Apple Wins Israeli High-Tech Chess Championship for Second Consecutive Year

Apple secured first place in the 2026 Israeli High-Tech Chess Championship, marking its second consecutive victory. The competition featured a record 92 technology companies and over 350 participants, making it the largest edition since the tournament's inception five years ago. Apple scored 11.5 out of 15 points, ahead of Matrix and Nvidia, which tied for second and third with 9.5 points each.

The championship was jointly sponsored by fintech giant Intuit, which hosted the final event at its offices in Petah Tikva, and cybersecurity firm Zscaler. The tournament included four preliminary rounds, from which 30 companies advanced to the finals. Notable participants included Apple, Google, Nvidia, Amazon, Applied Materials, SimilarWeb, SentinelOne, Salesforce, and other leading Israeli tech firms.

In preparation, over 40 companies held internal chess tournaments and training sessions to select their representatives. More than 900 games were played throughout the event. The championship was founded by international chess master Alon Mindlin, who recently gained global attention for defeating former world champion Magnus Carlsen. Mindlin also leads TechMate, an Israeli high-tech chess initiative that has grown into a community of thousands and hundreds of organizations, offering meetups, competitions, courses, and lectures that blend chess with technology.

The event is considered the first of its kind worldwide to unite employees, managers, entrepreneurs, and investors from hundreds of tech companies in a large-scale organizational chess competition. Apple received a special prize from Uri Greenbaum, CEO of TipRanks, the official sponsor of chess legend Hikaru Nakamura, ranked third globally. The award included a chessboard signed by Carlsen and Nakamura, who sent greetings to the participants and the Israeli high-tech community.

Alon Mindlin expressed pride in the community built around the championship, highlighting its growth from 29 companies in its first year to 92 this year, a 217% increase. He emphasized chess as more than a game, describing it as a platform for networking, strategic thinking, and connecting people, and expressed optimism about future expansion.