Indie Gala

Chess.com is #1 in online chess... But who are we? Where did Chess.com come from? Where are we going? The Beginning Chess.com started in 2005 when two friends — Jay and Erik (that's me!) — decided the world needed a better chess website. We met 10 years earlier in college, where I first became addicted to chess — and Jay was the chess club president. We became friends through our shared passion for the game. There were places to play online, but none of them felt like home. We imagined a site where people could build their chess home online and all in one place: to play in a safe and friendly environment, find friends, save their games, tell their chess stories, share ideas, and learn from each other. I was mid-way through a graduate degree at Stanford and all of my classmates were taking jobs in finance or hot tech companies. But I turned down job offers (including Facebook!) to follow the dream of building the greatest chess site the world had ever seen. And I convinced Jay’s wife to let him join me! Luckily enough, we found out that “chess.com” was coming available in a bankruptcy auction, and we bought the name. Over the next several years, Jay and I poured our life savings, our hearts, and most of our waking hours into building Chess.com. But we never imagined what it is today!