I Did A Thing

Hey everyone, Albert here. I joined Chess.com in 2024 as the Chief Growth Officer, and unless you caught my brief appearance on last year’s State of Chess, you probably don’t know me. So here’s a quick intro, before sharing some exciting news.

I love building things. I've been working on products my whole career at places like Duolingo, Grammarly, and YouTube Gaming. And I’ve also played chess for a long time, so when I met Erik and Danny, I was thrilled to help them grow a platform that over 200 million people were using to learn, play, and connect.

Last winter, in a rare quiet moment, I started noodling on an idea. Chess.com helped demystify one of the hardest games through a virtual coach, game review, fun bots, puzzles, and more. Could that experience be applied to other games? I’ve loved poker as long as I’ve loved chess, so it seemed like a great choice! I'm absolutely no professional, but I was obsessed with watching the World Series Of Poker on ESPN way back in college, luckily qualified once for the Main Event through a charity tournament, and I enjoy hosting social neighborhood poker nights at my house.

Erik and Danny love chess so much, so I was nervous sharing the concept around. They've spent twenty years turning Chess.com into what it is, and are right to remain focused on serving that community. But to their credit, they also quickly recognized that a lot of what we've learned about teaching one game might translate to teaching others.

So with their blessing, over many nights and weekends, I’ve been building Gambit.

Here's what it is: a poker site built for learning. No real-money gambling. No rake. Just the parts of the chess playbook that have made it work for millions of people, applied to poker. Lessons. Play. Hand review with a virtual coach. Bots to practice against. Daily tournaments. And a real Elo-style rating system, which poker has (weirdly) never had. All of it built on top of the Chess.com codebase and design system, which is why we could move as fast as we did, with the same look-and-feel.

Online poker has a problem; Every major real-money platform makes money when beginners lose money. New players are the product, not the customer. The free alternatives are either bottom-of-the-barrel apps designed to push in-app purchases, or coaching sites that cost a hundred dollars a month and assume you already know what you're doing. Meanwhile, more people search "how to play poker" online than "how to play chess." People are eager to learn, but the approach is broken.
We think we can help fix it.

Chess is, was, and always will be the heart of Chess.com. Of the 650 of us on this team, all but two are focused entirely on chess (and I definitely spend the vast majority of my time on chess!). We’ve shipped more in the last two years to Chess.com than at any point in our history: Coach, streaks, courses, puzzle path, and much more on the way. This is a big year, with serious improvements to clubs and coaching/analysis tools coming. 

So here's where you come in. Gambit is in beta at gambit.com, and on iOS and Android. It's not finished, but it's fun. I’d love for you to try it and post below what's working, what isn't, and what games you'd want to see next.

— Albert