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chess24.com is an Internet chess server in English and nine other languages, established in 2014 by German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson and Enrique Guzman. Among people collaborating with chess24 are World Champions, Grandmasters and International Masters including Magnus Carlsen,Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, David Anton Guijarro, Dorsa Derakhshani, Lawrence Trent, Sopiko Guramishvili, and Hou Yifan.
In March 2019, chess24 merged with Magnus Carlsen's company Play Magnus AS in a transaction that made the former chess24 owners the largest shareholders in Play Magnus. It is curious that one of the investors and main persons of the platform is the current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. Because of this, many online elite tournaments are held exclusively on this site.
chess24 provides live coverage of major international tournaments on the website and also on YouTube with commentary by players such as Yasser Seirawan, Peter Leko, and Tania Sachdev.[11][12] They also host and sponsor their own events, especially since their acquisition by the Play Magnus suite. From September 2019 to April 2020, chess24 held the first international Banter Blitz Cup, an online blitz chess tournament featuring players such as Magnus Carlsen, Gata Kamsky, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Parham Maghsoodloo, David Antón Guijarro and Leinier Domínguez with a $50,000 prize pool for players and $5,000 for streamers.[13] It was won by Alireza Firouzja in the final against Magnus Carlsen.[14][15]
From April to May 2020, chess24 held the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, an online rapid chess tournament which was won by Magnus Carlsen. This was expanded to form a conceptual tour including the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, and culminating in a Grand Final, featuring Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. The 2021 edition was hosted in March 2021, also online, and saw the favourite Magnus Carlsen being knocked out in the semifinal by Ian Nepomniatchi, who eventually lost in the final to Dutch Grandmaster and World Championship Candidate Anish Giri.
