Online tournaments are here to stay
“Chess has become even more popular during the lockdown. I think the online chess tournaments will continue to be played even when normalcy returns to the world after the pandemic,” says Pendyala Harikrishna in an exclusive chat.
India No. 2 told Sportstar over phone from Prague, where he moved to from Hyderabad after marrying Serbian chess player Nadezda Stojanovic.
Harikrishna slumped to another defeat in the third round — to Dubov — and then drew with Nakamura in the fourth. He, however, managed to end the day with at least one win. He defeated Grischuk in the fth round.
It was always going to be dicult to comeback after such a terrible opening day, though he had another ve games left (the format was allplayall, twice). In the return leg of the games, he lost to Artemiev and drew with Carlsen, Dubov and Nakamura in successive games before going down to Grischuk in the nal round.
“The second day was much better for me than the rst,” he says. “But I missed some crucial moves, otherwise I would have still had some outside chances to qualify for the quarternals.”
The Sharjah tournament was held a week before Chessable Masters. He was the second seed behind Shakhryar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who went on to justify the billing by winning the tournament by a point.
“Though I couldn’t end up as the champion, I thought I did well,” he says. “It was a pretty strong tournament too, with an average Elo rating of 2709.”
The Chessbale Masters was, of course, much stronger. “I was glad when I got the invitation to play,” he says. “I had been following the Carlsen Tour closely. I began badly and it is very important to get a good start when you play in such big tournaments. When you slip to the lower half of the eld, you are always under pressure. When you are in good form, your opponents will not stretch themselves beyond a point, but when you struggle, they will push harder.”
He, however, believes he played better than his results suggest. “My chess was satisfactory,” he says. “And I was unlucky to lose some games in which I was placed better.”
About the tournament’s double roundrobin format, he says it was alright, but feels it would have been better if the 12 players were not split into groups. “Instead of two groups, I thought it would have been interesting if all the players were to meet each other once,” says the world No. 26. “The tour though is a great idea and we have to give credit to Carlsen.”
The tour ogranised by the Norwegian genius will have one more stop — Legends of Chess, to be held from July 21 to August 5 — before the grand nale, which will take place from August 9 to 20. The Magnus Carlsen Invitational and the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge were staged before the Chessable Masters.
“I think what Carslen has done is remarkable,” says Harikrishna. “He did not have to do something like this. Nobody expected him to come up with a series of top quality tournaments at a time when chess — and all others sports — was stopped by the coronavirus.”
The Carlsen Tour is, of course, only one of the many, many online chess tournaments that are being conducted by organisers around the world. “No doubt chess has become even more popular during the lockdown,” he says. “I think the online chess tournaments will continue to be played even when normalcy returns to the world after the pandemic.”