What is the future of chess? Which formats will be popular? How much of a punch does chessboxing pack? These are some of the burning questions Chess.com’s panel of experts will examine at this year’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Starting on Friday, March 1, the annual MIT event—now in its 18th year—is one of the most influential conferences in world sport. Guests representing all aspects of sport from the NFL, NBA and NASCAR, to soccer managers, sports media, and sports business all converge to share knowledge and expertise.

For the sixth time, Chess.com is sending its contingent. Day one will see Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch joined for a panel discussion by IM Levy Rozman (aka the hugely popular YouTube star and author GothamChess), FM James Canty III, and our star commentator GM Robert Hess. The title for the talk is The Digital Gambit: Creating Compelling Chess Content for New Audiences.

The panel will also welcome the President of Basketball Operations at the Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Morey, for his unique take on the growth of chess and how it can learn from other sports.

At the forefront of the discussion is how chess has used innovation and analytics to take an age-old game to new heights. But there will be fun moments too.

The second day will see the attention turning to the crossover sport of chessboxing with members of the panel participating in chessboxing exercises with the crossover sport champ and commentator Matt “Matador” Thomas.

Last year top GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura as well as WGM Jennifer Shahade took part in the discussion along with Rensch and Morey.

Very nice to meet some grandmasters as well as the Chief Chess Officer of @chesscom at the @SloanSportsConf! @DanielRensch @JenShahade @jenniferyuuu. @GM_Hess #chess pic.twitter.com/zus23FER4b

— S. Matthew Liao (@smatthewliao) March 4, 2023

Among the topics touched on were cheating, how to keep the chess boom going, inspiring more women to play the game, promoting live chess, and whether it will ever go stale. You can read our report here.

The goal of the MIT Sloan Annual Sports Analytics Conference is to provide a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the global sports industry.

MIT Sloan is dedicated to fostering growth and innovation in this arena, and the conference enriches opportunities for learning about the sports business world.

The conference will take place at MIT’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in the Boston Convention Center on March 1 and 2. You can view the full schedule and further details here. Watch out for updates on Chess.com’s social media.