American GM Hans Niemann wants ‘chess to be more like tennis’

CHENNAI: Chess is an individual sport, and American Grandmaster Hans Niemann wants it to be treated that way, as he suggested quite a bit of changes to the existing format after the Chennai Grand Masters here on Wednesday.

Niemann couldn't affect the standings much on the last day, with his draw taking him one clear point ahead of D Gukesh, who finished the home masters in the last place. However, Niemann wanted a unique change to the sport: one format.

“The best game to compare chess would be to tennis,” Niemann told select journalists at the event.

“...in the sense there’s just one universal format. Sometimes, it is two sets or three but largely, it is the same format. We need something similar in chess, a singular format at top-level—not just for fairness but also for comfort.”

While not against classical chess, Niemann insisted that holding on to it as the ‘purest form’ of chess could only further harm the sport.

“People are clinging on to this idea of classical chess, but if chess remains sort of so clung to this concept of the purity of classical chess, then the game is just going to be left behind. I just don't see a long-term future for classical chess.”

“As an individual sport, I think the knockout format is the fairest. In candidates especially, when there was a collusion of Russian players, such things won’t happen if there’s results for every game. Everything then is in the player's control. Any player who is honest and realistic would have that viewpoint.”