Fans inside competition venue, allowing noise and making players wear headphones: How chess’s perennial quest to become a spectator sport is playing out

Since the tournament began on Thursday, the otherwise silent ambience that one normally finds at chess events has given way to thunderous applause and cheers. There are occasional sighs and oohs and aahs when the eval bar fluctuates.

The Chennai event is one of the many where chess is becoming more ambitious in its attempts to make it a spectator sport. At the recent eSports World Cup and the Freestyle event in Las Vegas, fans had access to the playing hall throughout the contest like any other sport. Unlike the 2024 event in Chennai, where spectators were barred from using mobile phones inside the playing hall, these two events had no such restrictions. The spectators even had the liberty to cheer loudly with players having to wear noise-cancellation headphones.

The result comes just three days after Praggnanandhaa beat the world no 1 from Norway in 39 moves. (Photo credit: Freestyle Chess/Lennart Ootes)

As chess steps out of its tradition and tries to become a spectator sport, the young players don’t seem to be perturbed about the change. Liang Awonder, for one, didn’t watch world champion D Gukesh take down Magnus Carlsen at Norway Chess, but watched the five-time world champion bang the table as it had drama in it.

“I think it definitely can work,” Awonder says. “Although, I think I’m part of the problem because I don’t actually watch chess. I just watch the drama. My friend told me about the game (Gukesh vs Carlsen), I didn’t even see it. But I watched that video a hundred times. I don’t know what happened.”

“Whenever Hans (Niemann) tweets, I instantly get a notification on my phone. I don’t actually find chess that interesting to watch, but I like it when people are arguing in the comments. When I’m watching the big tournaments, I don’t even watch the commentary. I watch the comments. That’s where you find the real gems.”

At the recent eSports World Cup and the Freestyle event in Las Vegas, fans had access to the playing hall throughout the contest, like any other sport. (Freestyle Chess)

The drama is what makes Awonder glued to basketball on television back home. It is the reason that has made him aware of cricket, a sport, he says, where he has heard people say ‘there is a lot of drama’.

“I think everyone finds their own entertainment. For me, it’s not the games and the players. They’re not that entertaining. The moment someone’s beefing, I see it right away. Chess has a really bright future, especially for people like me. I feel like there’s always drama,” Awonder adds.

Divided opinion

Vincent Keymer, who sits in sole lead at the Chennai Grand Masters event, reckons there is huge potential for chess to become a spectator sport, provided the players also get used to having fans around when they are at the board. While no player had an issue at the eSports World Cup, it was different at the Las Vegas freestyle tournament.

“There’s still some work to do, firstly, because it’s not really popular (as a spectator sport). You first need to get into people’s heads that it can work. Secondly, you need to figure out a way to make it appealing to the masses and at the same time, keep the conditions such that the players can produce the high level that we are used to. You have to find the fine line where both are possible. Once we start having many tournaments which are going in that direction, you get feedback from both tournaments and players, and it will be possible to find that mixture,” Keymer says.

However, Dutch GM Anish Giri doesn’t prefer all tournaments taking the same route for the sake of maintaining originality.

Nihal Sarin in action for S8UL during the recently concluded Esports World Cup in Riyadh. (Special Arrangement)

“Headphones were a nuisance, but the games were very short. If every tournament were like this, the chess world would have gone in a direction in which I don’t want it to go. But this is not what they are saying. They are saying, like, should all tournaments be like this? I think not. Should one tournament be like this? For sure,” Anish says.

The noise-cancellation headphones weren’t preferred by many players at Las Vegas. Having begun the tournament without them, the organisers made it mandatory to wear them. Fabiano Caruana, for one, didn’t like the concept of allowing fans inside the playing hall. Despite wearing headphones during his game against Hikaru Nakamura, he complained about the noise from the gallery as he felt it was in some ways outside influence.

Arjun Erigaisi, who didn’t mind the spectators, did have once concern though from the eSports event.

“During the event, I felt this is exactly what needs to happen for chess to become a spectator sport. It’s more entertaining that way. But some things need to be adjusted. One of the things I disliked was that players are forced to wear noise-cancelling headphones,” he says.

But the day may not be far when fans sit in the galleries with placards, and chess players hear the odd comment.