Magnus Carlsen has what other chess champions don’t — marketability.
One of the several bleary-eyed commuters who stepped out of the departure terminal at the Chennai international airport early Sunday morning was 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen. A few officials of the All India Chess Federation formed the perfunctory waiting party that had come to the airport to greet him. Moments later, Carlsen was whisked away to his hotel. Had he arrived at a more reasonable hour, there might have been garlands and shawls, banner-holding school children enjoying a few minutes of sanctioned truancy. These details apart, his reception would not have changed much in scope or in reverence. The Norwegian chess player, currently visiting Chennai to get a feel of the city that will host his World Chess Championship final against Viswanathan Anand in November, is not likely to receive more than obligatory attention in India.
It is difficult to imagine the superstar of any other global sport — a Messi or a Federer — making such an underwhelming entry or commanding so little attention in public. But that Carlsen, “the Mozart of chess”, the world number one and the sport’s highest-ever rated player, could arrive without turning too many heads is no cause for wonder.
Chess, as portrayed in popular culture, is still the preserve of the eccentric and the precocious. The sport’s inability to powder up and flash a smile in front of a televised audience has ensured a crippling degree of anonymity and, consequently, the absence of lucrative TV rights deals. Institutional sponsors have tended to stay away. Even an elite player may not have his lapel adorned by the logo of a benefactor.
Enter Carlsen. The Norwegian’s virtuosity on the board is unquestioned, so much so that the 22-year old, with no experience in the match format of the World Championship final, is considered the favourite against the incumbent and four-time champion, Anand. “Carlsen will be ridiculously difficult to play against,” admitted Anand himself. Unlike the archetypal chess genius who, in the public imagination, is as prone to moments of transcendental brilliance as nervous breakdowns, Carlsen comes across as well-rounded, articulate and, crucially, marketable.
Pete Svidler, six-time Russian champion and formerly one of the top 10 grandmasters, recently told The New York Times: “He’s exceptionally good, and so he gets extra opportunities… Somehow I’m less marketable than Magnus. I’m somewhat less young, and somewhat more Soviet.”
In Carlsen, the West has, potentially, its first world champion since the brilliant and enigmatic Bobby Fischer. Carlsen has recently displayed the same level of mastery over his contemporaries that Fischer did in his prime, and unlike the American, Carlsen has the bankability, age, looks and sophistication to propel him to the forefront of a rigorous marketing campaign. Not only has such a campaign made him the poster boy of chess, it has also set his cash register ringing.
Carlsen made more than a million dollars last year (a figure that is sure to go up in 2013) and over 70 per cent of it came from sponsorships and endorsements. In comparison, Alexander Grischuk, the current world number four, is estimated to have earned $1,85,000 last year in prize money. The Russian is without a sponsor. Among Carlsen’s sponsors are an investment bank (Arctic Securities), a law firm (Simonsen Vogt Wiig), a news corporation (VG) and an electronics company (Nordic Semiconductors), all of which are based out of Norway. But Carlsen’s profile has been on the upswing outside his native country too.
He has modelled for apparel firm G-Star Raw, was offered a role in a Star Trek movie (to play a chess champion from the future) and has appeared on various TV talk shows in the US. Earlier this year, he signed a deal with a cloud computing firm from Seattle. After a decade of trying to set its house in order and courting prospective patrons, FIDE, the world chess federation, seems content to drift in Carlsen’s slipstream.
The only thing missing from Carlsen’s resume is the world title. A championship final for the first time in India could trigger a second wave of interest in chess in the country, but a win for Carlsen will be at least as salubrious for the sport at the global level. Or so the marketing pitch goes.
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com
No one but Nakamura can touch Magnus.
Some of the laudatory remarks, coming as they do from an Indian , and not a Norwegian, newspaper, are a shame to the Indian patriotic spirit and sense of sportive fairness. In no other country of the world would a leading paper publish such eulogy for a foreign opponent, however strong, thereby belittling the talents and prowess of their own meritorious player and reigning world champion.(Mathur)
Being Indian means not recognizing the achievement of a non Indian?
No one belittled Anand in this article btw.,
PS: I dont think the word “eulogy” means what you think it does 😉