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There's a New King of the Chess Internet, and Fans Are Outraged

A company claiming a monopoly on coverage of live chess tournaments has upended a sprawling online ecosystem.
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Hunched over chess boards in a cavernous hall a few blocks from the Kremlin, eight top players are currently participating in one of the year's most closely watched competitions. The winner of the World Chess Candidates Tournament, which ends on Wednesday, March 30, will earn the right to challenge world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway at the Chess World Championships in New York City in November.

This week's tournament has been shadowed by moves taking place off the chess board. The company hired by the World Chess Federation to organize and broadcast the ongoing tournament in Russia announced earlier this month that other websites would not be allowed to offer live coverage, as many had done in the past. A few chess sites refused to honor the ban, and now the company, Agon Limited, is suing them in a Moscow court. "We have had to take steps to protect our commercial rights from rogue websites that are seeking to profit from our significant investment in the game," Ilya Merenzon, Agon's Moscow-based chief executive, said in an interview.