One million {dollars} in prize cash, spectators polling on-line to determine the format, with YouTube stars commentating, and wildcards, seasoned professionals and juniors alike taking part in for privately-owned groups from around the globe. All this is part of a fantasy chess league that permits followers to play towards a Grandmaster over a digital chess board.
Online chess’s new-found reputation through the pandemic obtained a booster shot within the arm with the worldwide chess federation (FIDE) approving the Global Chess League on Friday. Five-time former world champion Viswanathan Anand is the mentor and a accomplice of the league, which is promoted by Tech Mahindra.
The ‘phygital’ league, as Anand calls it, will contain digital video games whereas the ultimate shall be over-the-board, if the pandemic ebbs. A launch date in 2021 is a chance as soon as FIDE approves a window.
The mission may even rely on the five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) as a mentor and accomplice, who is not going to simply advise however may even assist form the league. https://t.co/mpf2F7buNk pic.twitter.com/xX1kZjjoeU
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) June 4, 2021
Anand compares the latest progress of chess to the T20 revolution that boosted cricket’s reputation a decade-and-a-half in the past.
“In 2007 and 2008 there was this discussion whether you could have a club culture in cricket. It is similar in chess, we have national chess leagues. But this kind of a global league is really a first,” Anand tells The Indian Express.
“You can see the parallel right? There was this big boom last year during the Chess Olympiad that happened online due to necessity. That is how Anand Mahindra was tweeting with some of the fans and here we come with the league afterwards. People from FIDE had reached out.”
Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, recalled how tweeting through the on-line Olympiad final 12 months – India and Russia had been joint winners – planted the seed for the league. “From tweeting about the game to forming a league under Viswanathan Anand’s mentorship, now on-boarding FIDE, the entire journey has been very gratifying,” Mahindra says.
Anand has meticulously gone about establishing the league, the one world enterprise accepted by FIDE. He checked out Esports’s progress for clues and studied one of the best practices for nationwide chess leagues earlier than he suggested Tech Mahindra on the best way ahead.
The five-time World Champion desires to maintain particulars of the format and scoring system near his chest. But he’s assured it is going to be ‘engaging’ and ‘fans will be interested till the very end.’
“I gave my perspective on what the world of chess is like and what a good league should look like. I tried to borrow elements from various aspects of Esports as well as national chess leagues. I tried to connect Tech Mahindra with the key players in the world of chess, like FIDE,” Anand says.
Following the pandemic, on-line streaming of chess has boomed as fashionable YouTubers and Twitch streamers with thousands and thousands of followers have picked up the sport. New followers are tuning in and established Grandmasters have innovated by commentating whereas taking part in on-line.
Anand says the Global Chess League is open to experimenting by way of streaming, on digital platforms, and commentary, so long as the essence of the sport is undamaged.
“We would love to engage all these YouTube stars because they have managed to make chess reach a much wider audience,” he says.
“Many of them are extremely innovative. They could participate in presenting the league as well. There are many exciting possibilities when it comes to how we would like to work with them.”
5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR), offered by Tech Mahindra, will mix to place followers at a digital stadium on the click on of a button.
A stand-out characteristic would be the Fantasy League, is the assumption at Tech Mahindra. Unlike in different sports activities like cricket or soccer, those that log in can really play the sport and earn factors.
“The role of fantasy here is way beyond what we have seen in today’s sports,” says Jagdish Mitra, chief technique officer and head of progress at Tech Mahindra.
“We could create a fantasy league where you are playing the game. In cricket, your team includes Virat Kohli or an R Ashwin or a Ben Stokes and it is all dependent on those guys playing on the ground. We see 5G, AI and VR playing a critical role. Imagine sitting in Noida and playing against Vishy (Anand) on a 3D board.”
Anand can also be on the identical web page in the case of placing followers on the centre of the Global Chess League mission.
“The key element is that anyone who watches this league should go with the feeling that they understood what happened,” explains India’s first ever Grandmaster.
“We are going to use technology for this. In a way, that is what the streamers did last year and that is what a lot of fans have come to the game for. Commentary in chess tournaments has improved a lot, there are confessional booths where participants go and talk about what they are thinking of during the game, it is a perspective we have never had before.”
Even as he fine-tunes the blueprint and works in direction of launching the Global Chess League, Anand, 51, is uncertain if he shall be a part of a workforce. “As to whether I will be playing, I don’t think I will but we will see when the teams are up.”