The Sands of Time

The World Chess Championship 2021 is hosted at Dubai Exhibition Centre concurrently to the World Expo. It’s not an easy place to be — but so be it. After The Queen’s Gambit, the life of kings has become much harder as none of them wants to play Borgov’s role. At their opening press conference, however, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi (both pictured above) kept faith to their engagement in the strictest sense of duty, and FIDE President Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich proudly announced that at stake is not only the vile money, but also a new type of prize assignment — namely, a huge Russian-made trophy of more than 5 kg in sterling silver coated with gold and dolerite, and inlaid with 39 pearls and a diamond. The man with the Midas touch hopes for a remake of the Match of the Century, even without the help of Beth Harmon. Hopefully yes. However, only time will tell whether the mighty organisational machine will actually succeed at making two friends act like two frenemies. Just to quote Morphy, in the end the winner will be he whose “earnest desire is never to play for any stake but honour”. Photo: Haider Ali/EPA via Rossiyskaya Gazeta.