We have to go all the way back to Karpov and Kasparov on the top two boards to find something like India’s dominance: Peter Svidler Premium

Chess World Cup winner Peter Svidler, Russian Grandmaster, cricket fan, coach, and commentator, shares insights on chess and cricket.

Peter Svidler won the Chess World Cup in 2011, was a part of five Russian Olympiad-winning teams, coached R. Praggnanandhaa ahead of the Candidates tournament in Toronto this year, is a former World No. 4 and a commentator when he is not playing. But he is not your usual top Russian Grandmaster; he is an ardent cricket fan. Excerpts from Svidler’s interview with The Hindu during the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London earlier this month:

I experienced the other side of it. Last year I was doing the commentary, and this year I got drafted into play. I understand what the league is based on, being a cricket fan. I don’t know if it is going to be as big a hit as the IPL, but if that happens, it will be fantastic for chess.

The calendar is quite busy, but this will be a very prominent part of the calendar. It has a carnival feel to it, while also being incredibly strong. And this is a combination of things that has proven to work in other sports. I welcome every new project, because I think the more chess, the better.

I am old enough to have started playing with analogue clocks, so it is not exactly an alien concept, but obviously we have moved away from it. I understand the decision-making behind it. Because of television, you want to have a much clearer idea of how long a match takes, and you also want excitement and things happening at the end of it.

They were clearly going to be one of the two, three main favourites. I was doing commentary on the Olympiad, and I think by round four, we were definitely saying between ourselves, maybe even on air — who is going to take points off these kids? Like, it just didn’t seem like they could be stopped. The double is very historic. The women were not as dominant as the men.

No, it is not a surprise anymore. I think a team with this line-up, knowing what we know about these guys, and the moment you realise the United States is not playing as well as maybe you would have expected that they would, become the obvious favourites for the title because there are no weaknesses; just five very strong boards.

Definitely. We probably will have to go all the way back to the Olympiads where the Soviet Union played [Anatoly] Karpov and [Garry] Kasparov on the top two boards to find something like that.