The AI app only a grandmaster could build

In April of this year, I held a 1,400 day streak with Duolingo French. So I was ready for a new challenge.

Duolingo Chess had just become the fastest-growing non-language subject. That seemed like a sign. 

My twin brother and father are real chess players. I’m a wood pusher. 

I always felt left out when they discussed the finer nuances of the game. Ever heard of the Ruy Lopez opening? Yeah, I hadn’t either.

Duolingo’s gamified approach can be addicting. But the design and order of the lessons didn’t appeal to me. I just wanted to play games.

That gap led me down the chess rabbit hole.

I came across Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement, a podcast hosted by Kevin Scull. He features guests rated anywhere from beginner to grandmaster.

As I scrolled through the episode titles, I stopped on “Ep. 258 GM Mauricio Flores.” GM stands for grandmaster, the highest title in chess.  There are fewer than 2,000 in the world.

The show notes mentioned Mauricio’s new app ChessMind AI and the differences between prodigies and adults. I knew I was in for a treat.

Mauricio Flores Rios is a 35-year-old bootstrapped founder in Silicon Valley. The road that got him here started with a chess board in Chile. I made a video about his origin story.

He grew up in Valparaiso. His uncle offered to teach him chess and Mauricio fell in love with the game. 

And with no coach anywhere near his hometown, he focused his attention on every single chess book he could find.

After competing in local tournaments, he achieved the title of grandmaster at just 18. That notoriety got him noticed by a university in Texas that offered him a scholarship.

He went on to earn a PhD in machine learning and even penned two chess books, Chess Structures and Chess Imbalances. Collectively, they’ve sold over 25,000 copies and are considered modern classics.  

He pursued a career as a Generative AI Scientist, but chess was in his blood.

Mauricio has a decade of machine learning expertise and grandmaster level chess mastery. Very few people on the planet have either and he has both.

He built an AI chess learning platform only he could build and called it ChessMind AI.

Mauricio’s interview provided an incredible amount of insight beyond just his personal story.  

He told Kevin that most chess apps focus on tactics, but the more advanced techniques like middle-game positional feedback require deep chess expertise.  That’s precisely why his rare combination positions ChessMind AI so uniquely.

He also said something that stopped me cold. "We are not very good at advertising but in terms of functionalities we are very good." 

Kevin continued, “You've got your book, and then you're like, 'I should also do a YouTube channel.' What was the motivation there?"

Mauricio responded that he had already invested in a lot of equipment like a professional microphone, camera, lights and a greenscreen for his Chessable course. He finished with, “I have everything, why not?"

This was 2025 and he learned to be a content creator the exact same way he learned chess, by teaching himself.

As soon as I got home I did two things.  First, I purchased a lifetime plan for ChessMind AI.  I like to support founders who are early in their journeys. Second, I even dropped a quick intro into his Discord community.  Minutes later, Mauricio responded to my post, “Great to meet you!”

Then I dove head first into my diagnostic. I scanned all of his channels across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.

In just over a year, Mauricio had amassed 25 million organic views across his socials. His ChessMind AI Instagram with 6k followers regularly hit 15k to 45k views per Reel. Seven even crossed one million views. 

His content strategy, unlike mainstream chess sites or apps, targets serious chess players who want to think like a grandmaster. 

He uses his short form videos to turn sophisticated concepts into challenges and puzzles. His long form videos draw more serious players into his deeper world of chess mastery.

Most founders with funded SaaS companies I’ve interacted with would envy those numbers. Mauricio achieved those results as a solopreneur in the tiniest of niches.

And he had never spent a dollar on paid ads. See my breakdown here.

And yet the product marketing and paid amplification opportunity was completely wide open.

At the time Mauricio appeared to be in stealth mode on LinkedIn with only a headline that read Staff Gen AI Scientist. There wasn’t a trace of ChessMind AI on his profile.  

Even though I thought LinkedIn would be a great channel for his business, I never sent him a connection request. He had never made a single post.

My chess progress stalled and I moved on to other activities like launching my own business. 

Four months later, I decided to glance at his content. I hadn't seen a video of his on my feed in some time.

Between April and August, Mauricio’s posting cadence had fallen considerably.  Across all his channels, he went from posting about 10 videos a week to just over four. 

YouTube, his personal Instagram, and TikTok were all down. Only his ChessMind AI Instagram kept pace. He still pumped out 57 Reels with over a combined million views.  The kicker is that he actually lost 34 followers.  That is way too much work to not grow.

I thought to myself, “This guy must be dabbling in paid ads.”  

I did a quick search on the Meta Ads Library and saw seven active campaigns. He finally started doing paid ads in July.

This move made perfect sense.  

Mauricio is not your average content creator.  Besides working full time as a Generative AI scientist, he also coaches students. He's since added Founder at ChessMind AI to his LinkedIn headline.

The grind of near daily organic videos seemed to have taken its toll.

Then I checked the ChessMind AI pricing page. The prices definitely seemed to be higher, but I couldn’t find my receipt. So I sent a quick email to request it.

Within the hour, Mauricio himself wrote back, “Hi Antonio, Thanks for reaching out! I’ve sent you the receipt for your lifetime subscription, which includes the payment details and amount.”

My hunch was right.  I had paid $179.99 and the current price is $229.99, up nearly 28%.  Same thing with monthly, up from $6.99 to $9.99, and yearly, up from $59.99 to $69.98.  Interestingly, he no longer offers a 15-minute one-to-one session.  He replaced that with “VIP support, fastest response time.”

I thought to myself, “How does such a busy guy have time to respond to a billing request?”

The same day I requested the receipt I got Alex Hormozi’s “Mozi Minute” email newsletter.  The topic was how high leverage equates to small input with big output. The opening read, “If you find yourself constantly capacity limited in a service business…” 

Mauricio is a solo operator. Hormozi listed five ways to add capacity and three came down to putting skilled people around you.

I also just sat in on a masterclass with Justin Welsh and Kajabi. Justin just crossed $15 million in profit as a solopreneur with no employees and no investors in seven years on Kajabi.

The biggest takeaway from that conversation is what to do with attention. He said, “Attention and an audience always get bundled in together. They're two different things. One is people knowing you exist, and the other is that you can actually reach those people anytime you want without an algorithm.”

Mauricio has generated millions of views with his videos. What he doesn't have is an email list of potential buyers he can reach whenever he wants.

Mauricio has had five careers. A chess grandmaster, an academic with a PhD, a data scientist, a viral content creator and now as an AI founder.

ChessMind AI is the convergence of those five careers and it’s his biggest play yet.

Distribution is the one aspect that's costing him.

The one tool missing from his toolbox is a way to reach the millions of people who’ve already found him.

The attention you've already earned is worth more once you own it.

- Antonio

P.S. If you're a founder who's built real authority and can't figure out why your content isn't driving growth, hit reply. I'll tell you what's holding you back.