Two gentle, polite, bright men wait to wrestle on a chess board

The brightly-lit, mirrored rooms in the bowels of the Capitol Theatre are where actors prepare. Put on make-up. Slip into character. Rehearse their lines. Now in these rooms sit two men who are performers of another kind. They are unpretentious authors of quiet, intense drama though their show is never scripted.

The

Ding Liren-Gukesh Dommaraju world chess championship showdown

commences on Nov 25. These are men who prefer concise moves to long sentences but, on Nov 23, they uncomplainingly finish their final interviews. Their tone is gentle but inside, like with any sportsperson, ambition flames. And sometimes if you listen carefully you can hear the crackle of it.