Is there a danger we lose our top chess players?
Irina Krush- got her just reward.
There was an interesting announcement made today when Irina Krush was declared winner of the Cairns Chess Queens award, which came with a cheque for $100,000.
Rather eye-watering, don't you think? This is probably more prize money than I've won over my entire career. But what it reminds everyone of is that the United States of America (and specifically St Louis chess club, backed by the financial power of Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield) remain one of the heavy financial hitters in the chess world, if not the heaviest.
That might explain why players of the calibre of Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Lenier Dominguez and others have joined the United States Federation in recent years. I would mention Fabiano Caruana as well but his ties with America were so strong to begin with, that it didn't seem like much of a jump.
Just as top-class golfers have joined LIV, players have gone to USA chess in their droves, and can you blame them? Wesley So talked about how he wasn't supported by the Philippines federation and rich businessman kept their hands in their pockets. Aronian mentioned how he was no longer considered promising by the Armenian chess federation. Their federations turned their back on them, so understandably they got out.
I wonder what all this means for some of our younger England stars in the chess world.
Emerging from the pandemic we have the best generation of players in England than we have had for many years. Bodhana Sivananda, Supratit, Ethan Pang, Stanley Badasconyi, Jude Shearsby, Zain Patel and of course Shreyas Royal, are just some of the names that spring to mind. And not just England but the U.K. in general, because when you talk about young players you also have to mention the name of Frederick Gordon, one of Scotland's brightest young stars.
In chess, the majority of professionals have an uncertain financial future. Even if you are a very highly rated Grandmaster and on "decent money", (compared to that of a lowly chess grandmaster) the temptations of a billionaires bounty can be too much to resist. Although Irina is a very fine player and I have lost to her in the past, she can't possibly be compared to Judit Polgar; someone of the level that Bodhana might aspire to. Someone who can compete against the very best players in the world. So when she picks up a huge cheque it is a jolt of reality to federations like England, who are relatively bereft of funds when compared with the American chess juggernaut.
Greg Norman speculated that many golfers might join his burgeoning LIV golf league because players on the PGA tour would see the funds that some of the players are making on LIV, and cast jealous glances. These are the players they are beating week in, week out, and they are making more money than us? We can't have that. The good news is that unlike LIV, the American chess federation isn't as aggressive at procuring players and they tend to bet on already established, ready-made stars rather than speculating on juniors who may or may not make the grade. So there is a hope that we can cling on to these players.
When Malcolm Pein and Dominic Lawson made an effort to secure funds for English chess from the Conservative government, it is easy to speculate that it might have been because of an underlying anxiety that if you don't at least make an effort to show that English chess is progressive when it comes to supporting our players, these same players might just progress off to somewhere else. You would hope that the incoming Labour government would be just as supportive especially since one of their most senior figures, the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, is herself a keen chess player.
Because it would be a desperately disappointing blow if we lost some of these young stars and in particular Bodhana, who I believe is the most promising player we've had in our country for many years and is probably the best bet that we've had for a future world chess champion since Luke McShane emerged from Clapham all those years ago.
Bodhana ably supported by her father Sivanandan, is the best bet we've had for a world champion in many years.
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