Tension, pressure, nerve, genius: At the chess championship, the wait is worth it

For all the flow of action, all sport involves varied acts of waiting. We wait for the goal in football, the shooter to fire between heartbeats, a snarling Rafael Nadal to uppercut the air in delight. We appreciate greatness takes time, we understand anticipation has a tense thrill, yet chess has its own particular romance with waiting.

In a corner of Sentosa, India’s Gukesh Dommaraju makes his first seven moves in under 50 seconds. It is the inaugural game of the 2024 World Chess Championship on Nov 25. Then Ding Liren waits, and so do we for over 27 minutes – the time Eliud Kipchoge once took to run almost 10km – just for him to make his seventh move.