BUDAPEST: THESE are interesting times in the world of chess. In under two weeks, D Gukesh will be up against Javokhir Sindarov in the 14-game Championship to decide the world title. In under six months, R Vaishali will face Ju Wenjun to decide the women's title. There's also the small matter of Norway Chess putting in place a new tour, the Total Chess World Championship, whose pilot edition began at the opulent Anantara New York Palace Hotel on Tuesday.
Overlooking the opening day was Timur Turlov, the new head of FIDE, the world governing body for chess. In September, he beat stiff competition to emerge as the new head of FIDE at a time when the body had faced severe external pressure (the previous head, Arkady Dvorkovich, had stepped down before the elections because of EU sanctions).
When Turlov, the Russian-born Kazakh, won the election, it was evident that he had a sufficient in-tray. When asked by select media what his priority would be over the next two years, one of the many things that stood out was to put in place a long-term calendar. For example, as it stands, there's no venue yet for next year's women's World Championship match. Turlov hopes to have a two-year calendar. "That was definitely one of the problems, but that’s not because of a management failure," he explained. "That’s because of a financial failure. Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to arrange an agreement (with sponsors). I want to ensure that even if we are not able to secure commercial sponsorship for events, we will still schedule the event and we will sponsor the events ourselves. I’m sure that this cleanup will help us attract much bigger contracts from sponsors at the end of the day."
As it stands, venues for the host cities for chess' biggest competition — the World Championship — are announced with a few months to go for the event. The 38-year-old wants to change that, beginning next year.
While the World Championship is FIDE's biggest event, they are also hopeful of branching out. For example, FIDE is eyeing a standalone 'online championship'. The Kazakh didn't use the word world, but the ambitions exist. "99 per cent of chess games are already being played online, even by professional players," he pointed out. "We definitely cannot ignore that anymore. Otherwise, we will have a different ruler and different regulator of chess very, very soon. And that will be just commercial platforms. I really believe that there should be some balance between commercial platforms and sports federations, who actually should protect the game and develop the game,” said Turlov.
Over the last few years, India's over-the-board growth story has kind of aped the country's prominence within FIDE. Viswanathan Anand, the deputy head in the Turlov administration, has been part of the body for over four years. The country has also hosted important events, including the World Cup last year.
Going forward, Turlov sees India's influence growing. "I believe that we have a good and trustworthy relationship already (with the Indian chess federation)," he said. "You have great leadership and India definitely deserves much better, a much better influence in the Asian Federation. I'm sure that India will continue to host major international championships in the next four years."