Stopped enjoying chess & took a break, says Tari

ELITE sports across all disciplines have two things in common. The world champion and the urge to appoint a young prodigy as the 'next ' as soon as possible.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @ Stavanger

ELITE sports across all disciplines have two things in common. The world champion and the urge to appoint a young prodigy as the 'next <enter the name of the current world champion here>' as soon as possible. Sport is filled with examples. Sachin Tendulkar, Zinedine Zidane, Roger Federer... they have all seen their fair share of replacements fall by the wayside for no fault of theirs. But it does offer a cautionary tale or two about the dangers of calling somebody the 'next Messi'.

Aryan Tari has felt it too. As soon as he won an age-group World Championship in chess, he became the next Magnus Carlsen. Immediately after Tari's triumph in 2017, the newly-minted GM was expected to walk the same path as Carlsen.