[4][5] It has been available since 2014 and is developed by the Norwegian company Play Magnus AS, which was co-founded by Carlsen.

[6] The program is a chess engine tuned to play at 30 different skill levels based on Magnus Carlsen's ability at given ages.

With a large points balance, it used to be possible to win a chance of playing Magnus in person[7] but this is no longer mentioned by the app.

[10] Play Magnus was released in January 2014 for iOS and late 2014 for Android.

[11] In August 2022, the Play Magnus Group accepted an offer of acquisition from Chess.com, for nearly $83 million.