The chess world is betting that sports fans will one day cheer for the Spanish opening the same way they do for kickoff.
What happened: The Checkmate: USA vs. India chess tournament begins today in Arlington, Texas, featuring five matches including Grandmasters and streamers alike. The event is a test to see if the historically stuffy game can be updated into a mainstream sports product.
- Traditional rules have been tweaked to make matches more fast-paced and ensure they always end with a checkmate.
- Additionally, the organizers want to cultivate a frenetic atmosphere usually frowned upon by Big Chess, encouraging cheers from the crowd and emphatic celebrations from the winners.
Catch-up: Interest in chess spiked after the onset of the pandemic, with the number of Chess.com accounts increasing from 35 million in June 2020 to 200 million in April 2025. This, in turn, resulted in a boom of chess streamers racking up subscribers and views.
Why it matters: Checkmate may not have bagged a TV deal or corporate sponsor, but it’s just one of many parties interested in turning chess into a major spectator sport, from the Saudi wealth fund to chess GOAT Magnus Carlsen (who launched his own chess network).
Zoom out: Chess has shown some legs as a spectator sport. For example, Norway caught the chess bug when Carlsen began his ascent. Nowadays, pro chess matches shown on the country’s top TV network regularly bag a 54% share of viewers aged 10 to 79.—QH