MAHABALIPURAM: FOR something as mundane as a chair, it has had a colourful history in the world of chess.
This most basic of furniture has been the subject of multiple subplots including political intrigue bordering on espionage.
In the 1978 World Championships between Viktor Korchnoi and Anattoly Karpov, the chairs were even x-rayed to check if there were any attempts at skullduggery. In the infamous 1972 encounter between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, the latter imported a chair from the US after being very unhappy with the ones that were shown to him. That's why no two players have the same chair -- it all depends on the individual. One of them might prefer to sit on a high-end gaming chair while his/her opponent would be content with a simple office chair.
While scandals concerning the chair have thankfully not received much airtime in the 21st century, its importance cannot be understated. World champion Magnus Carlsen, for example, rates the chair as one of the most important pieces of chess equipment. You can see why. In a game where players could spend more than five hours sitting, posture and being comfortable is of utmost importance. If you become irritated with the chair, it's very easy to lose focus.
Curiously, at the Olympiad here, there are just two types of chairs that are in operation; both of them are regular, visitor chairs. It does have an arm-rest. There is also enough cushioning at the back to ensure players don't face backache hours into a game.
In case a player wants to replace a chair, the organisers will be happy to replace it mid-game.
"All the chairs and tables you see here are according to FIDE (International Chess Federation) specifications," says R Anantharam, venue in-charge. "
The table should be 85 cms width, 110 cms in length and 74 cms in height. All chairs were manufactured in Delhi. They were brought to the AICF office. Once the federation passed it, they were approved. In all, 2500 chairs have been brought to the venue, we have spares also." To ensure against wear and tear, the organisers will maintain them on a daily basis till the Olympiad is over. "We have received no complaints so far," the venue in-charge says. "We will be cleaning them on a daily basis, chairs that need to be replaced as well as repaired. There is no specification for the chair. But if players ask for a different type of chair (a gaming chair, for example) the organisers can't oblige their requests."
Anish Giri, World No 10 (Elo rating 2760), has lots of experience, having played in a wide variety of events: Olympiad, Candidates and online ones during the pandemic. So, he's very intimate with the topic of chairs. "You have a horrible chair, your whole day is ruined," the 28-year-old who's spearheading the Netherlands' challenge, says.
"Every now and then, the organiser comes up with a beautiful chair with a logo and everything but then, it's a weird chair. You sit in it, it's great for sitting in a lobby and having a drink but it's much harder to play chess in it because you need to maintain a posture that helps you keep your focus."
Giri has such a deep understanding that he even divides chairs into four distinct categories. "There is the simple office chair, for me it's one of the favourites. There's the gaming chair, which is also pretty comfortable. They look very specific and I don't think they are used a lot at Classical events. Then, there's like the simple chairs, some people like them. I find them a bit too rough to sit on. There are also special chairs, which look very beautiful and big but they are not very comfortable. My own preference is the office chair."
FIDE doesn't have a set chair specification but players, according to Giri, don't travel with their own furniture. "It's an incredible inconvenience to travel with a chair," he says.
Viswanathan Anand, who has sat in a fair number of chairs in a career spanning almost four decades, is an antithesis to Carlsen. While the latter has been known to be very picky, Anand, a mentor for the Indian teams, reveals he didn't notice what he sat in. "I hardly noticed 90 per cent of the time," he says. "I just sat where I sat. In big events, you can't be sitting with individual requests. The only place I noticed the chair was at the Worlds where there was an elaborate ritual of picking one."
It may sound silly to attach this much importance over something that's literally a piece of furniture but like Giri says, 'it's also very important'.