Dubai positioned as a catalyst for global chess growth, according to Viswanathan Anand

Gulf News

Chess is one of the oldest sport in history, but now the Rooks, Knights and Bishops are moving in a different direction to meet the growing demands of the sport and reach higher places. FIDE, the sport’s governing body, has come up with a new game plan with franchise-based Global Chess League in Dubai to spur the growth of the game worldwide.  “The franchise-based six-team Global Chess League will give a fresh impetus with its innovative format. The teams are interesting. The best men’s player, best women’s player and the best juniors will be playing in the same team. We are hoping to present the best and most innovative chess,” five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, Deputy President, FIDE, told Gulf News.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/dubai-to-spur-global-chess-growth-viswanathan-anand-says-1.95796117  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #dubai #chess

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00:00We will try to present the best and most exciting chess,

00:03but also the whole event is designed to use technology and presentation

00:10to make it attractive for the viewer, both visually and engage the viewer.

00:17We hope that the league will be a fresh impetus to the game.

00:20We're having a very innovative format, combination of franchise-based league,

00:25the best men players, the best women players, the best juniors in the same team.

00:30Six teams at the moment, a global league.

00:32We will try to present the best and most exciting chess,

00:35but also the whole event is designed to use technology and presentation

00:42to make it attractive for the viewer, both visually and engage the viewer,

00:47allow the viewer, through technology, to immerse himself or herself in the game

00:54while they're watching.

00:55And so the idea will be to engage with spectators at every level.

00:58If this succeeds, and it's going to be a made-for-television format

01:02that offers a route to new audiences

01:06that maybe have not had a chance to engage with chess before.

01:11So if it succeeds, I think it can be a big boost to the game.

01:15We are trying to basically grow the sport.

01:17It has had a huge boost in popularity during the pandemic.

01:20One of the big focus areas will be in new emerging powerhouses like India and China.

01:26Another big focus for FIDE is women's chess.

01:29The current team, so President Arkady Dvorkovich, myself,

01:35our team position was to have a big push,

01:40huge efforts to promote women's chess.

01:43That will be one of our main work areas.

01:45There are a couple of approaches.

01:47One is organizing new kinds of events, trying new things to engage the chess fan.

01:53The second thing is also to support your youngsters.

01:56In the future, if our young boys and girls succeed,

02:00and one of them becomes a world championship challenger or even a world champion,

02:04then I think, again, that will attract a lot of people to the game.

02:08But you keep working in that direction.

02:09At the moment, the two highest-rated juniors,

02:12if you leave out Alireza Firouzha, who is obviously in the top five in the world,

02:17but if you leave him out, I think already the next two juniors are Abdul Sattarov and Gokesh.

02:25But clearly, the gap between juniors and seniors is not that clear anymore.

02:31Many of the juniors are already playing at the highest level.

02:34And so this category really blends.

02:37But they are the ones we see the most promise in.

02:39What FIDE tries to do more and more is to have school competitions.

02:45You know, we try to get younger and younger.

02:48And like I said, a big focus is on women.

02:51So these are the two growth areas that we put a lot of effort into.

02:55There are many countries where there's been a growth in the game.

02:59As I mentioned, during the pandemic, the popularity of the game kind of exploded everywhere.

03:04The ability to pay online was a huge boost for the game.

03:07But in terms of the top ranked players,

03:12it's generally the strongest countries are India, China, America, Russia, in some order.

03:18There are many other strong powers like France and so on.

03:21For new countries, you can mention, let's say, Uzbekistan is showing a lot of growth recently.

03:26Kazakhstan is now organizing some of the best events.

03:28They also have extremely strong young chess players.

03:33Technology is playing a fundamental, very critical role in two areas.

03:37One is making training and knowledge available to everyone.

03:41So even if you're born in a remote island in the Pacific

03:46and you don't have access to good coaches nearby,

03:50you can still ask questions, you can go online, find out things.

03:54It allows you to study and learn the game.

03:56So that's one leveling effect.

03:58The second very interesting is the way that you can use technology itself

04:02to present the game in a more interesting way and to explain yourself better.

04:05You can have multiple channels of commentary going on during a game

04:10for each level of the fan.

04:13Things like that.

04:14It allows you to try all sorts of interesting new ideas

04:18and make people comfortable with the game.

04:21I've enjoyed it a lot.

04:22As you may remember, I was a commentator for the World Championship match in Dubai

04:27in 1921.

04:29Then I was a commentator for the whole match.

04:31This time I was only able to commentate for the first four games.

04:34But I've commentated in Jerusalem,

04:37commented in Kolkata,

04:40which I go to every year for the Tata Steel Chess event.

04:43So like this we have multiple places where I've attempted commentary and I like it.

04:48And nowadays you'll see most people are doing a little bit of commentary on the side.

04:51They may have their own YouTube channel,

04:53they may have some other medium to do it,

04:56but everyone tries because the growth area is trying to attract new followers

05:01and trying to present the case for chess.

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