Chessify
Chessify, founded in 2016, is a cloud-based chess engine analysis platform serving professional players and serious amateurs with up to 1 BN/s cloud servers, a 10M+ game database, and tools distributed via web, mobile, and ChessBase plugins.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Chessify does
Chessify, Inc. is a San Francisco-based, privately held software company founded in 2016 by Gor Vardanyan (CEO) and Hambardzum Petrosyan (VP Engineering) that operates a cloud-based chess engine analysis platform marketed to professional and serious amateur chess players. Its core product delivers up to 1 billion nodes-per-second dedicated cloud servers running the leading open-source chess engines (Stockfish 18, LCZero, asmFish, SugaR, Koivisto, Berserk, ShashChess, RubiChess, and others), backed by Oracle and Google Cloud infrastructure, with a 10M+ game Mega Database, a 6-piece Syzygy endgame tablebase, OCR-based chessboard and PDF scanners, video search, encrypted cloud PGN storage, and a proprietary Confidence Score for engine evaluation reliability. Distribution spans a self-serve web app, iOS/Android mobile apps, and UCI plugins embedded in ChessBase, Fritz, SCID, HIARCS, and Aquarium.
The company monetizes through a freemium-to-paid subscription model (Free, Amateur at $7.99/month, Master, GM, and a $15,000/year Super GM tier) supplemented by a usage-based coin economy for dedicated server rentals, plus combo plans bundling subscriptions and coins. Go-to-market is product-led and community-led: the platform is endorsed by super-GM brand ambassadors Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, and Levon Aronian, and has secured official analysis partnerships with FIDE (44th Chess Olympiad, Candidates livestream), the Global Chess League, and the Association of Chess Professionals. The business claims 60,000+ PRO users, 2,000+ daily professional users, and 300+ grandmasters, and is preparing to launch ChessAI Buddy, a chess-tuned generative AI assistant built on its engine and database assets. Chessify is bootstrapped, with only a single disclosed raise of $54,985 in 2017 and no disclosed revenue or valuation.
Chessify firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Chessify
- Legal name
- Chessify, Inc.
- Website
- https://chessify.me
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Chessify, founded in 2016, is a cloud-based chess engine analysis platform serving professional players and serious amateurs with up to 1 BN/s cloud servers, a 10M+ game database, and tools distributed via web, mobile, and ChessBase plugins.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Chessify industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Chess Analysis Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Poker Training, Coaching & Content (Courses, Solvers, Communities) (MPAEAEAF)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Cloud Gaming Platforms (BPAMAKAC)
Keywords
Where Chessify is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Chessify business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription plans (Amateur, Master, GM): Recurring monthly/yearly subscriptions starting from $7.99/month for the Amateur plan (32-thread shared server), with Master and GM tiers offering 128-thread unlimited shared servers. Includes website features such as 10M+ games database, cloud storage, opening references, Syzygy tablebase, and unlimited cloud analysis. Annual plans save 2 months.
- Coin packages (pay-as-you-go): One-time coin purchases starting from $25 (2,500 coins) up to $1,000 (120,000 coins with 20% bonus). Coins are the inner currency used to rent dedicated cloud servers (e.g., Stockfish at 128–1024 threads, LCZero GPU, asmFish/Berserk/Koivisto/SugaR at 128 threads). Packages are valid for 6 months.
- Combo plans (subscription + coins): Hybrid offering bundling Amateur or Master subscription plans with coins for LCZero and other engines, designed to be more affordable than buying subscriptions and coins separately.
- Super GM annual plan: Premium $15,000/year plan with 6 million coins, targeted at the most demanding professional users who need the highest tier of dedicated cloud server access for a full year.
- Freemium tier: Free plan with 1MN/s Stockfish analysis for any registered user, including basic access to website features and 16-thread unlimited shared server, designed to drive conversion to paid tiers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free plan — 16-thread unlimited shared server, basic website features (1 PGN, no Video Search) |
| Subscription | Monthly | Amateur plan — 32-thread unlimited shared server, full website features |
| Subscription | Monthly | Master plan — 128-thread unlimited shared server, 500 PGNs, full features |
| Subscription | Monthly | GM plan — 128-thread unlimited shared server, unlimited PGNs, 1-1 bonus call with a GM |
| Subscription | Annual | Super GM plan — premium tier with 6,000,000 coins for full-year access |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Coin packages — pay-as-you-go for dedicated (per-user) cloud servers |
| Hybrid | Monthly | Combo plans — Amateur/Master subscription bundled with LCZero coins |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels9 records
Chessify product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Chessify operates a cloud-based chess engine analysis platform that rents dedicated, high-performance cloud servers running the world's strongest chess engines (Stockfish, LCZero, asmFish, SugaR, Koivisto, Berserk, and others) to chess players. Customers access the engines through a web app, mobile app, or a downloadable plugin for third-party GUI programs like ChessBase, paying via subscription plans (Free, Amateur, Master, GM, Super GM) or usage-based coin packages for dedicated server time. The platform bundles engines with a 10M+ game online database, a 6-piece Syzygy endgame tablebase, OCR chessboard scanning, and YouTube video search by position.
