World Chess (CHSS ) has been awarded the W3 Award for “Web Experiences – Games” for its “Hans Niemann vs. You” chess event produced with it.com Domains and staged at Web Summit 2024.
The W3 Awards honour creative excellence on the internet and are presented by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. The win places World Chess’s project alongside leading names in digital media, product design, and interactive technology.
Held on 13 November 2024 at Lisbon’s MEO Arena during Web Summit 2024, “Hans Niemann vs. You” invited global participants to team up with an AI advisor and vote in real time to challenge Grandmaster Hans Niemann in a live match.
More than 106,638 people from 132 countries took part, making it the largest known online simultaneous chess match. Players had 30 seconds to vote on each move, selecting Grandmaster, Advanced, or Amateur suggestions generated by a Stockfish-based system. Niemann had five minutes per move. The 71-move, 42-minute match was broadcast globally with live commentary from American FIDE Master James Canty III.
World Chess’s CEO Ilya Merenzon said: “This recognition affirms something we’ve believed for a long time: chess is evolving.”
“The success of this event-both in participation and in execution-shows that the game has room to grow in the digital public sphere, not just as sport, but as a structured, interactive experience.”
it.com Domains’ CEO Andrey Insarov added: “Our goal was to create something that invited participation at scale without sacrificing depth.”
“This award reflects the care we took in designing that experience-and what’s possible when tradition and technology meet with intent.”
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The award underscores a model for digital chess events that blends live infrastructure, AI-supported choices, and platform-native design to deliver a strategic and spectator-friendly game. It also signals chess’s expanding relevance within broader interactive digital experiences.