How Chessworld AI is building the future of chess analytics
What happens to thousands of chess games after a tournament ends? For most players, they remain locked away on scoresheets and are never revisited. Chessworld AI, founded by Damodar Mundrikeri, is working to change that by digitizing games and turning them into valuable learning tools. The startup is building a data-driven ecosystem for players, coaches, parents, and organizers. Read their story of how they are trying to shape the future of chess analytics in India. Photos: Chessworld AI
The story behind Chessworld AI
Every tournament player knows the feeling. You spend days preparing for an event, play your games, carefully record every move on a scoresheet, and once the tournament ends, those games are rarely seen again. The mistakes are forgotten, the lessons are lost, and valuable data disappears. As competitive chess players ourselves, this was a problem we experienced firsthand.
Growing up, we understood how important it is to study opponents, track improvement, and learn from mistakes. Yet at the grassroots level, most players have little or no game history available. Coaches spend hours manually entering games, while parents and players struggle to measure progress over time. That challenge became the foundation of Chessworld AI.
Founded by Damodar Mundrikeri from Kalaburagi and now operating from Bengaluru, Chessworld AI was built by a team of passionate chess players who wanted to ensure that every game becomes a learning opportunity. Our mission is simple:
"Every game teaches something. No game should ever go unanalyzed."
Starting with scoresheets
The journey began with tournament score sheets. We partnered with organizers and manually collected physical score sheets, using AI-assisted technology to convert them into digital PGN files. What started as a solution for preserving games soon revealed a much larger opportunity. Once games became digital, players could review their performances, and coaches could identify recurring weaknesses, and parents could see measurable progress. We realized chess didn't just need digitization; it needed analytics.
Building the future of chess data
Today, Chessworld AI provides opening insights, tactical profiling, opponent preparation, endgame evaluations, and personalized improvement pathways powered by AI and chess engines. The platform has already processed over 15,000 tournaments and online games, benchmarked against 1.5 lakh public games, and built a growing community of 500+ users, most of whom are active tournament players. But our vision extends beyond scoresheets.
Over the past year, we have been developing camera-based game capture technology that digitizes games directly from physical boards while players are still playing. Combined with live-streaming capabilities, this allows games to be recorded, broadcast, and analyzed in real time. Our goal is to build a complete ecosystem for players, coaches, parents, and organizers.
Supported by Karnataka's chess community
Chessworld AI is proud to have the support of some of Karnataka's most respected chess personalities:
Karnataka's first Grandmaster, M. S. Thejkumar
Karnataka's first Woman Grandmaster, Isha Sharma
International Master and founder of Rao Chess Centre, Sharan Rao
Their belief in our mission reinforces our vision of making chess analytics accessible to every player.
A major milestone
In 2025, Chessworld AI was selected for the Elevate Karnataka Startup Grant, placing it among the top-performing startups from a pool of 1,780 applicants. For us, this recognition is more than funding; it is validation that the challenges faced by players, coaches, and organizers are worth solving at scale.
Looking ahead
Indian chess is growing rapidly, and so is the need for meaningful data and insights. Over the next year, Chessworld AI aims to digitize 100+ tournaments across India, expand its analytics platform, strengthen its real-time capture technology, and continue building tools that help players improve faster. We are also actively engaging with angel investors and strategic partners who share our vision of building the future infrastructure of chess.
What began with a stack of forgotten scoresheets has evolved into a mission to ensure that every move matters, every game is remembered, and every player has access to the insights needed to reach their full potential.
Because every game teaches something, and no game should ever go unanalyzed.
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