World Chess’ next move includes a £6.9m stock market float

World Chess plans to list £6.9 million (€8 million) on the London Stock Exchange.

Founded in 2017 with the goal of “promoting chess to the mass market worldwide,” the company hopes to list under the ticker CHSS in November.

Chess has become extremely popular in recent years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and after the release of Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit.

An article in the Michigan Journal of Economics describes the “rapid revival” of chess.

It states that the so-called ‘New Chess Boom’ describes ‘the increase in viewership and chess around the world from 2018 and accelerating in March 2020 when people were forced to turn to the internet for more of their entertainment’.

In a statement, World Chess CEO Ilya Merenzon praised this renewed interest in chess for enabling an IPO. He did not say whether there was any interest from buyers regarding the IPO.

He added: ‘I am delighted to announce our intention to enter the London market at a time when chess and our business are fundamentally changing.

“There is still an explosion of interest in chess, which has accelerated in recent years and even more so during the pandemic. To keep pace with this growth, we are scaling up our business and expanding our range of services internationally.

“We believe that chess is the only remaining mass participation sport that has not yet fully benefited from the creativity and investment of the commercial sector.”

World Chess was established in 2017 as a holding company to provide commercial chess-related activities.

This includes the organization of top-level tournaments, operation of the official online gaming platform of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and other sports, lifestyle and merchandise related to chess.

The company is headquartered in London with offices in Germany and Georgia, but operates internationally.

After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, World Chess basically shut down all business activities in Russia – selling all its Russian assets and relocating staff.

World Chess estimates that there are now more than 600 million active chess players worldwide, and the number is increasing with the growth of online platforms.

However, it added that chess is still much less commercialized than other sports and its market expansion is still in its infancy.

For this reason, the company believes it is “well positioned to capitalize on the industry’s growth through online, in-person and hybrid chess events and activities, as well as providing complementary product offerings to players, spectators and partners.”