Record-breaking Viewing Figures for the Budapest Chess Olympiad

MTI-Hungary Today 2024.10.09.

Slovenia’s Matej Sebenik (L) and India’s Vidit Gujrathi in the 11th round of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad

Over 350 million viewers around the world watched the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in the Budapest BOK Hall on September 10-23 via online streaming. According to a statement from the National Event Management Agency (NRÜ), the event in Budapest attracted ten times as many viewers as the Chess Olympiad in India two years ago.

The NRÜ explained that the official broadcasts of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) were watched by more than 135 million viewers, while 48 million users followed the events on Instagram and 45 million on TikTok. In India, the number of live viewers exceeded 228 million. In addition, the Hungarian-language coverage reached more than one and a half million views on social media platforms. Over 200 journalists and photographers from 58 countries covered the Chess Olympiad in the form of on-the-spot reports.

Chess has clearly entered the era of digitalization, with most chess tournaments now being followed online around the world. This is why it was a priority for the organizers to reach as many people as possible around the world. As no chess event has ever been so widely watched, we can consider the Budapest Chess Olympiad a great success,”

the statement quoted Mátyás Falvai, CEO of the NRÜ, as saying.

Photo: MTI/Illyés Tibor

The record-breaking event showed the world’s sporting community and hundreds of millions of chess lovers that Hungary is ready to host a highly specialized, technology-intensive event,”

the CEO added.

Fact

As Chess.com, one of the world’s largest online chess platforms, writes, the Chess Olympiad is the main team event in the chess world, as nearly every country sends teams to compete every two years, over 11 rounds. The first Chess Olympiad was held in 1924, thus this year’s event marked a 100-year anniversary. Budapest hosted the competition for the second time since 1926.

Historically, the Soviet Union was the most successful team with 18 gold medals. Among the present countries, the United States and Russia have the most Olympic victories, with six each. In the women’s event, the Soviet Union won 11 gold medals, followed by China with six and Georgia with four.

In the 2024 Budapest Chess Olympiad, India triumphed in both the men’s and women’s events, with the top Hungarian men’s team finishing 11th and the women’s team 14th.

India Triumphs with Double Gold at the 2024 Budapest Chess Olympiad

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to congratulate the teams.Continue reading

Via MTI, Chess.com; Featured image: MTI/Illyés Tibor