Meir Shachar, cofounder of the Elite Chess League.
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Elite Chess League makes a game that a billion people know into an esport

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Meir Shachar figures a billion people know how to play chess. That’s why he thinks an online version of the game will be the perfect esport. That’s why he has started the Elite Chess League.

While the idea may seem pretty old, Shachar hopes to spice it up by setting up tournaments where players can play for money. Since chess is legally defined as a game of skill, playing it for money isn’t considered gambling, according to most legal rulings.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.