Chess Olympiad: Celebrating chess in Chennai

Chess is said to be a combination of sport, art and science. It does not have any visual appeal like football and not much action with players sometimes taking half an hour to make a move. It is a mind game that requires time and effort to follow. But besides films like ‘Queen’s Gambit’, India hosting the Chess Olympiad for the first time in history is doing wonders to popularise chess.

From now on, India is officially my favourite country in the world—from the 61 I have visited. I have to say I am privileged to have experienced amazing hospitality in most of the places I went to. But the people her, they open their heart to you like nowhere else,” tweeted David Llada from Chennai last week.

He was not alone. Many of the visitors were gushing in their praise of Chennai, its hospitality, its food, the arrangements, the opening ceremony and Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), 60 kilometres from Chennai--where the Chess Olympiad 2022 is being held from July 28 to August 10--and the volunteers.

There were discordant notes. Some complained that their travel time from the hotel to the venue was too long, the food was too spicy, the weather too hot and humid and that the Olympiad this year is not really the same in the absence of the two powerhouses of Chess, Russia and China.

Notwithstanding such peeves, and Pakistan boycotting the Olympiad protesting against India ‘politicising’ the event by directing the Olympic torch relay through over 70 cities including Kashmir, the overwhelming verdict is that Tamil Nadu pulled off a near miracle by hosting the Olympiad at less than four months’ notice.

The Olympiad was originally due to be hosted by Belarus at Minsk. The venue then shifted to Russia. But Russia’s war against Ukraine, another Chess powerhouse, forced FIDE to look for a venue at short notice. It was already the beginning of March and the Olympiad was slated to start in July. Poland and Uzbekistan were also keen to host the event.

For once the proverbial red-tape didn’t come in the way. Media reports credit India’s first Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for the feat. The Indian Chess Federation officials were invited to brief the chief minister the very next day.

The approval in principle was given within hours and a team from FIDE was invited to inspect the proposed venue. Once the tourist hub of Mamallapuram received the nod, TN Government sanctioned Rs 100 crore or so and deployed 37 IAS officers to supervise various arrangements. By mid-July the arrangements were being given finishing touches.

Vishwanathan Anand became the first Grandmaster from India in 1987. Today India has 73 Grandmasters, and 26 of them are from Tamil Nadu. The organisers finalised the mascot, Thambi, without much fuss; they then went ahead to publicise the event across the state.

Every district was asked to organise chess tournaments and winners were promised the opportunity to watch the Olympiad live. The mascot came up all over the state, even on milk-sachets and as public mural on walls.

Roads, bridges and bus stands, were re-painted in black and white to resemble the colours on the chess board. Thirty hotels in Mamallapuram were booked for the 2,000 players and officials from 186 countries. A.R. Rahman was drafted to compose the Chess anthem and a spectacular opening ceremony was choreographed to showcase the state’s rich cultural vignettes.

All this in four months! Visitors were impressed. The Dutch CEO of ‘Chessable’ and a Grandmaster himself, gushed, “Never seen anything like it. The whole city has the chess fever.”

An overwhelmed Grandmaster and Director General at FIDE, Emil Sutovsky shared a message he had received from Alejandro Ramirez, coach of the US team. “Hey Emil, I want to say that this organisation has been amazing so far. It’s shaping to be the best Olympiad in recent memory…so, nothing but kudos,” it read.

Chess enthusiasts in Chennai even defied the perception that chess is not a spectator sport. As many as 1,000 chess enthusiasts thronged the venue to watch a game on giant screens between Anish Giri and Vidith Gujarati as they tuned in to the commentary on special headphones supplied to everyone.

School children arrived in droves to watch the matches and listen to the commentary. Policemen on duty whiled away their spare time playing chess! And a group of scuba divers caused a social media sensation by posting videos of underwater chess, appearing to play a game at a depth of 60 feet in the sea.

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday.)