It is the end of an era, as Chess24, one of the most popular platforms for live chess broadcasts, closes its website and mobile app tomorrow (January 31st, 2024).
Chess.com took over the Play Magnus Group in an $82m merger which officially happened in December 2022 and the question of what would happen with chess24 already rose up. In the official video statement released in June 2023, Chess.com’s CCO Daniel Rensch spoke about the future of Chess24, saying that there’s no intention to close the website: “The future of Chess24 will actually always be intact, because we love the chess24 branding community for what 24 means which is chess 24/7, chess over the board too, chess is nonstop, and we have no intentions to shut it down“. See the statement in the video below.
However, the situation has changed. The decision to shut Chess24 down wasn’t taken lightly, reads the official announcement, and it is happening due to “limited resources, significant maintenance costs, and the aging technology of chess24”.
“It was felt better to focus efforts on Chess.com, which has more potential for growth and innovation”, adds the release which can be found below.
Dear chess24 community,
We’ve had a fantastic journey over the last decade, striving to create the best possible site to watch and learn chess. We’re deeply grateful for your support, and how we managed to have a lot of fun together in the process.
As most of you probably know, we joined forces with Chess.com at the end of last year. It’s been an exciting collaboration, and we’ve been working closely with the Chess.com team. We haven’t been actively updating the chess24 website and mobile apps because we believe Chess.com is the future, offering a more robust platform for events, content, play, and community tools.
We realize chess24 is still a go-to site for many, especially to watch chess tournaments, but regrettably we will close down the chess24 website and mobile apps on January 31. This decision was not taken lightly, but due to limited resources, significant maintenance costs, and the aging technology of chess24, it was felt better to focus efforts on Chess.com, which has more potential for growth and innovation.
Despite the site closure, our commitment to delivering top-notch chess content remains unwavering. You can now find reports from our team at Chess.com/news, and you can keep up with events at Chess.com/events. Our top-notch coverage of elite chess remains at twitter.com/chess24com, and our amazing commentators and broadcast team are covering live events across both Chess.com and chess24 channels on YouTube, Twitch, and more. Finally, you will find our most popular chess24 premium series at Chess.com/lessons.
If you have any specific features from the chess24 site that you’d like to see on Chess.com, please share your feedback with us at support@chess24.com.
Thank you for being a part of the chess24 journey. We appreciate your support and are excited about the future; our love for chess is as strong as ever, and we’re dedicated to creating an even better experience for you now on Chess.com.
Warm regards,
The chess24 team
