In 2016 when I was still very enthusiastic about chess and the World Championship was about to begin, so I applied for the World Chess Championship Affiliate Program. The intention was just to get a code to embed the game to view it live on my websites.
I submitted all the major chess websites that I maintain which is numerous to be at least representative of the viewership for Malaysia. However I got a negative response :-
So apparently I don't represent a media outlet with "substantial daily audience". This is totally baffling as I thought they would want the maximum exposure to promote the World Championship and even if the websites are small or insignificant.
Fast forward to 2019. I get this random email from the same people in my inbox:
So now they are just mass emailing to anyone on their list to add in these widgets. This is funny as now, my websites have less traffic compared to 2016 making me even more insignificant where online presence is concerned.
It's definitely an improvement from 2016 being snobbishly selective and denying small websites media access. Now it's "everybody can now help broadcast our content".
E-sports have always been generous and making multiple media outlet accessible by the masses. Chess is so far behind but better late than never I guess.
