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The 2018 world championship of chess, comparable to the Super Bowl for the ageless board game, is in full swing, and the weeks-long match is garnering the attention of local chess enthusiasts, who see the fact that an American is competing as a manifestation of the game’s recent resurgence in the US.
The 12-round match, taking place in London between Nov. 9 and Nov. 28, pits Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the world champion since 2013, against Fabiano Caruana, the first American to qualify for the championship since Bobby Fischer did in 1972. It’s the first world championship since 1990 in which the two opponents are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, according to the championship’s official website.
“It’s leaps and bounds above any normal tournament,” said Nathan Smolensky, president of the Massachusetts Chess Association.
The winner gets 60 percent of the $1.1 million prize.
Caruana, who has lived in Miami, Brooklyn, and St. Louis, competed in chess tournaments in Massachusetts as a kid, including one in Sturbridge when he was about eight years old. Ilya Krasik, a National Master and co-founder of the New England Chess School in Massachusetts, said he watched the then-diminutive prodigy analyze the chess board from a booster seat around the year 2000.
The first four games of the match ended in draws, which is not necessarily unusual, but it shows that there were some missed opportunities for both competitors, Krasik said.
Carlsen had the winning advantage in Game 1, which lasted almost six hours, but eventually missed his opportunity to capitalize. Caruana had an advantage in Game 2, but was also unable to pull out a win, Krasik said. Games 3 and 4 were more even draws, according to the match’s official coverage.
Caruana, although the underdog, has the support of many local chess players. A win for the Italian-American, they say, could mean a revival for the game that hasn’t been seen in the US since Fischer defeated Boris Spassky of the former Soviet Union for the world title 1972.
“When Fischer played, all of a sudden everybody learned how to play chess,” said Rob King, a National Master who gives chess lectures at the MetroWest Chess Club in Natick. “I’d like to see an American become more popular and see chess become more popular in the United States. If Caruana were to win, it would become more mainstream.”
Krasik, who started playing as a seven-year-old boy living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, said Caruana might be a more appealing competitor for young, local chess players because they are more likely to see themselves in him.
“He’s exceptionally normal for a chess player,” Krasik said. “A lot of chess players are considered oddballs. Bobby Fischer was very weird and crazy. This guy’s nothing like him; he’s like the total opposite.”
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Caruana, now an elite Grandmaster, was a member of the American team that placed 2nd in the 43rd Chess Olympiad, which ended last month. That success on the national level is indicative of the game’s resurgence, Krasik said.
“The US right now has three players in the top 10 in the world … We have a very young and very strong team,” he said. “That has never happened. Fischer didn’t have other players of his caliber. Now we have that.”
Krasik, like King and Smolensky, is trying to instill in his students the appreciation for and understanding of the game that young players like Caruana exhibit on the world stage through the classes that he teaches at his academy and in public and private schools throughout Massachusetts.
But learning chess goes beyond the classroom, he said, especially in the midst of a popularity spike like the one that seems to be galvanizing the chess community now.
Chess enthusiasts are honing their strategy by watching the competitors in the world championship through live streams, attending lectures like those offered by King, watching demos on YouTube, playing against people from all over the world through online platforms, and following their favorite players as they stream on Twitch.
The game is growing in the US, King said, and with Caruana holding his ground against the reigning world champion, the significance of the community and its role in the ongoing championship match is more evident than ever before.
“Beyond the money, winning means chess immortality,” King said. “If you were to win this, you become a chess god. You live forever.”
Andres Picon can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @andpicon.
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