“Every tournament proves that all the rumours about the death of classical chess have been greatly overestimated,” Garry Kasparov, the 13th classical world champion of chess, had said in his trademark drawl during the Superbet Chess Classic last month. In the month since Kasparov said this in Bucharest, events that have transpired in the sport, particularly at the Norway Chess tournament, have fallen neatly in line to validate the declaration. Magnus Carlsen claimed the title, but almost on the last hour of the 10-round tournament on a day where four contenders had started their final round games with a realistic shot at winning the title. In the final moments of the tournament, Carlsen, who had won his home event six times, was forced to crane his neck to look at the boards to see if Gukesh, who had started the day closest on his heels, was winning or just drawing. It was the kind of photo-finish that kept everyone hooked. The year had also started with similar drama in a different classical tournament: tiebreaks were needed to determine the winner of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, where Praggnanandhaa had defeated Gukesh to claim the title. But Gukesh had led Wijk for a significant portion. Norway Chess was a roller-coaster of fortunes, with the tournament lead exchanging hands. There were multiple games that were won with a single erroneously-pushed piece. Classical chess had been ceding ground to quicker formats like rapid and blitz over the past decade. Then it saw rapid encroachment from the freestyle tour this past year. The sport’s two biggest stars — world no 1 Carlsen, who has been world champion five times, and world no 2 Hikaru Nakamura, who has never been in a title bout — were both speaking about walking away from the longer format for good. But if the recently-concluded Norway Chess tournament proved anything, it was that classical chess still has the power to evoke some strong emotions even in players who claim they don't really care too much about the format any more. How strong? Strong enough to smash your fist on the table in frustration after a defeat. Carlsen’s outburst was not the only uncharacteristically emotional response seen during the tournament. After his final game at the tournament ended and it became clear that he would not win the event, world champion Gukesh also needed several minutes to compose himself at the board before he walked out. That same round saw the usually-expressive Hikaru Nakamura look inconsolable, which was a rare look on him, for a few minutes. Carlsen’s disillusionment with the format has been well known for at least a decade: Too much theory corrupting the opening phase; Not enough creativity; Too much prep for events. And the defeat to Gukesh, which led to the infamous fist to the table, seemed to be the final straw. The Norwegian indicated as much in interviews later. “I was asking myself, ‘why am I doing this?’” he admitted at one point during the tournament. But even he seems to have had a rethink about his classical career, suggesting after winning the tournament that he’s not had his last hurrah yet in the longest format of the sport, where he’s won pretty much everything on offer. READ MORE | A bang of the fist, two apologies, a pat on the back and a history-making win: How world champion Gukesh took down Magnus Carlsen The tournament in Stavanger did also open up a debate on time controls used in classical chess. And whether, with a few little tweaks here and there, classical chess can be made great again. The Norway Chess’ time control, which was conceived after inputs from Carlsen, kept things interesting. At the World Chess Championship, for example, players get 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 more for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move 41. But in Norway, players only got 120 minutes on the clock, with a 10-second increment starting from move 41. This had the potential to lead to intense time scrambles at the end. It was a race that began as a marathon, and then ended with the manic energy of a 100m sprint. Or a classical game that ended in a blitz. And while avoiding the lawless anarchy of players losing due to time when given no increments at all. “The 10-second increment is rough. You can’t play endgames in this time control. It’s too difficult,” Fabiano Caruana, one of the top players of this generation, said on his podcast recently after ending second in the Norway Chess tournament behind Carlsen. At Norway, Caruana had a couple of defeats that were borne solely out of time control-induced pressure. “No one avoids time trouble really (in this time control). No matter how well you manage your time, you still run into time trouble in some games.” Players running into trouble on the board is good for the future of chess. The previous complaint was that classical chess games were getting too predictable right from the first pawn push. Too many draws. Too much dead air time without a move being made. “Magnus does like the twist,” his father Henrik had told The Indian Express recently. “You have this short increment, 10 seconds instead of the normal 30 seconds, which gives it a spicy taste compared to other classical tournaments, which is something he appreciates.” Classical chess could do with more spice. And not just to keep Carlsen interested.
