Organisers of the World Chess Championship have lost out in their bid to block websites from broadcasting moves from the sport’s showpiece event after a US judge ruled they did not make a sufficient case.
In a bid to protect the event’s rights, organisers World Chess US and World Chess Events filed a lawsuit that sought to limit three websites from showing moves during the event, which begins in the US city of New York later today (Friday).
However, US District Judge Victor Marrero has ruled that organisers did not make a sufficient case to justify the move. According to the Reuters news agency, Marrero said public interest would be served by “robust reporting” and analysis of the event.
Marrero’s ruling allows websites to continue to show moves almost as they happen. Organisers had accused the websites of “free-riding on the work and effort of World Chess”, and had been seeking to protect their exclusive rights to news of the moves by broadcasting the event with the backing of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
Daniel Freeman, owner of one of the defendants, Chessgames Services, disputed the claim and insisted that news of moves should be public knowledge once they have been made. E-Learning and Logical Thinking were the two other websites that organisers took action against.
The defendants also claimed that they would be displaying moves on their own computerised board, and not copying World Chess-generated content.
The 12-game match between defending champion Magnus Carlsen (pictured) of Norway and Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin will run until November 30.