Product overview
Chessify is a unified cloud-based chess training platform centered on the Chessify Cloud Platform, delivered across surfaces through the Chessify Mobile App and the Chessify ChessBase Plugin (which extends cloud engines to third-party GUI programs like ChessBase, Fritz, SCID, HIARCS, and Aquarium). At the core is the Chessify Cloud Engines suite, including Stockfish (NNUE, traditional, CorChess), LCZero, asmFish, SugaR AI, Koivisto, Berserk, ShashChess, RubiChess, Caissa, Crystal, Patricia, and Viridithas, running on dedicated cloud servers (up to 1 BN/s) backed by Oracle Cloud infrastructure. The engines are surrounded by feature modules: the Chessify Mega Game Database (10M+ games + Lichess + ICCF), Cloud Storage, the OCR-driven Chessboard Scanner and PDF Scanner/Reader, the Video Search (YouTube position lookup), Opening Reference, Internal Search, advanced Notation, the 6-piece Syzygy Endgame Tablebase, Full Game Analysis, and the new Confidence Score engine-trust metric. The announced ChessAI Buddy extends the platform with a chess-tuned GPT for instructions, recommendations, and database-backed insights. Commercial access is sold via Chessify Subscription Plans (Free, Amateur, Master, GM, Super GM) and a complementary Coins pay-as-you-go currency for dedicated servers, bundled as Chessify Combo Plans.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- ChessAI Buddy: An AI-fueled chess GPT product from Chessify offering in-depth chess instructions, recommendations, and insights drawing on Chessify's online chess game database and cloud engine analysis; listed as 'coming soon' on its dedicated page.
Products and services
- Chessify Cloud Platform Web-based cloud platform providing access to up to 1,000,000 kN/s Stockfish 18 analysis, GPU servers for LCZero, a 9.7+ million game online database, and 12+ chess engines for chess training and analysis from any device. Targeted at chess players of all levels from amateurs to super-GMs.
- Chessify Mobile App Mobile application best known for its chessboard scanner that lets users digitize positions from photos of real chessboards, diagrams from books, or digital sources; also includes a video search tool to find videos by position. Available on iOS and Android app stores.
- Chessify ChessBase Plugin MSI installer (ChessifyCloudEngineInstaller.msi) that adds Chessify's cloud engines and servers as UCI kibitzer engines within third-party chess GUI programs including ChessBase, Fritz, SCID, HIARCS, and Aquarium.
Companies that use Chessify
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Chessify technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration16 records
AI capability10 records
Feature9 records
Chessify partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Chessify competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Lichess: Lichess is a free, open-source chess platform offering unlimited engine analysis and large game databases. It is a direct competitor to Chessify on cloud engine analysis and database access, with a vastly larger user base but no subscription tier.
- HIARCS: HIARCS is a chess engine and GUI program used by professionals. Chessify integrates with HIARCS via a plugin, but HIARCS also sells its own engine analysis products — competing for the same professional-amateur analysis dollar.
- ChessBase: ChessBase is the dominant incumbent in chess training software and databases, offering ChessBase Public Cloud engine analysis up to 366,000 kN/s. It is Chessify's most direct competitor in the same professional/amateur chess analysis category.
- Aquarium: Aquarium is a chess GUI program that supports multiple engine analysis. Chessify integrates with Aquarium via plugin, while Aquarium itself competes for professional users who want multi-engine local analysis.
- Fritz: Fritz is a long-standing chess GUI program (owned by ChessBase) that supports engine analysis. Chessify's plugin integrates directly with Fritz, positioning Fritz both as a complementary integration target and as a competitor for chess-software spend.
- SCID: SCID (Shane's Chess Information Database) is a free, open-source chess database and GUI used by serious amateurs. Chessify integrates with SCID via plugin; SCID's free nature makes it a price-competing alternative for users on the amateur segment of Chessify's funnel.
Emerging players
- DecodeChess: DecodeChess provides human-language explanations of engine evaluations and is integrated as a Chessify partner for position decodes. It competes at the edge of Chessify's roadmap (ChessAI Buddy) on AI-driven chess insight.
- PGN-Mentor: PGN-Mentor is a chess game database site offering opening and player references. It overlaps with Chessify's database and opening-reference features, particularly for amateur and club players researching opponents.
Broad incumbents
- Chess24: Chess24 (now part of the chess.com group) is a major chess platform offering play, broadcasting, and training tools. Its premium tier and engine analysis features overlap with Chessify's value proposition for serious amateurs and professionals.
- Chess.com: Chess.com is the world's largest chess platform (play, lessons, analysis). Its Diamond/Gold subscriptions include engine analysis features that compete with Chessify, and its scale dwarfs Chessify — though chess training is one of many offerings rather than the core focus.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Chessify social profiles
Digital presenceChessify financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Chessify leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Chessify funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Chessify M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Chessify
What does Chessify do?
Chessify operates a cloud-based chess engine analysis platform that rents dedicated, high-performance cloud servers running the world's strongest chess engines (Stockfish, LCZero, asmFish, SugaR, Koivisto, Berserk, and others) to chess players. Customers access the engines through a web app, mobile app, or a downloadable plugin for third-party GUI programs like ChessBase, paying via subscription plans (Free, Amateur, Master, GM, Super GM) or usage-based coin packages for dedicated server time. The platform bundles engines with a 10M+ game online database, a 6-piece Syzygy endgame tablebase, OCR chessboard scanning, and YouTube video search by position.
Is Chessify a public or private company?
Chessify is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Chessify founded?
Chessify was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Chessify based?
Chessify is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Chessify make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Subscription plans (Amateur, Master, GM) is the primary driver. The others are coin packages (pay-as-you-go), combo plans (subscription + coins), super GM annual plan and freemium tier.
Who are Chessify's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Lichess, HIARCS, ChessBase, Aquarium, Fritz and SCID. Emerging players are DecodeChess and PGN-Mentor. Broad incumbents are Chess24 and Chess.com.
Does Chessify have an API?
No public API is recorded for Chessify.
What industry is Chessify in?
Chessify's product category is Chess Analysis Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAEAEAF, Poker Training, Coaching & Content (Courses, Solvers, Communities), with a secondary code of BPAMAKAC, Cloud Gaming Platforms. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.