It's No Fischer-Spassky, But USA Vs India Match Does Have Beef
It's not exactly Fischer vs Spassky during the height of the Cold War—that was something much bigger—but international tensions are yet again an intriguing backdrop to chess this weekend.
India and America go head-to-head on Saturday in a glitzy clash of the chess titans titled Checkmate: USA vs India hosted in Arlington, Texas.
The line-up is spectacular with GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Gukesh D, Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, and India's woman-of-the-moment GM Divya Deshmukh all playing for their respective mother/fatherlands.
Beyond the board, if reports are to be taken seriously, India and America are not getting on so well. The relationship between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have soured a touch, and that other big chess powerhouse Russia may be the reason.
Chess has this funny habit of mirroring international relations. But back to the actual game where India and the U.S. are now very much rivals.
Resigning Is Banned?
The exhibition match, starting at 7pm CDT, is slightly odd in that several normal rules have been tinkered with, including resignations being banned.
Yes, resigning has been banned so every game has to end in checkmate, hence the event name. It's a fight to the death.
Also, the time controls are new: it is 10 minute games with a one-second increment only added after a player drops below one minute.
India vs American: The Stats
The event was conceived as the top two nations in world chess fighting it out for supremacy.
The U.S. is the long-standing world number-one, having eclipsed the mighty Russia eons ago. Five of the top 20 are American, and the U.S. boasts Nakamura and Caruana as world numbers two and three.
India, meanwhile, is the rising powerhouse, the new super state that boasts the Classical World Champion in Gukesh, the youngest in chess history.
India has been the juggernaut of chess in recent years. The number of Indian grandmasters has shot up to 89—a number that's doubled since 2016. The figure is also amazing considering the nation only got its first in 1987.
The latest ratings from October, however, saw Gukesh slide out of the top 10.
In FIDE's top federations table, the U.S. has a stellar average top 10 rating of 2729, while India's golden generation of young stars are catching up fast with an average rating just 12 points behind. The race is on!
World Chess will be watching this weekend because it looks fun.
So while a trade war between India and America seems to be on the horizon, or at least Trump is making noises about it, let's see how much trading goes on during the match.
And if you think we're just trying to draw a glib comparison with the greatest moment in chess history to spice up this match, yes we are!