"Chess has absolutely every chance of being a sport on par with Formula 1" — Timur Turlov

Timur Turlov

FIDE President

“I think that if we solve the problem now, using artificial intelligence, of how to broadcast chess properly — how can we reveal in a broadcast what’s going on in a Grandmaster’s head when he’s playing a game — it could be incredibly captivating.

And if we then combine all of this — by bringing together top-notch professional chess analysts, artificial intelligence, and people who are professionals in broadcasting, such as media experts — I believe we can create a top-notch product that will make chess incredibly entertaining.

More entertaining than it has ever been for a broad audience. And that will bring in a lot of money. Chess has absolutely every chance of being a sport on par with Formula 1, for example.

Formula 1 isn’t all that spectacular in itself when you watch it from the stands. It’s interesting to watch on TV. And when you watch the race from above, it’s actually, of course, much more interesting.

Chess is probably similar in some ways, but that doesn’t mean that Formula 1 races don’t attract such a large number of celebrities or that such a large number of contracts aren’t signed. It is a truly cool, high-class club.

Our goal is to make chess just as cool and to raise its prestige to the very highest level. Probably no other sport has as many people playing it. Thanks to online platforms, hundreds of millions of people play chess. That’s a lot for a sport.

Yet the number of people watching broadcasts or following chess championships is much smaller than the number of people actually playing the game. In soccer, for example, it’s exactly the opposite.

But I’ll say it again, this will also require a certain amount of talent on our part. Still, it seems to me that everything is now in our hands, given the opportunities that are opening up before us.”