Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest

Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest tells the No Priors podcast the platform is operating at around 10 million daily active users, 40–50 million monthly users, and more than 250 million registered members, projecting “a little over 200 million” in annual revenue and a workforce of roughly 650 staff in a fully remote organisation. He recounts buying the Chess.com domain out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 for about $56,000 and building the business without venture funding after investors told him the market was “uninvestable”, growing “at the speed of cash” and reaching profitability soon after introducing paid memberships.

Allebest describes demand surges during Covid-19 and The Queen’s Gambit, followed by another spike in 2023 that he links to short-form content, the ‘Mittens’ bot, and a widely discussed cheating scandal; he says the company only concluded in 2024 that the higher baseline was durable. On ownership, he says private equity involvement from General Atlantic and later CVC was largely secondary share purchases rather than growth capital, and argues investor oversight improved operational forecasting rather than changing the mission.

He discusses chess as a long-running test case for human interest in games after machines became superhuman, and outlines how AI is being used internally for support, analytics, and development. He also signals product expansion beyond chess, saying the company has launched a poker product, Gambit, designed around ratings as a measure of skill, and is exploring additional classic games.

• Allebest says Chess.com is at roughly 10m daily active users and expects a little over $200m in annual revenue this year.
• He recounts buying Chess.com’s domain in 2005 out of bankruptcy for about $56,000 and building without venture capital after failing to raise funds.
• He says the company became profitable after introducing paid memberships and grew hiring in line with revenue.
• He links major growth waves to Covid-19/The Queen’s Gambit and a 2023 spike tied to short-form content, ‘Mittens’, and a cheating scandal, with 2024 marking a perceived durable baseline.
• He says General Atlantic (2020/21) and CVC investments were secondary share purchases, not primary growth funding.
• He says Chess.com has launched a poker product, Gambit, and is applying chess-like ratings to poker, with more classic games planned.
• He outlines AI use across support, analytics, and development, including an internal knowledge/authentication layer (“GNS”) and an AI chess coach concept.