Not chess but Starcraft 2.

Just to show what top Starcraft 2 players earn compared to chess. Also this is one of the qualifying rounds for the coming World Championship in China.




Why I am posting this when the World Chess Championship is hours away?

It's a good opportunity to compare Chess and Starcraft 2 levels are when it comes to broadcasting the live games to the masses.


Chess
Agon Limited who are the official partner of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) are fiercely defending their rights to boradcast the World Championship. As can be seen from my email with Agon rep, I was denied access to place even the widget to show the game on my website. Take note it's only the game. No commentaries. No video or image of the chess players in New York. I know my websites are "not significant" but alieanating small sites is not really helping their cause.

Sure, you can still follow live (without buying the subscription from Agon) with commentaries from Chess.com and Chess24.com but these two sites will not have access to see the players themselves due to Agon protective stance on broadcasting. Incidentally, Agon has lost the court case vs Chess24.com in the Russian courts.

Starcraft 2
All live events for Starcraft, especially big events like the World Championship is open to EVERYBODY via twitch.tv live. Big difference compared to chess.

Of course the reason for this is simple. Blizzard has figured out how to support their media broadcasting using sponsors and other channels. I guess chess has to take the road of trial and error to find the correct formula to get chess out the masses. Frankly I feel that telling smaller websites their not significant enough and suing other chess websites is the way to go.

Note: The above video is 2 weeks ago (delayed telecast?) but when it was first shown it was live on twitch.tv


Those who want to follow the World Championship live tune in around 2am according to the Agon World Chess Championship website.