A record budget and a nation’s grandiose sporting ambition are the driving forces behind the 180-nation Olympiad in Chennai, which approaches its closing rounds this weekend.
The state of Tamil Nadu and its chief minister, MK Stalin, originally approved a $10mn budget, which has since overrun by more than a third. That is much more than any other chess event in history has ever dreamt of. MK Stalin’s name is not a coincidence. He was born in 1953, and when Joseph Stalin died four days later the baby’s father decided on the name for his son.
When it became clear in February that Moscow could not continue as the Olympiad site, an Indian grandmaster found a way to bypass the state bureaucracy and make the proposal, which was approved in just a day, direct to the minister. The Olympiad is labour and tech intensive, with 1,500 players, large teams of arbiters and support staff, and special boards to relay live coverage of every game to chess websites. Play begins 10.30am BST daily, and is free to watch on chess24.com, with commentary by GMs Peter Leko and Peter Svidler.