--- title: Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with... description: Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest recounts buying the chess.com domain for $56,000 out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 after being told by investors the idea was... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest | daily.dev og:description: Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest recounts buying the chess.com domain for $56,000 out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 after being told by investors the idea was... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/0sQl8oNCi.png og:image:alt: Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest **[No Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups](https://daily.dev/sources/nopriorspodcast)** · 46 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest recounts buying the chess.com domain for $56,000 out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 after being told by investors the idea was uninvestable, and bootstrapping the company to 250 million registered members, 10 million daily active users, and roughly $200 million in annual revenue with 650 remote employees. He describes surviving cultural spikes from COVID and Queen's Gambit, staying profitable without early venture funding, later taking secondary investment from General Atlantic and CVC, launching a poker product called Gambit with a skill-based rating system, and using AI internally for support, analytics, agentic development, and an in-pocket AI chess coach. He also reflects on why chess remains popular despite superhuman chess engines, arguing humans still value human skill and creativity even when machines outperform them. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The $2.1 Billion “worst idea ever”: How Gamma built a profitable empire with 50 people](https://daily.dev/posts/the-2-1-billion-worst-idea-ever-how-gamma-built-a-profitable-empire-with-50-people-fbwtxeu4l) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci"},"datePublished":"2026-08-13T10:02:38.526Z","dateModified":"2026-08-13T10:02:58.491Z","description":"Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest recounts buying the chess.com domain for $56,000 out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 after being told by investors the idea was...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hplb9IHWuw0/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hplb9IHWuw0/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"No Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"No Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Hj2kMkm_--/f_auto,q_auto/v1772391934/logos/nopriorspodcast","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/nopriorspodcast"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-200m-bootstrapped-chess-empire-with-chess-com-ceo-erik-allebest-0sql8onci","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT46M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest","description":"Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest recounts buying the chess.com domain for $56,000 out of a bankruptcy auction in 2005 after being told by investors the idea was...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hplb9IHWuw0/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-13T10:02:38.526Z","duration":"PT46M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/0sQl8oNCi","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/hplb9IHWuw0"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"No Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/nopriorspodcast"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Building a $200M Bootstrapped Chess Empire with Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest"}]} ```