Saturday 12 October 2024

The spectator experience

 Watching live chess normally involves just wandering up to a board and standing next to it for a while. That of course is most common in weekend or casual events. It is a bit harder to have a similar experience when watching the worlds top players.

In the case of the Global Chess League, spectators could follow the games from the stands, while watching the moves displayed on a screen hanging from the roof. Unfortunately in both cases, if you were seated too far back it was a little harder to follow the action. The ban on phone usage during the round, as sensible as it was, meant you couldn't follow the moves on a personal device, which might have been better. 

Despite this I was able to follow enough of the action with my aging eyes to at least get a feel for what was happening. Fortunately the top boards were closer to the spectators so I was able to witness games such as this.


Anand, Viswanathan v Firouzja, Alireza
2024 Global Chess League


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