Chessgames.com was founded in 2001 by Daniel Freeman and Alberto Artidiello in association with 20/20 Technologies. They developed software to integrate a chess database with a discussion forum, so that all games and players have a unique message board. The concept was immediately popular as users can kibitz (post comments) on many games and pages throughout the site. The Kramnik–Lékó World Championship 2004 match in Brissago was broadcast live on the site. This led to substantial growth in membership and interest, which has steadily increased since then due to other live events and many site enhancements.