Any sport in which Indians excel automatically skyrockets in popularity. The logic is simple: if a young man with chiseled features and flowing hair can throw a spear and achieve global fame, why can’t our own Sadgopan? And if hitting a leather ball with a wooden bat can lead to unimaginable riches, why should our children settle for modest middle-class aspirations? Consequently, eager parents feel obligated to find appropriate coaching facilities and squeeze in another training session into their child’s already packed schedule. But amidst this frenzy, does the game with 64 squares find a place? Alas, chess players would call it a stalemate. We have a multitude of accomplished players in our midst, each a potential world-beater. Yet, no ticker-tape parades await them, no 24/7 cameras capture their every move, and no social media keeps us updated on their weekend escapes or their breakfast choices. The inconvenient truth is that chess players are champions of a lesser god.
While the game is all about strategy, chess in India clearly isn’t making the right moves. This game has everything going for it. In the eternal tug-of-war between brain and brawn, chess stands firmly on the side of the brain. It is also an equal-opportunity sport, allowing for enough diversity and inclusion to make HR professionals sing its praises. Ironically, though it involves attack and defense, thrust and parry in an epic battle, chess is actually contributing to world peace. You don’t launch a missile with the express, albeit unstated, intention to decapitate your opponent, and you don’t get your nose broken in a scrum. All you do is move pieces on a patterned board. How saintly! But let’s not forget, we live in the age of IPL, which roughly translates to ‘I Promote Legends’. The way the game is being conducted currently, we are a long way off from attaining legendary status.
If you believe it’s high time chess gets its due, the first step is to enlist the most flamboyant cheerleaders in the land. At the next FIDE match, get them to inject life and color by waving pom-poms and performing daring pirouettes after every castle, every move. The players themselves could lend a hand by being a bit more expressive. Sitting stoically in your seats as if waiting your turn at the dentist’s clinic doesn’t impress anyone. Instead, engage in some playful banter with your opponents, employing the raucous vocabulary of an Australian who’s just been hit over the fence. When you trap your opponent, punch the air, glare menacingly, and if you’re feeling vocal, let loose a blood-curdling war whoop. Ah, that’s the way to prime-time glory! Don’t pay heed to purists who will tell you rules are sacrosanct. Nothing truly is. Chess has already made plenty of allowances by incorporating faster variants like blitz chess. If you can have blitz, why not glitz? The Bard has said the course of true love never runs smooth. Well, neither does chess. There are infinite variations, unexpected twists, artful gambits, and sudden deaths. While being unpredictable, there’s an air of ultimate inevitability, for it all ends with what should be seen as a term of endearment: ‘Checkmate’.
