''Play Magnus'' is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

computer chess Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

available for the

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on the ...

s. The software is named after former

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

and features adjustable difficulty levels for chess players of various skills. It has been available since 2014 and is developed by the Norwegian company

Play Magnus AS Play Magnus Group is a Norwegian chess company co-founded by chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in 2013. The company released the mobile app '' Play Magnus'' in 2014, before merging with chess24 in 2019 and being acquired by Chess.com in 2022. His ...

, which was co-founded by Carlsen.

Description

The program is a

chess engine In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or List of chess variants, chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess software engine, engine is usually a Front ...

tuned to play at 30 different skill levels based on Magnus Carlsen's ability at given ages. Users earn points by playing chess, or can purchase points for money. Points can be spent on querying the engine for move suggestions, and on the undo function (the cost of this is higher at the higher levels). With a large points balance, it used to be possible to win a chance of playing Magnus in person but this is no longer mentioned by the app. After each game, the app gives the user a chance to "share" their result on

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, or to save the game as PGN. It also includes various quotes from Magnus that are presented between games. The first skill level ("age 5") plays moves predominantly at random.

History

The development of ''Play Magnus'' began after Carlsen founded Play Magnus AS and invested his own money and funds from investors into the company. It was developed by a team including Tord Romstad, one of the creators of

Stockfish Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...

, who said he based the engine on his Stockfish predecessor "Glaurung" to avoid copyright issues with Stockfish itself. Romstad also said they "intentionally made the progression up to about age 14 a bit more linear than it was in reality (in an attempt to make the progression not be too steep, but user feedback indicates that it might be too steep nevertheless)". Play Magnus was released in January 2014 for

and late 2014 for Android. It received close to one million downloads by November 2016. It had risen to 2.8 million downloads as of December 2017. In August 2022, the

Play Magnus Group Play Magnus Group is a Norwegian chess company co-founded by chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in 2013. The company released the mobile app '' Play Magnus'' in 2014, before merging with chess24 in 2019 and being acquired by Chess.com in 2022. His ...

accepted an offer of acquisition from

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

, for nearly $83 million.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Play Magnus 2014 software Android (operating system) games Chess software IOS games Magnus Carlsen 2022 mergers and acquisitions Chess.com