Lockdown life gives fillip to online chess

1. Lockdown life gives fillip to online chess The world soon sensed that playing chess online was no different from playing it in person and this resulted in the beginning of ‘achhe din’ for the game When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world over a year ago, the first public reaction was that of disbelief. The stereotype modern lifestyle has hampered our ability to think beyond the routine. Unfortunately, the pandemic turned out to be something very real, driving the world into a state of uncertainty and fear. Lockdown or artificial house arrest, unknown to the democratic world, became the order of the day. Life changed completely between phases of strict lockdown and subsequent relaxations. Work From Home became routine; schools and colleges, too, started teaching online. But the human race rose to the occasion remarkably well and the world soon learnt new ways of living. The new life was particularly hard on the sports fraternity. With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, the sports world began to understand that it was facing its greatest

2. challenge for survival since World War II. Sports activities came to a standstill everywhere. Most sports coaches in schools, practically all over the world, lost their jobs. Sports organisations representing popular disciplines soon came up with ‘damage control’ steps, finding new ways to amuse their fans by bringing in online versions of their sports. However, the online versions proved to be quite different from the real ones. Online play required completely different qualities in sports like cricket, football or tennis. Online versions, in general, failed to meet the requirements of the sports fans. Chess, however, drew a completely different response. Unlike other sports, playing chess online was in existence for over two decades due to portals such as Chess.com, Li-Chess, Chess24, Internet Chess Club (ICC), etc. Membership of these portals was hassle-free, quick and inexpensive.As a result, online chess tournaments and training already existed before the pandemic hit the world. The major difference between online chess and other sports is that the skill set is the same in chess for the original sport and the online version. The world soon sensed that playing chess online was no different from playing in person and this resulted in the beginning of “achhe din (good days)” for chess globally. The president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted by the ‘New York Times’ in May, 2020 as saying that the number of online chess players had at least doubled by the first six months after the pandemic began. This is because in March-April 2020, most chess portals started conducting online tournaments round-the-clock and that enabled the world to start a new connect with the mystery of 64 squares. To understand the reason for such an upsurge in the number of players one also needs to refer to surveys conducted by chess organisations from time to time. The one by former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov is the most relevant. Karpov and his team deduced that over 30 per cent of the population of developed countries played chess reasonably well (way back in 2008) and that it was only their inability to go and play in chess tournaments that had kept them away; that is why the low participation in tournaments did not really reflect the true picture of chess’ popularity. With chess portals starting regular, online tournaments since March, 2020, these latent chess players got an opportunity to pursue their passion. Work From Home and online academic education provided all the extra time needed to start something new and it was online chess that attracted large sections of the society. The proactive role played by the FIDE during the pandemic has been commendable and an inspiration to chess organisers all over the world. While both, the International Olympic Committee and the FIDE were compelled to indefinitely postpone the 2020

3. Olympic Games (Japan) and 2020 Chess Olympiad (Russia), respectively, the FIDE immediately came up with an ingenious alternative — Online Chess Olympiad. The Chess Olympiad format was modified to suit all sections of players with the inclusion of women, boys and girls in national teams. (The Online Chess Olympiad 2020 was jointly won by Russia and India.) Online Chess has its disadvantages too. Chess-playing engines are more formidable than the strongest chess players these days and that tempts many players to use engines to win games by unfair means. Though there were no instances of cheating in the Online Olympiad, the online World Youth Chess Championships, unfortunately, saw several instances of wrong-doings. The FIDE took prompt measures against both cheating and the pandemic by coming with an innovative concept of a ‘hybrid Chess tournament’ — which is basically an online tournament with a difference that players from one city gather at one place and play under surveillance of International Arbiters. At the moment, most of the city and district chess associations in India are not able to provide venues for such tournament, but eventually hybrid tournaments are going to be the major form of the game in future primarily because it is cheap on account of negligible travel and accommodation costs. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is committed to create ‘hybrid chess arenas’ in all the major cities in the country. The greatest individual contributor to chess during the pandemic is none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen who not only sponsored several online tournaments but also facilitated mega events like Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, with 10 major online tournaments scheduled between November 2020 and October 2021, with the participation of most of the top players. The tour has seen emergence of several young talents reaching the highest level. Former world champion Garry Kasparov, too, made a great contribution in assisting the direction of the Netflix series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, the story of an orphan American girl becoming a world champion by defeating the mighty Russians in the 1960s. In India, the newly-elected members of the AICF have begun its term with a bang. The AICF is all set to launch its ‘Chess In Schools’ campaign and has already conducted chess training webinars for over 1,500 trainee coaches. The day is not far when every Indian child will learn chess in his/her school. The high point for chess so far is that Pog Champs 3, hosted by Chess.com in February, 2021, saw the participation of 7.5 million players, a number unparalleled in any other sports discipline. Chess has indeed reached its peak and the pandemic has contributed a great deal to its growth. However, one should not be complacent about the boom. In March, 2021, the ‘Chess Insider’ cautioned that all is not as well because “the new-found popularity is diluting the

4. game’s essence”. I perfectly agree with this view as I too see certain (avoidable) dangers involved. In order to curb the incidences of cheating, all chess portals are conducting more and more Blitz (3 minutes) and Bullet (1 minute) tournaments, but none with regular and classical time control. In such rapid tournaments, factors like speed of internet connection, efficiency in handling the mouse and chess reflexes outweigh chess skills. A serious chess player, therefore, should refrain from playing Blitz and Bullet games regularly. Now that the chess fraternity has succeeded in creating a continuously increasing active player base, it is time to conduct more Hybrid Chess Tournaments and create new champions. (The writer is an Indian chess Grandmaster and seven-time national chess champion. He is also an Arjuna awardee. The views expressed are personal.)