Play alongside the masters at chess championship

To keep audiences engaged, there will be ‘solving contests’ on all match days. C.G.S. Narayanan (above), FIDE Master for chess composition, is coordinating the event — Photo: R. Ravindran

From Saturday, when world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen battle it out at the world championship in the city, visitors and chess enthusiasts at the venue will be able to test their skills and win prizes, and they don’t even need to play an entire game of chess.

In the hotel lobby, to keep audiences engaged, the organising committee of the championship will conduct ‘solving contests’ on all match days.

Organisers said these events would be free and open to all visitors. The world championship is being held in the city for the first time.

“The participant will not have to play an entire game with his opponent, but he will have a composed position to analyse. He has to find the solution which checkmates the king in two to four moves,” said C.G.S. Narayanan, FIDE Master for chess composition, who is coordinating the event.

“It is like the T-20 in cricket,” Mr. Narayanan said, adding the visitors would be made to solve high-quality chess compositions that would not be the usual mind teasers, but logically-arranged chess compositions.

Apart from finding the key move, the player needs to visualise moves of the opponent.

“The composition will try to mislead the solver with close tries. He needs to understand the composer’s idea and not fall into his trap. What matters is how quickly and gracefully he ends the match,” he said.

Depending on the response to this solving event, organisers said they would increase the number of tables. Norwegian and Indian composers will engage with the participants.

Every participant will get to solve five problems in 90 minutes. At the end of the event, the themes of the compositions will be explained along with the solutions, organisers said.

“These days, there is no focus on reading literature on chess problems. This would be the best opportunity to educate people about technical jargons and concepts,” said Mr. Narayanan.

Chess enthusiasts who have bought tickets to the match between Anand and Carlsen welcomed the idea.

S. Natarajan (51), a bank employee, who plans to visit the championship venue on two days, said solving and creating chess problems had been his hobby for many years now.

“The approach to a chess composition is an art in itself, very different from playing the game. It is about knowing the many ways in which you can win the game, rather than just winning it once,” he said.