Applies for .chess as community top level domain — Chess group

Application is the first known for .chess.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) and World Chess (LSE: CHSS), FIDE’s official commercial partner, disclosed today that they have applied for the .chess top level domain name.

The organizations stated they applied as a community applicant, which could give them a leg up if other entities applied for the same domain name. Right now, no other applicants for the string have publicly revealed an application.

IT.com domains will be the Registry Service Provider for the group’s .chess top level domain, ought to it be successful with its application.

The organizations stated their goal is for national federations, clubs, academies, organizers, platforms, media and players to use the domains.

FIDE will be the institutional sponsor of the domain and get a cut of the revenues; World Chess will manage the application, fund the project, and operate the extension.

There are by now a number of sports-themed top level domains available, counting .football, .soccer, .basketball, and .hockey. All of these have fewer than 10,000 registrations.

Major League Baseball controls .baseball, but hasn’t done anything with it.