Revolutionizing Chess Technology: The Story of CircleChess and Caissa

The chess world is abuzz with excitement as young prodigies from India continue to make their mark on the global stage. Gukesh, a 17-year-old student from the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy, recently made history by becoming the youngest player to win The Candidates Chess tournament, breaking a 40-year-old record held by the legendary Garry Kasparov. Kasparov himself referred to these young talents as the ‘children’ of Vishy Anand, India’s first grandmaster.

While India has seen a surge in chess talent over the years, the technology surrounding the sport has not kept pace. This is where Bengaluru-based start-up CircleChess comes in. Founded by chess parents Kumar Gaurav and Swati Agarwal, CircleChess aims to bridge the gap between technology and chess learning.

Gaurav, a two-time founder and former CTO at WakeFit, was inspired to create CircleChess after his own sons struggled to improve their chess skills using traditional methods. He developed a tool that incentivized players to analyze and correct their mistakes, leading to significant improvements in their ratings on Chess.com.

CircleChess has since expanded its offerings to include a WhatsApp bot for tournament notifications and registration, as well as a tournament management SaaS for event organizers. The start-up has already garnered a user base of 30,000 people and continues to grow rapidly.

The core of CircleChess is an AI personalized chess coach named Caissa, which analyzes players’ games across different platforms and provides personalized training plans. The platform also includes parental controls and a unique assessment engine to track player progress.

With the global launch of Caissa set for July, CircleChess aims to revolutionize the way chess is learned and played, breaking the monopoly held by U.S.-based platforms like Chess.com. The start-up’s innovative approach has garnered praise from top players and coaches in the Indian chess community, who see it as a game-changer for both players and coaches alike.