We sponsor · Sports
Swiss Chess
We've backed the Swiss Chess Federation since 2024 - because the way a champion thinks under the clock is the way a great engineer does.
- 2024
- the year we began backing Swiss chess
- 7 / 9
- Heinatz's score winning European Women's 50+ gold
- 2×
- Swiss champion (Heinatz, 2014 & 2018)
- 20½
- Hergert's points taking a composing world title
- 7
- max pieces that define a chess 'miniature'
The story
Chess is the closest thing there is to watching pure reasoning happen in real time. A player holds a branching tree of futures in their head, prunes it under a ticking clock, and commits - knowing a single weak move undoes an hour of good ones. We've sponsored the Swiss Chess Federation (Schweizerischer Schachbund) since 2024 because that is exactly the discipline we recruit for.
2025 made the point for us. Gundula Heinatz - a Woman International Master from Thun, twice Swiss champion, and once the last Women's Champion of East Germany - won gold in the Women's 50+ category at the European Senior Chess Championship in Rabac, Croatia, taking the title on tiebreak after finishing 7/9. Off the board, she spent seven years as managing director of the data innovation alliance. The chess-meets-tech crossover, in one person.
The same year, Volker Hergert of Jona took a world title in the art of chess composition - the studies category, for 'miniatures' of no more than seven pieces. He'd only started composing for tournaments in 2022. A few years from first attempt to world champion is its own kind of rockstar story.
“Calm strategy, foresight, and precision under pressure.”
Highlights
European gold
Gundula Heinatz won the Women's 50+ title at the 2025 European Senior Championship, on tiebreak at 7/9.
Chess meets tech
Heinatz spent seven years running the data innovation alliance - reason at the top level, in both worlds.
A world-champion composer
Volker Hergert took a world title in chess composition - elegant 'miniatures' of seven pieces or fewer.
The facts
- What
- Competitive chess in Switzerland - elite sport for the mind. We sponsor the Swiss Chess Federation (Schweizerischer Schachbund), and in 2025 two players close to the Swiss tech world had a remarkable year.
- Who
- Two stand-outs: Gundula Heinatz - a Woman International Master from Thun who, until 2025, ran the data innovation alliance - and Volker Hergert, a world-champion chess composer from Jona.
- When
- Sponsors since 2024; the wins came in 2025.
- Where
- Switzerland - and a European title in Rabac, Croatia.
Why we sponsor it
The engineers and leaders we place think the way these players do: many moves ahead, calm under pressure, accountable for every decision. Backing chess is backing the kind of mind our whole practice is built around - and, increasingly, the kind of person too. The line between the Swiss chess board and the Swiss tech scene is thinner than you'd think.