World Chess Launches Chess Dating App

Three weeks before the start of the FIDE world championship, organizer World Chess launched chess dating app Mates. Billed as a way to find an opponent for a game of chess, the app came with a press release that doesn't shy away from a sexual connotation.

Available both for iOS and Android, the app uses dating technology to help find "a chess playing partner near you." Users post a selfie to create a profile that remains online for just one hour. If there's a "match," they can agree on a location to play chess.

"This app is done to add a meaningful component to the World Chess Championship match that begins next month in London," Ilya Merenzon of World Chess wrote in an email. "We know that people want to see the chess gurus, but they want to play even more. And we are solving the biggest problem in over-the-board chess: how to find an opponent."

So far, so good.

The app, however, is owned and produced by GetPure Inc., who is behind the "hookup app" Pure. That app (which we won't link to—not safe for work!) is intended for people who are looking for casual sex partners. Mates is basically a spin-off of Pure, but with some chess images.

Roman Sidorenko, founder of the Pure app, is quoted:

"Good sex has a lot in common with a good game of chess: it’s as passionate, tense, uncertain and exciting. And just like in sex, no one wants to wait for another person to make a move. Together with World Chess we wanted to create an app that lets people be spontaneous in their desires. That's why Mates limits your conversation to an hour, so you spend less time talking and more time playing."

Some of the graphics don't leave much to the imagination either.

The app comes 10 months after World Chess stirred up controversy with one of its logos for the upcoming world championship. Described as "pawnographic" and Kama Sutra-like, the image went viral on social media and was reported on by mainstream media all over the world.

Today's press release refers to this, proudly: "Mates has the same kinky design with fetish-like chess figures, proving once again just how much chess and sex have in common. Choose your chess alter ego, snap a selfie and start searching for someone to mate!"

Still stubbornly claiming that there are "600 million people" playing chess regularly, Merenzon said: "We want everyone to spend less time on their phones and more in front of their chessboards."