GoldenKnight: World Chess Championship 2010 reads like a thriller

Contrary to what you might expect, world chess championship matches are anything but boring affairs – in fact, the sagas that are played out both on and off the board often read something like an Ian Flemming novel.

The infamous Fischer – Spassky match of the Cold War era, the scandalous Soviet-versus-defector Kortschnoi – Karpov match, featuring a KGB kidnapping and the notorious yoghurt/hypnotist incidents, and the 2006 ToiletGate affair, are but a few examples. In fact, if you dig back further though the volumes of chess history at the top, you’ll find dozens of opprobrious tales involving cheating, lying, alcoholism, womanising, violence, calumny, Government impropriety, and quite the collection of ignoble world title contenders and their entourages.

It’s little wonder, then, that the current world championship match between the venerable Indian Viswanathan ‘Vishy’ Anand and the mercurial Bulgarian Veselin Topalov has already been inundated with controversies, as millions of chess fans across the world lap up the drama and inadvertently perpetuate the hype by following the match online. Even before the first move had been made, the off-board action cacophony had begun. Topalov’s manager, Sergio Danilov is apparently suing the world chess federation because of its decision to delay the match by one day to enable Anand (whose volcano-affected flight had been cancelled and who thus had to travel via road for 40 hours) to arrive on time. Apparently, in Danilov’s eyes, the Icelandic volcano was not a legitimate excuse, but given the guy’s reputation, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d set the eruption off himself.

(For at least one notable blogger’s view on Danilov, see TheClosetGrandmaster’s post here.)

Anyway, the important thing is that the match is going ahead, although with a hefty €3 million on the line, I’m sure we’re going to see a little more argy–bargy before the fortnight is out. Given the tribulations in his arrival, it’s not that surprising that the favourite, Anand, stumbled in the first game. And considering the match is being played in the partisan venue of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, I had some concerns that he may not recover. Fortunately, not only did Anand strike back with a win in game two, but even scored another victory to enter the half-way point leading the match 3.5 – 2.5.

Unfortunately for me and most Australians, the six-hour games start each day at 10:00pm EST, which is hardly congruent with an office job. However, I’ve managed to follow at least the start of most of the games live, and even got invited on ChessFM.comas a guest commentator for the live broadcast of one of the games. It’s amazing how the internet has made these events so much more ‘watchable’ to the average punter: not only are the moves relayed in real-time online, but anyone with a computer can also listen to live grandmaster commentary, send the commentators questions to be answered in the broadcast, read detailed computer evaluations and analysis of every move, and watch the video feeds of the tournament hall and the players in action. Not to mention the hundreds of blogs and news sites covering the action and the drama – for the pick of the bunch, check out Ian Rogers’ fantastically entertaining piece in Crikey!

With six games to go, it’s still anyone’s match. But as long as Anand is in the driver’s seat, the Topalov camp will be utilising any and all means necessary to tip the match back in their favour – which promises more action, intrigue and excitement to come. For a chess aficionado who reads far too many Robert Ludlum books, this is almost too much to take. I have a sneaky suspicion that the late night broadcasts of the remaining games are going to dominate the rest of my week, at the expense of practically everything else (apologies in advance, Fi).

To the average reader out there, I’m well aware that I probably sound far too over-excited (and possibly a little unhinged) by this match. To this I concede defeat, but request that you collar the next chess player you see and ask them to tell you about one of the gloriously contentious matches mentioned at the outset – the yoghurt story is a winner. If this doesn’t sway you, well, I think it’s fair to say that the game of 64 squares is never going to grab you.

To my fellow chess fanatics: brace yourselves for a week of low sleep levels, high drama, and lots of caffeine.