Former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen will meet across the board in two games in Casablanca on the weekend. (Photos via FIDE/Mark Livshitz and Lennart Ootes)
Just last week, Magnus Carlsen found himself in an unusual situation: at the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland event, the world no 1 was the oldest player in the 10-man field. This included three Indian prodigies — World Chess Championship challenger D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi — all of whom the former world champion defeated in a 10-game winning streak in blitz time controls that propelled him to the title.
Now, on Saturday and Sunday, at a unique chess tournament in Morocco’s Casablanca, Carlsen takes on another Indian, Viswanathan Anand — the man who he beat in 2013 to become world champion for the first time.
The former world champions are in the Moroccan city for an exhibition chess tournament where a unique format — called the Casablanca Chess Variant — will be showcased. Joining the duo will be Hikaru Nakamura and Amin Bassem, Africa’s strongest Grandmaster.
The Casablanca Chess Variant format has been conceptualised by the organisers of the event (Casablanca Stock Exchange, Casa Events and Animation, and the Royal Moroccan Chess Federation) and it will have players having a completely new kind of starting position.
What’s the Casablanca Chess Variant?
What makes the Casablanca Chess Variant different is that the starting positions for each game will be chosen by the organisers from the mid-way point of a historical game.
Just as an illustrative example, a game from the 1995 World Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Anand could be picked from any mid-way point, where both players had an equal chance to win the contest. The two players on the board will then have to try and beat their opponent from that point on, either relying on their memory to remember how that historical game played out, or on their instincts to forge their way to victory.
At the event, the four players will play in a double round robin — meaning Anand will face Carlsen once each on Saturday and Sunday. Each player will meet the other three players twice, so each player will play six games. They will play three games on May 18 and three games on May 19, organisers told The Indian Express in an email.
The former world champions are in the Moroccan city for an exhibition chess tournament where a unique format — called the Casablanca Chess Variant — will be showcased. (Reuters)
How the idea of the Casablanca Chess Variant came about
The Casablanca Chess Variant was inspired with a little help from the Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, a famous YouTuber called Agadmator and former world champion Garry Kasparov.
Woman Grandmaster Anna Burtasova, who is a press officer for the event, informed The Indian Express: “The idea belongs to Tarik Senhaji, Chief Executive Officer of the Casablanca Stock Exchange, and Grandmaster Hicham Hamdouchi. This is the story Tarik told me: ‘I was watching the Queen’s Gambit and the analysis of the games from this series by famous YouTuber Agadmator. After seeing the analysis, I thought that the starting positions were so wonderful, equal but on a knife’s edge, with many variations leading to complications and great attacking play. The variation on the Ivanchuk game in particular made an impression on me. I called Hicham and he told me that it was Garry Kasparov who picked them for the series. I then told him we have to make it into a real competition! And this is how the idea of the Casablanca Chess Variant was born.”
How is Casablanca Chess Variant different from the Freestyle G.O.A.T. event?
Earlier this year, there was another unique event with a novel format that was held with some of the biggest players in the world. That event, called the Freestyle G.O.A.T. event, was backed by Carlsen.
The basic idea behind both the Casablanca Chess Variant and the Freestyle G.O.A.T. event is the same: to get players out of the textbook and to play creatively from a position that they have not memorised beforehand as happens in normal chess games.
“In this digital age, some games unfold seamlessly, their moves orchestrated in advance, leaving little room for creativity at the board. To inspire the spirit of independent thought and strategic creativity, the Casablanca Stock Exchange introduces the groundbreaking Casablanca Chess Variant,” the Casablanca Chess organisers announced.
