PONDERING THE NEXT MOVE

Grandmasters note world event's boost to chess scene, want to build on success

- Kimberly Kwek

Just before Singapore chess grandmaster Siddharth Jagadeesh spoke to the media at the Equarius Hotel on Dec 9, he was approached by a fan who asked for a photo with him.

Such instances, which happened only occasionally before, have become more common in the past two weeks, all thanks to Singapore's hosting of the World Chess Championship from Nov 25.

The soft-spoken teen has fielded requests for photographs and autographs in his two visits to the competition venue at Resorts World Sentosa, and while he is still getting used to the attention, he saw this as an encouraging sign for the game here.

"It's nice to see that people are recognising chess players in Singapore because I don't think it was a thing a few years back," said the 17-year-old after a question-and-answer session with Singapore's other grandmasters - Tin Jingyao, Wong Meng Kong, Wu Shaobin and Kevin Goh. "I haven't seen as much attention for chess in Singapore."