Andrew Paulson, the founder and director of Agon Limited, passed away on 18th of July 2017, after a long battle with cancer. He became known in the chess world when he established AGON Limited in 2012 and signed a contract with FIDE to organize and promote the events of the World Championship cycle. He successfully organized the very famous Candidates tournament in London 2013, which attracted a lot of attention from media and spectators and was one of the most crucial tournaments for the future World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Exclusively for the Candidates tournament the head of AGON presented the new design of the playing hall and the ChessCasting software that is being used to transmit the games live to the world to get a more personal experience while following the tournament. Andrew also came up with the idea to create especially designed Championship chess set of World Chess. The chess set with the new Staunton piece design became the regular one for such top events as Grand Prix tournaments and the World Championship Matches.
In October 2013 Andrew Paulson was elected as President of the English Chess Federation but after a few months he stepped down.
In summer 2014 he withdrew from AGON and Ilya Merenzon took over the company.
Andrew Paulson is famous as the founder of “Afisha” magazine, an entertainment and listings magazine that became the cultural touchstone of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and SUP Media, which became Russia’s largest online media company.

Andrew Paulson approached everything with great enthusiasm and boldness and will be much missed by all his many friends throughout the world.