Long before the first move was made on Friday, the 44th Chess Olympiad was declared a grand success, if only because of the spotless organisation behind gathering participants from a record 187 countries. Historical references to the game of “Chathuranga” were bound to crop up as the venue, by the seaside in Mammalapuram near Chennai, was once the capital of the Pallavas. And not without reason would Magnus Carlsen, reigning world individual champion, have described Chennai as “the hottest hub of chess in the world now”.
Sport and politics often get mixed up to the detriment of the former and the world of sport cannot complain enough about it. But the grand global scale of the Olympiad was so elevating as to make the inaugural resemble an episode of Friends with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin hitting it off like never before. The jury is still out on what that means to the confused cadres of the two parties.
Politics was, however, in the foreground as Russia was excluded for waging war in Ukraine while China, another strong chess nation, chose to stay out because of Covid. But Pakistan, true to form, made a mess of it by objecting to the torch passing through J&K and pulled its team out from Chennai. As excuses go towards weaving dirty politics into the purity of sport, this one from Pakistan must take the cake. Even then, there are 188 teams in the open category, including three from India and 162 teams on the distaff side.
The involvement of the state as a major sponsor may have facilitated the thorough preparations behind the conduct thus far. Their comforts taken care of, the players have another opportunity to test their cerebral skills and physical and mental stamina in an emotionally draining game. Maybe, that is a reason why the champion Carlsen says he won’t defend his world match play title. His participation in the team event Olympiad goes to show how high sportsmen rate representing their country. May the best national teams win.
