Is Chess for Spectators?
My Dear Chess Friends,
Probably I’m too late with this post, but I would like to tell you about World Rapid & Blitz Championship that took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I live here now and luckily FIDE decided to conduct this event in Almaty.
It's great to see how chess is developing in Kazakhstan at the moment . However, I would like to share my experience - how I attended this event as a spectator.
The tournament was located in the Palace of Sports in the center of Almaty, quite close to the metro station. So you may imagine it’s a kind of hockey stadium. Tickets were quite cheap - 7-11 dollars only. With the ticket you can enter the tribunes, however, only a few were available for spectators. And the playing tables were located too far from the tribunes so you can barely see any position, even if the table is located quite close to your tribune. That’s why, I took binoculars with me… but the majority of spectators didn’t have it.
There were 2 screens where the first 10 games (of open and women sections) were streaming, however, they were streamed with a delay of a few minutes. So their game could be finished already, but you still see it on the screen.
It’s better to watch the games with binoculars, but top players’ tables were covered by the bodies of the arbiters. So sitting on the tribune you can barely see the games, and only feel the atmosphere of this chess event.
Moreover, when the round was over there were no results inside the hall, so you have leave the grandstand and get back to the hall of the Palace to ask for your mobile phone back and refresh chess-results.com
When you enter the Palace, you have to hand over your mobile phone. I didn't quite understand the purpose of it. Probably, the organizers thought that some participants may cheat with your help, but actually as I said their tables were located too far from the tribunes. So, how is it possible to cheat? And if you can’t cheat, why not to take mobile phones to the tribune to take some pictures and share them on Instagram or just with your friends. This is how chess may become more popular.
Maybe you have any ideas how it is possible to cheat over the board playing rapid or blitz game when your accomplice is sitting on the tribune. If you do, please share.
The other option to follow the games was to watch a Russian-speaking commentator in the hall of the Palace. He was quite professional. Btw, why only Russian-speaking? I know Russian is the second spoken language in Kazakhstan and all Kazakhs understand Russian, but this is an international event. At least an English-speaking commentator should exist.
Probably, you’ve heard how Magnus Carlsen having only 31 seconds on his clock outplayed Vladislav Kovalev. Magnus enjoyed the beauty of Shymbulak, the mountain skiing resort located 30-minutes drive from Almaty. I also have some perfect pictures from there.
I didn’t ski this year, but enjoyed it in March, 2022. There are two things that I don’t like about Almaty: air pollution and traffic. There is even more traffic jams in late December, because of New Year bustle. This is what Magnus Carlsen didn’t take into account and stuck in a traffic and got late for the first game of the second day of the Blitz Championship.
I decided to analyze this game briefly. So, please, find the analysis below:
I didn’t attend the event all 5 days, only 3 of them and also the closing ceremony. Btw, can you guess what was the most popular word pronounced on the ceremony? "Chess"? "FIDE"? "Grandmaster"? No! Please, suggest your version into the comment section.
The closing ceremony started with a folk-rock music. Please, watch this fragment.
I was located too far from the place of action, but anyway. Basically, the closing ceremony was ok, I just hate bureaucracy and I completely didn’t like how the organizers thanked the officials. It took too much time. Even the award ceremony of the winners was shorter!
Right now I think it was more interesting to watch this event being streaming by any famous streamer rather than watching it in live being on the tribune with binoculars.
To sum it up, I would say the tournament organization deserves a "B" mark. It’s good experience, but definitely not an excellent one. If I were conducting such event, I would made it more interactive, more related to chess and less to the Kazakhstan’s officials. I would let people enter the tribunes with their mobile phones, but at the same time locate tournament tables further from the tribunes and, of course, I would demonstrate the results of the round passed on a big screen. When streaming the event on a big screen (remember I told you about the first 10 boards) I would also dismiss the games that were over and instead replace them with the games that are still on, even if lower rated Grandmasters are playing.
More interactive activities should be done in the Hall of the Palace. People who came there should at least have an option to analyze or place the games over the board. It would make sense to locate 10-20 boards in the hall for the spectators.
Such an event is a place to meet new people from different countries. Luckily I met a professional chess photographer Neelesh Jain from Canada who provided me with the most of these photos.
Any comments are welcome! If you did watch this event in live in Almaty, please, tell me what your opinion about the organization is.
Best Regards,
FM Viktor Neustroev
Co-founder of Chesslance.com
