Why Magnus Carlsen is not promoting his own venture Take Take Take app's game-changing move

Being one of the most influential chess players of his generation and one of the greatest to have ever played the game, Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been associated with several business ventures and other non-chess projects over the course of his illustrious career.

Among Carlsen's business ventures is 'Take Take Take' – an app that the five-time world champion had co-founded with Mats Andre Kristiansen in 2023 and also happens to be the biggest shareholder of. The app has now joined forces with Lichess, a free, open-source platform run by volunteers that is free of charge, to offer app users the ability to "play and learn" the game.

However, despite being the face of the app as well as its biggest shareholder, Carlsen was not present during Take Take Take's big announcement, and is unlikely to be part of the app's promotion of its new offerings for its users.

Why Carlsen cannot be seen promoting Take Take Take's latest venture

In a conversation with Reuters, Kristiansen – who also happens to be the organisation's CEO – explained that Carlsen also happens to be an ambassador for Chess.com, which Take Take Take is now in direct competition with, following its latest announcement, and cannot promote its latest venture as a result.

More from Chess

“Because my co-founder and the biggest shareholder is Magnus Carlsen, and he ​is also an ambassador for Chess.com... there are limitations to how Magnus can then promote Take Take Take because it’s in conflict ​with the agreement with Chess.com,” Kristiansen told Reuters.

"It's not a great situation to be in for either us or Magnus. I think for Magnus, it’s frustrating because he’s super excited about what we’re building."

Chess.com, founded by Danny Rensch and Erik Allebest in May 2007, had signed a game-changing deal with Carlsen in 2022 – around the time of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup cheating scandal – in which they had acquired the Play Magnus group and its properties, including Chess24.com.

The Norwegian GM has been closely associated with Chess.com ever since, making regular appearances in online tournaments besides being an ambassador for the same.

Take Take Take CEO acknowledges challenge of going up against Chess.com

Kristiansen also recently revealed how Allebest, who currently serves as Chess.com's CEO, had warned him against entering the "play and learn" domain that they currently have a monopoly over.

"My first meeting with Chess.com was in 2023... literally the first thing he (CEO and co-founder Erik Allebest) ever said to me was, never enter play and never enter learn. That’s ours,” Kristiansen said.

"And I found that quite intimidating."

Kristiansen added that Take Take Take's goal isn't "necessarily to dethrone Chess.com", and added that Carlsen too has great respect for them.

"First of ​all, our goal is not necessarily ​to kind of dethrone Chess.com. ⁠They are a great product and they’ve done a great amount of things for the chess ecosystem," he said.

"I think also Magnus has ​tremendous respect for ⁠Chess.com and the agreement and is going to honour their agreement, and that’s why he’s pulling out of ... the promotional stuff for us," he said.

“It’s hard to sort of silence Magnus Carlsen.”