New Delhi: It was during the pandemic that Hikaru Nakamura saw an opportunity and took it. He had been streaming on Twitch since 2015 but with people being forced to stay indoors from the end of 2019, chess saw a surge (perhaps unexpected) in popularity.
Riding that wave was Nakamura, known as GMHikaru, who was dedicating more than 30 hours per week to streaming. The pandemic ended but Nakamura kept things going with a relentlessness that often characterised his chess. His 2.55 million followers on Youtube, 1.93 million followers on Twitch and 583.6 thousand followers on X have not only made him famous, they have also made him one of the richest chess players on the planet.
But that isn’t all it has done. Given that he is still playing really high-quality chess (Classical Elo rating: 2802, Rapid: 2744, Blitz: 2860), his direct interactions with fans have granted him a unique perspective of what works for chess and what doesn’t.
Most chess streams can be intimidating for newbies. There will be jargon about openings, random historical fact (eg. this particular variation of the opening was last played in 1972 by Fischer against Spassky) and it is generally done at such a pace that the even the experienced followers will only catch bits and pieces of the explanation.
However, the big challenge for chess is now to move beyond the niche. The Queen’s Gambit, the TV mini-series, showed that the regular person can take to the sport as well but replicating that kind of viral success is never easy. So, people try new things — Magnus Carlsen supports the Chess960 variation which employs the same board and pieces as classical chess, but the starting position of the pieces on the players’ home ranks is randomized; at Norway Chess, players are not allowed to agree on a draw until after black’s move 30. If there is a draw in the classical game, then the players will move on to Armageddon; at the Global Chess League, a franchise system sees teams feature men and women in a double round-robin stage before facing off in the final.
Is that however enough? Or can chess do more to connect with a larger audience or become cooler?
“There are a couple of things here,” Nakamura told HT in an interview from London where he is playing the GCL. “It is not like one plan fits all. This is a US and Europe vs an India scenario. I think in India the growth will be driven by national pride. You have had (Vishy) Anand for a long time but with (Arjun) Erigaisi and Gukesh, who might become the world champion soon, the rise of the game is almost guaranteed.
“But in the US or Europe for instance, people have more things to follow. More sports leagues too. So, to draw people away from that needs more. It needs drama, it needs formats in which you don’t see draws or ties a majority of the time and you need characters. Something or someone that people can rally behind.”
Now, one of those characters could have been Magnus Carlsen. The world’s best player can be disarmingly cool — he speaks his mind, play football, tops the Fantasy Premier League from time to time and still finds ways to sometimes arrive late for games or even fall asleep during them. But chess has a problem because the Norwegian doesn’t like its primary historical format (classical) and doesn’t take part in the world chess championship cycle anymore.
“His views on the format are well known — he doesn’t like the preparation required and what it takes away from him but there is also the other side — he is so good that he doesn’t really have any rivals and for any sport to grow, rivalries are important. Take tennis’ example, Federer was so good between 2003 and 2007 (he won 12 Majors in that period) virtually unstoppable. But it wasn’t until Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic came along that it got truly interesting. Carlsen and chess need that too.
“Carlsen and I are also in a position where we can take a call on what we want to play or skip because we are financially well off. Most other players are not. They’ll play the format that the federation asks them to. Taking a principled decision is not easy. So maybe he’ll (Magnus) come back to the format but he’ll need something to pull him back. Whether that is a rival or changes in the format… we’ll have to wait and see.”
Professional sport across the board is driven by results. You win, you lose or you continue playing until you win or lose. There is no draw (except in football and cricket). The world No 2 also feels that the current generation of fans don’t quite get the thrill of watching two players battle it out for hours only to shake hands in the end and accept that they were equal.
“When two top GMs play, 75% of the time, it will be a draw,” said Nakamura. “They are so closely matched and they have time to study every permutation and combination. So, the chances of a mistake are few, but is that what you would want as a fan? For a lot of fans, a draw is difficult to understand. You can’t get rid of it but perhaps something can be done.”
Ordinarily, three formats would be more than enough for any sport or game. But there clearly is more that can be done and that gap is something that newer concepts like the Global Chess League — which is also being broadcast on TV — hope to fill. It may or may not work but in chess, everything starts with an idea.