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Magnus Carlsen and the renaissance of chess
With 600m players worldwide, revamped rules and a new poster boy,
chess may well be entering a new phase
The Guardian (UK)
Saturday 23 March 2013
By Nigel Short
>From this week, until early April, eight of the world's leading chess
grandmasters will be battling in the Candidates' Tournament in London,
to determine a challenger to the chess crown of the Indian world
champion, Viswanathan Anand. Known as the Tiger of Madras, Anand has
held the championship for the past six years, defending his status
three times against well-established and dangerous opponents.
This competition to determine Anand's challenger is the strongest
chess tournament ever held in the capital. And fronting the pack of
ambitious hopefuls, yearning to seize their share of the record
=82¬500,000 prize fund and go on to dethrone the sitting champion, is
the fresh, menacing force of Norway's Magnus Carlsen. At just 22 years
of age, this chess superstar has already been the public face of teen
fashion house G-Star RAW and is the recipient of hundreds of thousands
of pounds per year in sponsorship deals. Such is Carlsen's allure,
both on and off the chessboard, that many people are hoping he could
rekindle an interest in the game that has been lacking since the glory
days of Fischer-Spassky, and Karpov-Kasparov. Indeed, Carlsen has
already been invited to take the role of a chess-playing alien from
the future in the forthcoming new edition of the Star Trek movie
franchise =80` an offer he turned down.
Defending champion Anand is becoming somewhat long in the tooth and
has won only one major tournament since his successful title defence
in Moscow a year ago. Carlsen, in contrast, has soared to the highest
chess rating of all time, obliterating Kasparov's previous record,
while regularly picking off top honours in elite contests. His chess
style is harmonious, uniquely versatile and backed up by a fierce will
to win.
Under new rules, older contestants are finding it increasingly onerous
to survive long games, which now demand a gladiatorial fight to a
finish. Before the advent of computers it was still possible to stop
play and adjourn the game after five hours play. No longer.
Middle-aged grandmasters find this unremitting mental warfare hard to
stomach - Anand is twice Carlsen's age. The chess world is in a phase
of renewal, and most experts believe the time has come for change at
the top.
Will Carlsen succeed in London? He remains the favourite but there is
no doubt, after the early rounds, that the London contest will provide
a nail-biting race.
The game, it seems, could be on the verge of to reliving the days when
Fischer challenged Spassky in a metaphorical paradigm of the cold war,
or when the embodiment of glasnost and perestroika, Garry Kasparov,
took on Anatoly Karpov, the golden boy of the Kremlin establishment,
in a titanic series of battles.
Even with this recent relative downturn, though, recent research by
YouGov pointed to 600 million people who regularly play chess. The
game is now being taken up by governments around the world as an
academic subject on the school curriculum, with Israel and Armenia
being joined this month by Hungary. Medical research indicates that
playing chess can help fend off Alzheimer's disease.
So, with chess proving to be beneficial both for students and the
elderly, with fresh backers such as Azerbaijan's State Oil
Corporation, and with the alluring prospect of a young new champion
who will significantly contribute to revitalising and promoting the
sport worldwide, the future seems bright for an ancient game that
entertained the Caliphs of 9th century Baghdad and continues to do so
for fans of all ages.
With 600m players worldwide, revamped rules and a new poster boy,
chess may well be entering a new phase
The Guardian (UK)
Saturday 23 March 2013
By Nigel Short
>From this week, until early April, eight of the world's leading chess
grandmasters will be battling in the Candidates' Tournament in London,
to determine a challenger to the chess crown of the Indian world
champion, Viswanathan Anand. Known as the Tiger of Madras, Anand has
held the championship for the past six years, defending his status
three times against well-established and dangerous opponents.
This competition to determine Anand's challenger is the strongest
chess tournament ever held in the capital. And fronting the pack of
ambitious hopefuls, yearning to seize their share of the record
=82¬500,000 prize fund and go on to dethrone the sitting champion, is
the fresh, menacing force of Norway's Magnus Carlsen. At just 22 years
of age, this chess superstar has already been the public face of teen
fashion house G-Star RAW and is the recipient of hundreds of thousands
of pounds per year in sponsorship deals. Such is Carlsen's allure,
both on and off the chessboard, that many people are hoping he could
rekindle an interest in the game that has been lacking since the glory
days of Fischer-Spassky, and Karpov-Kasparov. Indeed, Carlsen has
already been invited to take the role of a chess-playing alien from
the future in the forthcoming new edition of the Star Trek movie
franchise =80` an offer he turned down.
Defending champion Anand is becoming somewhat long in the tooth and
has won only one major tournament since his successful title defence
in Moscow a year ago. Carlsen, in contrast, has soared to the highest
chess rating of all time, obliterating Kasparov's previous record,
while regularly picking off top honours in elite contests. His chess
style is harmonious, uniquely versatile and backed up by a fierce will
to win.
Under new rules, older contestants are finding it increasingly onerous
to survive long games, which now demand a gladiatorial fight to a
finish. Before the advent of computers it was still possible to stop
play and adjourn the game after five hours play. No longer.
Middle-aged grandmasters find this unremitting mental warfare hard to
stomach - Anand is twice Carlsen's age. The chess world is in a phase
of renewal, and most experts believe the time has come for change at
the top.
Will Carlsen succeed in London? He remains the favourite but there is
no doubt, after the early rounds, that the London contest will provide
a nail-biting race.
The game, it seems, could be on the verge of to reliving the days when
Fischer challenged Spassky in a metaphorical paradigm of the cold war,
or when the embodiment of glasnost and perestroika, Garry Kasparov,
took on Anatoly Karpov, the golden boy of the Kremlin establishment,
in a titanic series of battles.
Even with this recent relative downturn, though, recent research by
YouGov pointed to 600 million people who regularly play chess. The
game is now being taken up by governments around the world as an
academic subject on the school curriculum, with Israel and Armenia
being joined this month by Hungary. Medical research indicates that
playing chess can help fend off Alzheimer's disease.
So, with chess proving to be beneficial both for students and the
elderly, with fresh backers such as Azerbaijan's State Oil
Corporation, and with the alluring prospect of a young new champion
who will significantly contribute to revitalising and promoting the
sport worldwide, the future seems bright for an ancient game that
entertained the Caliphs of 9th century Baghdad and continues to do so
for fans of all ages.