Tuesday, March 17, 2020

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

El País correspondent Leontxo García writes from Yekaterinburg that the Candidates Tournament will be postponed indefinitely if a case of coronavirus were to surface among the players. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) has announced such a “B” plan in order to calm down the worries of the participants about the pandemic. In such a surreal situation, in which loneliness, isolation and social distance — a set of attitudes which ordinarily are labeled “suicidal” — become a mantra for survival, it is not so strange that young people may feel unhappy even though they win the lottery. Vice World Chess Champion Fabiano Caruana, who drew today with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, although not seeing “any good reason for not going outside for a walk every now and then”, couldn’t conceal his anxiety at the press conference post the game: “The tournament was about to be cancelled in the last recent weeks, and there is a significant risk of suspension if a player tests positive. My scheduled return flight was cancelled, and I need to get another one urgently. Most of the world is in a very worrying situation. And we are not sure how we will get back home”. Photo © Maria Alekseevna Emelianova.

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