Classical act: Despite evolution of chess, purest form of sport is here to stay

COUPLE of days ahead of the World Championship, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana had checked into Singapore. In an alternate world, the former, the World No 1 across all three regular formats (Classical, Rapid and Blitz), would have arrived in the city-state to play the final. Now? Not so much. He had arrived with Caruana, the World No 2 in Classical, to play a couple of games of freestyle chess, a variant of the game. In this game, the starting order of the pieces on the back rank are randomised. So, as D Gukesh and Ding Liren checked into a plush hotel for the World Championship, Carlsen and Caruana, with a bevy of photographers, sailed off on a yacht to play a couple of freestyle games.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

Carlsen won the series – of course he won the series – before posting something provocative on X. "Freestyle > Classical". He, of course, knew what he was doing. In less than 24 hours, the World Championship's first game was about to get underway. On November 25, less than two hours after the final began, Emil Sutovsky, the CEO of the world body (FIDE), couldn't resist. "Classical > any other", he wrote on X.

Welcome to the battle to preserve the board game's purest version and its immediate siblings in the face of increasing alternatives.

It's the one question all of the game's stakeholders – fans, players and administrators – have had to answer in Singapore over the last two weeks. Before getting into the game's future, it's important to acknowledge the one main problem with the Classical time format, according to one of the greatest players to have played the game. It's been analysed to such an extent that surprises are rare. Players know the openings like the back of their hand. Hence, there's an element of predictability. It's what Carlsen mentioned during an interview to Straits Times before the Championship began. "I really hope that this can be a big part of the future of chess," he had told the daily during his series against Caruana. "Nowadays, everything is moving a bit quicker. In normal chess, quicker chess is becoming more and more important.