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Business Daily

Business Daily meets: World Chess CEO Ilya Merenzon

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4796 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you make a game with a conservative image more marketable, and more profitable?

Chess has been played for centuries, two people facing off over chessboard, but now it’s big business online too.

Business Daily’s Dougal Shaw meets the head of World Chess, Ilya Merenzon, to talk about expanding the sport, the opportunities of the digital format, and the challenge of the recent cheating scandals.

Produced and presented by Dougal Shaw.

(Image: Magnus Carlsen at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January 2021. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From the BBC World Service.

0:01.9

He knew his way around the underground.

0:04.1

I would never imagine he was capable of doing what he did.

0:07.9

Launder.

0:08.6

Tens of millions of dollars for the North Korean.

0:11.7

The Lazarus Heist, Season 2, is available now.

0:14.9

Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

0:19.3

I've come to a gaming cafe in East London, which specialises in board games.

0:24.5

The shelves along its corridor are jam-packed with dozens and dozens of boxes

0:28.7

containing games of every kind you can imagine, from Cludeau and Monopoly

0:33.2

to some very obscure fantasy adventure ones.

0:36.5

But I've come here to play someone at one of the oldest games of all.

0:42.7

There are more chess moves options than atoms in the universe.

0:48.1

I'm Dougal Shaw and welcome to another edition of Business Daily Meats on the BBC World Service.

0:53.8

This is where we bring you

0:54.9

in-depth interviews with people in business from across the globe. In countries like India, Brazil,

1:00.7

Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, chess was booming because of chess and schools programs.

1:06.3

Queen's Gambit definitely helped. Made people pick up chess, especially those who already played something.

1:12.1

It was kind of a reminder.

1:13.9

My guest and opponents today is Ilya Merenzon.

1:17.4

He is the CEO of World's Chess, a company that organizes global chess tournaments

1:21.8

and also runs an online platform for playing chess, both of which are recognized by the

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