You may have followed the recent world chess championship bout between Ding Liren, the Chinese grand master, and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi. After finishing tie the regular rounds, they engaged in a tie-break set of games, which resulted in Liren being crowned as the new world chess champion. The other day, as I was reading about this, I thought about the symbolism of it all. It is not as breathtaking as the match-up in the 70s between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, but it is not devoid of symbolism. And the games were apparently awesome too, although, even on that front, the 70s match-up was superior, relative to the level of the time.
Now, I see where you are going: Yes, the world championship of the most strategic and long-term vision game is being played between Russia and China, the two challengers to the Western-driven world order, and the West is not present. Oh mine, oh mine! But, that is not the case. Just continue reading.
You see, Ding Liren is sort of a miracle champion, because he was not even supposed to be there. The reason he was at the final was that the reigning Norwegian-origin world champion, Magnus Carlsen, who has been the champion since 2011, decided to forego defending his title. So in fact, one can say that China and Russia got to monopolize the championship, because the Western leader who had constantly won for ten straight years, go bored of wining and decided ‘not to play again’!
Does that look like the Middle East right now to you? The West, in particular the US, got bored and lost interest in the region - who needs that much oil and gas - and stopped playing. So China moved in as a peace maker with a pacemaker to regulate the region’s heart beat.
Paris, May 8, 2023
Zeejay