Classical game here to stay, says International Chess Federation chief

SINGAPORE – Freestyle chess may be the new kid on the block alongside other popular variants of the game such as rapid or blitz, but International Chess Federation (Fide) chief executive Emil Sutovsky believes the classical format is here is stay.

Speaking to The Sunday Times on the sidelines of the recently concluded Fide World Championship in Singapore, he said: “Classical chess does have an appeal, a part of being a game and a sport, but it can help in a lot of things – children to focus better, to constantly improve, to evaluate their progress, to learn an ability to concentrate, to learn how to come back after the defeats.”

According to the federation, 78 per cent of the audience at the Nov 25-Dec 13 event, held at Resorts World Sentosa, were under the age of 35.

“We constantly consider various formats, and that includes, first and foremost, the faster formats, the more dynamic with shorter time control,” added Sutovsky. “For us, it’s obviously important to keep the balance between all these (formats).”

The classical format of the game can take hours and

the clash between defending champion Ding Liren and challenger Gukesh Dommaraju

played out over 14 games – a total of 637 moves and just over 60 cumulative hours.

Gaining popularity are the shorter formats – rapid (games 15 minutes and longer), blitz (three to 14 minutes) and bullet (under three minutes) – as they appeal to a younger audience and those with a shorter attention span.

A number of top-level players are also moving to a “fresher” format of the game.

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen

was recently in Singapore to promote his new pet project, the Freestyle Chess World Championship Tour.

Freestyle chess is a form of the game where the pieces are randomised. The first and eighth ranks on the board where the king, queen, bishops, knights and rooks sit are randomised, with the pawns on the second and seventh ranks being the same as classical chess.

The world tour will be held in five locations in 2025, starting in February in Germany and 10 players, including Carlsen, second-ranked Fabiano Caruana and world No. 11 Levon Aronian – will feature.

Despite the appeal of freestyle chess, Sutovsky believes that the classical game is not under threat as the former “is not so appealing” for a larger audience.

He said: “Freestyle has a bright future for top players, like Magnus, because many of them have been playing for so many years, and they may lose a bit of freshness.

“Because, after all, you’re a creative person, and freestyle promises a fresh game every time for the top players but I don’t feel that it would catch up with the wider audience.”

Fide’s focus, stressed Sutovsky, is on “preserving tradition”.

He added: “I don’t believe that all the top players would go into freestyle chess. I believe that given a choice whether they have to (choose between) classical or freestyle, still, most would prefer to go with regular chess.

“At least for now, (classical chess’) status is incomparably higher, but many of them fancy playing (freestyle) and that’s a right, and it’s good to have this additional angle.”

With the success of the world championship in Singapore, where tech giant Google was the title sponsor, Sutovsky believes that the future of chess is bright.

He said: “It speaks volumes of the status of chess as a game, a strategic game with history and traditions, but also about how popular the game currently is.

“Chess traditionally has also been supported by the governments and this support is not less important. We have to balance between corporate sponsorship and state-related sponsorship.

“Because while our fan base is very large, we’re still not in the same league as major sports, and chess as a sport still has to make this breakthrough, and we’re working on that.”

E-sports, which is gaining ground in major sports events like the Asian Games and Olympic Esports Week, is also an area that the world governing body is looking at.

Noting that Fide is a member of the Global Esports Federation, Sutovsky said that the Olympic Esports event is “one aspect of chess which can be in play, and we are very much looking into developing it into some big strategic stream of our work”.