Professional chess faces its IPL moment. The Lalit Modi-type character here is German multimillionaire Jan Henric Buettner and bringing the Dhoni-style charisma to the party is the chess GOAT Magnus Carlsen. Jaideep Unudurti, a chess enthusiast, has written an entertaining article for the ET. He writes about the tussle between the new style of chess (dubbed “freestyle”) and the classical-style FIDE chess:
“On the one side is freestyle chess, headed by Magnus Carlsen…backed by German multimillionaire Jan Henric Buettner. On the other, is the venerable world chess federation or FIDE. In the middle are the creamy layer of chess players who are judging offers and counter-offers.”
Whilst on the face of it, Carlsen’s mutiny was triggered by FIDE (and more specifically Vishwanathan Anand) turfing him out of the World Rapid Chess Championship for wearing jeans, the more profound driver of this turn of events is money (or the lack of it) for the top European players:
“Felix Blohberger, a 22-year-old Austrian grandmaster, recently posted a video, “Being A Chess Professional (In Europe) Sucks”. He says, “I don’t think European professional players will even be able to compete much more in the future, at least on the very high level, because simply there is not enough motivation from a financial standpoint.”
He contrasts the lack of financial rewards and recognition from either the government or society in Europe with that in India. Blohberger, who works as a second to the Indian grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna, points out that his friend GM Frederik Svane, who won a gold medal for his team at the Olympiad, got only around 3,000 euros. Meanwhile, Gukesh, who also won a gold medal, got at least 500,000 euros from the federations as well as state and central governments. If Buettner with his millions can change the situation in Europe, then it will be a lifeline to professionals like Blohberger.”
So what changes are the Buettner-Carlsen duo bringing this ancient Indian game? Basically, they are taking the “opening” moves in the game – which tends to highly scripted and intensely scripted with the pros mugging up 5-6 encyclopaedias worth of openings – out of the game. By doing so, they are taking freestyle chess straight into the middle game (which tends to be less scripted, less predictable and more a test of the players’ intelligence rather than his rote learning ability).
So how does freestyle chess work? Mr Unudurti explains: “Free style is merely the latest incarnation of a form of chess. The rules are the same, and the row of pawns in front remains as it was. The innovation lies in randomly shuffling the other pieces, so the starting position doesn’t repeat. For instance, instead of two rooks standing guard at each corner of the board, you can have them side by side, and the bishops, instead of flanking the royal couple, can find themselves interspersed with the janata.
Bobby Fischer popularised this variant in the 1990s, saying he was “just making a change so the starting positions are mixed, so it’s not degenerated down to memorisation and prearrangement like it is today”. For good measure, he fixed his name to it, calling it Fischer Random. It was later rebranded as Chess960 because of the 960 possible positions, while regular chess is merely Position 518. Buettner calls it freestyle…’
So, will freestyle chess disadvantage Indian chess players just like astroturf in field hockey – a European innovation supposedly to make the sport more TV friendly – reduce the skill quotient in hockey and made it a power game which suited the Europeans just fine? Mr Unudurti writes:
“Indian children have no problem memorising vast reams of opening theory.
This advantage would be negated with this new format. As Carlsen had explained, “From the get-go you’re basically thrown into the middlegame, which has always been my favourite part of the game. I’m good at the endgame, but the middlegame is where things really happen. I want every game to be a new one.”
It is unlikely that this street-fight approach will dent Indian prospects. As a top coach says, the reason why Indian kids do well is that Indian trainers or parents push a lot: “Actually the real hard work is done by the parents. Without the parents’ support, the coach can’t do anything.” Another coach, who does online coaching for students in India and in the West, agrees: “Discipline and patience are needed. Other cultures don’t build patience.”
On a practical level, the players will play both events as long as they can—freestyle for the big bucks and FIDE for the recognition and legacy. Even Gukesh said, “I think 960 is nice as an experiment, but I don’t see it taking over classical chess. The classical World Chess Championship cycle will be much more important than 960, so I am glad to experiment with the 960.””
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