ChessGPT Or ChatGPT? Both Can't Keep Servers Running To Handle Demand

ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm throughout the past few months, impressing engineers, coders and investors alike. ChatGPT, the AI-powered search engine run by OpenAI, surpassed 10 million users in less than 40 days. 

Recently, ChatGPT started displaying a message to users stating that access would be prioritized to enterprise clients, but that free users could still use the site when demand is low. 

While reporting quarterly earnings last week, Microsoft Inc MSFT shared several comments on the tech giant's investment in ChatGPT parent OpenAI. “The next major wave of computing is being born, as the Microsoft Cloud turns the world’s most advanced AI models into a new computing platform,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.

But, while ChatGPT is getting all the buzz, a different site has also seen a recent surge in users. Chess.com, the most popular site for online chess players, recently put out a blog post about the site’s overloaded servers, stating that January saw “the most people EVER on Chess.com.” 

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The blog post outlines a few different theories for the recent popularity of online chess, including some outlandish ones: Chessboxing (a sport in which contestants simultaneously fight and play chess against each other), an Instagram post and a cheating scandal involving a vibrating object. 

This isn’t the first sudden surge in online chess players. When Netflix released “The Queen’s Gambit,” a chess-centered limited series based on a novel by Walter Tevis, chess.com also struggled to keep up with the uptick in traffic. 

In order to keep up with demand, chess.com is actively working to upgrade its servers and database capabilities. According to the blog post, the site is receiving new hardware soon. “We have shipments arriving with the most powerful possible live chess and database servers this week,” the blog post reads. 

For people who have used ChatGPT, the site’s rapid growth is understandable. Although, the recent uptick in chess.com traffic, is a little bit more surprising. 

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