STAVANGER: Elite sports across all disciplines have two things in common. The world champion and the urge to appoint a young prodigy as the 'next <enter the name of the current world champion here>' as soon as possible.
Sport is filled with examples. Sachin Tendulkar, Zinedine Zidane, Roger Federer... they have all seen their fair share of replacements fall by the wayside for no fault of theirs. But it does offer a cautionary tale or two about the dangers of calling somebody the 'next Messi'.
Aryan Tari has felt it too. As soon as he won an age-group World Championship in chess, he became the next Magnus Carlsen. Immediately after Tari's triumph in 2017, the newly-minted GM was expected to walk the same path as Carlsen.
For some time, Tari did. He eventually became Norway's No 2 and needed fewer than 30 rating points to become a Super GM (2700 and above). Then, a fall. Not just in terms of rating points but the Norwegian felt 'burnt out'.
"It's been strange, honestly," he tells this The New Indian Express on the sidelines of Norway Chess. One would normally expect Tari to be playing in the event but he isn't. In Stavanger, he's helping out Fabiano Caruana. "The last two-three years, I felt I had some tough moments and wasn't enjoying (chess) as much. I took a break and I'm now having a bit more of a balance between chess and other things as well." After enjoying a peak Classical rating of 2672 in July 2022, he's now at 2636.
Elite chess is brutal as it involves a lot of travel, long hours of prep and can get lonely, especially without a team. The 25-year-old admits that he has felt lonely. "Chess can be very lonely as it's an individual sport. It's not always going to go like this (points his arm upwards), there will be ups and downs. You are travelling from tournament to tournament, hotel room to hotel room, very often alone. It can make you question 'what you are doing?' It can definitely be a tough sport. I was just thinking if there's more to life than just chess."
Part of wanting to cultivate other things has sent Tari, who has featured in multiple Olympiads for Norway, back to university. "I'm now doing business at the University of Missouri," he says.
But he will keep playing the game at the elite level. "I wouldn't say chess is now in the background, I love chess and will keep playing but when you are doing just one thing... it's always nice to get some new impulses. I recently qualified for the World Cup but I think I have more of a balance."
When the conversation shifts to Carlsen, he readily accepts that 'there was a bit of pressure when I was 13-14'. "I don't think the chess world is really going to see another Magnus, maybe in the next 100 years, he's really unique. Okay, maybe there may be another Magnus just because of how popular chess is in India. But speaking of Magnus, he's sometimes not human to be honest. It can be hard to understand how he does what he does."
Even as the watching world was keen to put a label, Tari wasn't one to compare. "I was just taking inspiration."
He's now charting his own path.
