'Chess Always Lacked A Bit Of Professionalism', Does It Need A Major Overhaul?

Leading Indian chess player Vidit Gujrathi, who recently clinched a gold medal with the Indian team at the Chess Olympiad, has expressed his concern over the lack of professionalism in the scheduling of chess events. The 29-year-old Grandmaster believes that the frequent and often demanding tournament schedules can negatively impact players' well-being.“It's not ideal because we are just playing back-to-back tournaments. It comes at the cost of, let's say, personal life or living in the comfort of your home. You are always on the go," Gujrathi told PTI. "And it cannot be good for the physical body because you are not in one place. Your schedule is changing all the time. So, there is that cost (we have to pay for playing chess).“I feel chess has always lacked a bit of professionalism when it comes to these things, when it comes to scheduling and all that stuff. Like, for example, in any physical sport, you will see that there are gap days in (between) tournaments. Because the physical body needs to recover."But, here, we are expected to run at 120 miles per hour every single day. It's not possible,” said the 29-year-old Grandmaster.“I cannot pinpoint one person or one entity. It's the ecosystem in general. It's just strange that there are no gap days. Like how do you recover? It’s actually such a basic thought, but nobody has given it enough attention.“You can do sprints, but you need that rest to sprint again. But that’s not understood in this world when it comes to chess. So, you are expected to perform at your best every single day without breaks,” said Gujrathi.Despite winning the gold in the recently concluded Chess Olympiad Gujrathi expressed his thoughts and stated that he is yet to achieve consistency in his play.“I am experimenting with many things, trying to figure out what works or what doesn’t. These experiments sometimes are costly because you don't know if it will work and you are taking some risks. So, I haven't figured out the formula yet.“Of course, there are trainers, psychologists and everything. But it all comes down to your own thinking. They can only contribute so much."