With the game of chess up in arms over the Hans Niemann cheating scandal, one of the game’s big events organisers, World Chess PLC, has set up its pieces ready for a public listing on the London Stock Exchange.
As an organisation “seeking to promote the mass market appeal of chess globally through the commercial offering of chess-related activities”, alongside the game’s long history and appreciation of unexpected moves on the chequered board, the timing of an initial public offer now is perhaps not that surprising.
The initial public offer, of which a slice is open to retail investors via the PrimaryBid platform, is intended to raise up to €8mln for the company.
World Chess, which was founded as a holding company in 2017, parent to the operating company that was formed in 2012, is a partner of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and has an exclusive position to offer FIDE-recognised online ratings and titles to players.
Its main business is the organisation of ‘top-level’ tournaments played by grandmasters such as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, operation of the official online gaming platform – the FIDE Online Arena – and other activities and merchandise related to chess (though perhaps not the vibrating anal beads allegedly used by Niemann to cheat).
Ilya Merenzon, a Russian-born, Berlin-based entrepreneur, co-founded the company and is chief executive officer, overseeing offices in the UK, Germany and Georgia.
World Chess's contract to hold and broadcast major FIDE events was secured in 2012 by a Jersey-listed company called Agon, with Merenzon enabling the deal behind the scenes, which was bought from US entrepreneur Andrew Paulson by Merenzon for one pound in 2014, before he flipped the rights to the new UK-registered World Chess business two years later when FIDE insisted that its commercial side could not be represented by an enterprise based in a tax-haven.
Merenzon, who is a well-known name in the game’s circles for his legal battles to enforce exclusivity over the live transmission of the moves of major chess tournaments, said the intention to float on the London market came “at a transformational time for chess and for our business."
He said in a statement: “There continues to be an explosion of interest in chess, which has accelerated through recent years and even more during the pandemic. To keep pace with this growth we are scaling up our operations and expanding our range of services internationally.”
With an estimated 600mln adult chess players globally the game has been becoming more digital over the year, with the Twitch streaming platform seeing broadcast hours of chess spiking during lockdowns and remaining well above pre-pandemic levels.
The decision to include retail investors in the IPO reflects changing attitudes toward public inclusion at IPO and new technologies to facilitate it, said James Deal, PrimaryBid's UK general manager.
"This is particularly true for companies like World Chess that have built large community followings and that want individuals, such as chess fans, to be able to participate alongside the institutional players."
The company is anticipating its shares will listing in November under the ticker CHSS, with Novum Securities in the role of financial adviser.