As the FIFA World Cup has been a hit so far in Qatar, more huge news has come out of the Middle East over the past few weeks. As many know these areas of the World have highly successful companies and individuals who are looking to pave the way for the online entertainment industries.
Esports is a billion dollar industry that is being enjoyed worldwide as we speak. Games such as Call of Duty, Valorant esports and now even Web3 titles like Axie Infinity are attracting large audiences and prize pools. However the game of chess has become a hit amongst streaming and gaming fans alike.
Chess whilst being thousands of years old, chess has picked up quite the following online. Chess.com is a popular site where players can play this beloved game for free with others online. From Apri 2020 – September 2022 alone the monthly players went from 8 to 17 million.
Image Credit | ARESF / VADR Media
Hikaru Nakamura was a chess pro, who then went onto stream Chess online. He has now amassed well over 1 million subscribers on Twitch. This game has quite the audience. Chess’ demographic covers many ages, 420 million out of the 700 million players are aged between 18-34. This is the main age group loving the esports industry at the moment making Chess coverage and gameplay online a certified hit.
The Arab Esports Federation has made a strategic partnership with Australian firm VADR Media who have their very own online Chess platform called Checkmate.live. This partnership will see both parties start a long-term project.
ARESF currently oversees 18 national esports associations in the Middle East. Their leader is Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan. He is also known for being the Vice President of the Global Esports Federation.
“The Arab Esports Federation is delighted to partner with Checkmate and whole heartily supports their vision of improving the integrity of the online game and promoting it as both an esport and sport. Online chess is not a sports simulation; it’s a natural extension of the over-the-board game. A game that brings with it many positive benefits, including higher female participation than esports, cognitive and mental improvements for players, good sportsmanship, and brand safety for stakeholders.” – Hisham Al Taher, ARESF secretary general
Tournaments are showcased on the platform, utilising both web2 and web3 technologies to bring cutting edge action to chess fans worldwide. Furthermore, tournaments held on the platform will be utilising the anti-cheat software used by Checkmate to allow fairplay on a consistent basis for gamers and fans. This featured software is a pivotal feature to their platform, where the AI technology can check for cheating through webcams.
Checkmate have been making some notable moves for expanding their presence within the industry. They opened their own offices in the United Arab Emirates and signed a similar sponsorship with the Asian Chess Federation in August, 2022 to push Chess esports to more players. Over 50 federations feature in the Asian Chess Federation making this a great move by Checkmate.
Overall these recent partnerships are pushing Checkmate’s notoriety across multiple continents and nations. As 2023 is just around the corner, Checkmate are due to release their very own Chess gaming project on both search engines and mobile devices. Talks are showing Q1 of 2023 being the release date so be on the lookout.
In the meantime be sure to check out Checkmate, and Chess.com to play against your friends and other players from around the world!
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