Duolingo’s Mascot, Duo the Owl, Joins Chess.com to Capture Your Pawns in 12 Languages

Chess.com and Duolingo partner to combine the fun of language learning and the thrill of chess for learners around the world

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Chess.com, the world’s largest chess site with a global community of more than 150 million members, today announced a partnership with Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL), the world’s leading mobile learning platform. For the first time ever, Chess.com is introducing multilingual player bots that allow users to interact with opponents in more languages, including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Korean, Arabic, Indonesian, and Russian. To celebrate, Duolingo’s delightful characters are joining the game as playable multilingual bots.

Beginning today, Chess.com players will see familiar faces as their automated opponents: the Duolingo World characters. Players can face off against the sweet but hyper-competitive Zari, bored and unimpressed Lily, refined and overconfident Oscar, frog-loving chess prodigy in the making Junior, and of course, Duo the owl himself. But Duo won’t make it easy… and when players interact with Duo during the game, his aggressive personality might also come out to play.

“Chess is arguably the most international game we have today, and we hope language learning will surge synonymously with chess play on Chess.com to reach even more international players,” said Chess.com Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch. “Duolingo and Chess.com are two huge online communities that have so much in common, and we’re excited to create unique opportunities that bring more people together globally.”

“Duolingo learners and Chess.com’s community of players are dedicated, passionate, and want to learn by doing, which is exactly how both platforms teach,” said George Audi, Global Head of Business Development for Duolingo.“By bringing Duolingo’s lovable cast of characters, each with their unique and distinctive personalities, to Chess.com as playable bots in multiple languages, we’re combining the joy of learning and practicing a language with the thrill of improving your chess game. We hope November will be a fun month for both communities to take their learning to the next level.”

Until December 2nd, Chess.com subscribers can claim two months of free Super Duolingo, and Chess.com registered users can claim one month of free Super Duolingo, allowing them to accelerate their language learning skills at the same time that Chess.com has provided a new playing ground for practice. Additionally, Duolingo learners can join a chess-themed November monthly challenge and earn a one-month Diamond Membership on Chess.com.

About Chess.com

Chess.com is the world’s largest chess site with a community of more than 150 million members from around the world playing more than 10 million games every day. Chess.com organizes and broadcasts the world’s biggest chess events featuring multi-million-dollar prize funds captivating millions of viewers. Chess.com is the 114th ranked site on the internet. In June 2023, Chess.com was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies.

About Duolingo

Duolingo is the leading mobile learning platform globally. Its flagship app has organically become the world’s most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing app in the Education category on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. With technology at the core of everything it does, Duolingo has consistently invested to provide learners a fun, engaging, and effective learning experience while remaining committed to its mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.

Contacts

Bianca Facey

press@chess.com
(203)577-7588