors, playing for the ultimate title, showing what they know. 

Chessable will also partner with FIDE for a new chess talent development program, the FIDE Chessable Youth Development Fund, to which it will contribute $150,000 annually. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said: 

We are extremely proud to be able to create new opportunities for the chess youth of the world through this new talent development program in partnership with Chessable. We hope it will help foster many new champions and attract many new young people to the game.

Such a long-term partnership shows a strong commitment and a shared vision between both parties. The agreement will allow FIDE to grow and plan for the future, strengthening different areas. It contributes to consolidating our top events even further, and many social projects as well as the chess in schools programs are about to take off. Chess is a great game to learn for any child, and has a proven track record of improving children’s cognitive and educational skills.

The partnership becomes effective immediately, so Chessable will be one of the sponsors of the Candidates Tournament that resumes today in Yekaterinburg, while chess24 will be broadcasting live with video of the players and their post-game interviews. 

We’re the one and only place to watch Magnus Carlsen commentate on his potential challengers!