Shares in World Chess PLC (LSE:CHSS) jumped after it launched a world tour modelled on the APT tennis tour where the biggest stars of the chequered board will battle it out at least six annual open tournaments in major global cities, two Grand Slam events and a year-end championship.
The chess promotion and competition organiser said the World Chess Tour (WCT) will begin in 2025, with major stars such as Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, alongside rising talents such as UK 15-year-old Shreyas Royal and nine-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan also appearing in weekly high-stakes online tournaments.
Last month, World Chess took on a new strategic investor, gaming technology consultancy, Blitz Intelligence FZCO, which bought €1.2 million of shares at a 58.6% premium to the share price at the time, to support growth initiatives.
Chief executive Ilya Merenzon, the Russian-born, Berlin-based entrepreneur who co-founded the company, said: "It's about time chess reached a permanent position among major sports.
"For the first time, the sport will have a structured tour with short, thrilling formats and major prizes, accessible to both elite players and aspiring talents."
The tour's points-based ranking system will create "clear pathways" for players to climb the rankings, so the plan goes, culminating in a showdown among the world's top eight players for the World Chess Tour champion title.
It will be very different from the unusual combined chess-tennis tournament that already takes place every year in Baden-Baden, Germany, where the semi-final sees rapid chess interrupted every six minutes, by six points of tennis, with the winner being the player who either wins the chess game or who first wins 18 points in tennis.
(Photo: chessbase.com)
Shares in CHSS jumped 21% to 4p on Wednesday morning, still down from a peak of 18p seen in August.
** Update: Adds share price movement **