World Chess Championship 2018: Where's it going?

No American has ever won the World Chess Championship, since Bobby Fischer’s win in 1972.

By the end of this month, we shall know if Fabiano Caruana will make America great again.

Like Fischer, even Caruana is from Brooklyn, the most populous borough of New York City. And like Fischer’s win had done then, many are hoping that, possibly with Caruana’s win now, there would be an explosion of interest in ‘Chess’ once again, in the United States. And that young people would favourably view this cherished game of mental agility.

‘Chess is the gymnasium of the mind’ some people say. But sadly, in these times of instant gratification, ‘mind sports’ which require time and patience are often overlooked in favour of those with quick rewards. And the value of this game is being eroded by the 21st century busyness of our generation.

In the World Championship, currently being played in London, Magnus Carlsen from Norway is defending the title he had held since 2013, when had beaten India’s Viswanathan Anand.

In fact, Carlsen successfully defended his title once again, against Anand in 2014 and against Sergey Karjakin in 2016.   He is now battling it out with Caruana, the US hopeful.

Held from November 9 to November 28, this championship – which has become biennial since 2014 - is a three-week, twelve-game match.

What I found interesting and somewhat shocking is this. On Monday evening (19 November) Game 8 turned out to be a draw. Just like all the earlier seven games. And it’s now a ‘four-all’ dead-lock.

So, it is unclear how the remaining four games will decide who the World Chess Champion for 2018 would be.

Game 9 will start on November 21 and those interested can follow the four remaining games live at: www.chess.com/wcc2018.

Both grandmasters have been giving it their best. And the Norwegian Carlsen, in many games, had to actually defend himself, and save himself from losing, by managing to play to a draw.

“Chess requires a lot of stamina,” says his US rival Caruana in TIME magazine (19 Nov 2013). “You’re playing six, seven hours at a time. You’re burning a lot of calories, and you can easily get mentally tired. If your physical form is not good, then you’re likely to crash at some point.”

That is why, perhaps, he had had severe physical training in summer, with jogging, shooting hoops, and playing tennis.

This event is actually held by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) or World Chess Federation, an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world.

In this country, the Bahrain Mind Sports Association, founded in 1999, has been overseeing the conduct of the game of Chess, along with other games like Checkers, Scrabble and Bridge.

I am particularly proud that a community club to which I belong, here in Bahrain, conducts an Annual Open Chess Championship every year.

This FIDE-rated tournament is being organised by TKS (Telugu Kala Samithi) in association with BMSA and sponsored by Devji Jewellers, for many years now. But then, that is beside the point.

Coming back to Caruana. Will he, who hasn’t won a world championship yet, win, and join the ranks of Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Antoly Karpov, Boris Spassky, Viswanathan Anand and Vladmir Kramnik?

Only 7 Americans are currently in the top 100 of the world chess rankings. And that is one reason why the US needs a ‘Caruana win’, to boost the national interest in the game.

And who knows? Maybe then, the terms ‘English opening’ or ‘queen’s gambit’, ‘Trompowsky’s attack’ or ‘sicilian defence’ will become more popular in US. And the country would wage wars on the chess board, than on the world map.

The Amazing Stan Lee: His Tingling Writer Sense

The name of Stan Lee, who died on Monday, will always make me think of two thin comic books I had borrowed from a small book-shop near my house.

One was of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and another of ‘The Incredible Hulk’.

Stan Lee with Iron Man and Spider Man

The year was probably 1981. And for an over-imaginative teenager that I was then - and for someone already high on the adventures of ‘Phantom’ and ‘Bahadur’, published in those days by ‘Indrajal Comics’ of India – finding these new comics was a special moment. A discovery of pure joy.

Flipping through the pages, my friend and I were fascinated by the brightly-coloured characters and the action-packed scenes.  We wasted no time in borrowing these comics. And on rushing home, soon got immersed into a magical world of newfound super-heroes.

Our small book-shop-plus-lending-library had had many books in the vernacular language, but a very small collection of English books and comics. The store was not located in some high-class urban setting, near posh schools, to warrant the shopkeeper to buy and store foreign-published comics easily.

But thanks to our friends at school, among whom our comic books got circulated privately, a big group of boys soon descended on the shop.  And thanks to all of them demanding copies of Marvel Comics from abroad, the proprietor had to give in.

He saw a business opportunity. And soon procured for us, not only more adventures of ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’, but also of ‘Fantastic Four’, of ‘Thor’, of ‘The Avengers’ and of ‘X-Men’, among several others.

And the great excitement we had derived, from access to these comics, is not easy to explain to a new generation that has seen them all on television and cinema screens.

Especially, to the millennials who probably will never know the wonder and awe of action-packed comic books.

The passing of Stan Lee, therefore, is the passing of an era. As a man who co-created some of the most endearing superheroes, he has taken sci-fi fantasy and super-hero stories to a whole new plane, a higher plane.

It was long ago, in 1962, that ‘Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, first appeared. But it was only in 2002 that the first Spider-Man movie released. And I am still surprised as to why it took Hollywood so long.

However, in quick succession, with the Spider-Man movie series came other highly successful series of ‘The Avengers’ and ‘X-Men’. Also, ‘Iron man’, ‘Ant Man’ and ‘Captain America’ which have all had the fabulous finger-prints of Stan Lee.

“I never had any idea that these characters would last this long”, he had said in interview clips which were telecast by CNN on his demise. “In fact, I, and the people I worked with, who co-created them, with me - the many talented artists - just hoped that the books would sell and we continue to get our salaries, and be able to pay our rents”.

Even he did not know how far his dreams would take him. His mid-boggling futuristic imagination, and his portrayal of superheroes with all their failings and flaws, ensured that the readers’ and audience’s love for superheroes does not die.

A few months ago, when my daughters excitedly went to watch ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ by Marvel Studios, on the day it released in Bahrain, I thought of my teenage times. The times I had rushed to the book store on hearing that a new set of Marvel Comics have arrived.

Also, Stan Lee’s cameo appearances in almost all Marvel Studio productions have portrayed him as a simple loveable human being. But he will remain a super-hero. A real one. Not a fictional one.

From comics to movies, Stan Lee’s imagination has only taken us, and the entertainment world, ‘ever upward’. Excelsior!

The US Government Debt: Where's it going?

“Neither a lender nor a borrower be”.

This Shakespearean advice, from the tragedy called Hamlet, might seem impractical today.

Often, we wouldn’t be able to buy cars or build houses, if we do not borrow.

And, if it were not for those bankers - who first lend, by smooth talking us into taking loans, and who then come straight to our throats, if we default - many of us wouldn’t be taking any bold or adventurous steps.

But, we are not alone. Even organizations and countries borrow money. And, just like many of us, they thrive sometimes. And they nose-dive sometimes.

In 2015, when Greece formally defaulted on a $1.7 billion payment to IMF (International Monetary Fund) it had plunged itself into a crisis. And it was for an amount that was only a minuscule part of its overall debt of $367bn then.

As of 2017, Greece’s total debt is $376bn.

Since the 2009 financial crisis, due to austerity measures and several conditional pressures from outside, it had ensured that the debt had not risen above 6%.

But the Greek tragedy is that, during the same period, its critical debt-to-GDP ratio has shot up from 127% to 179%.

Compare that with USA, which is on top of the world when it comes to government debt.

Its total debt is $21.6 trillion dollars. And counting. Trillions, not billions. And that is some 60 times more than that of Greece. (Check out the US Debt Clock here)

The 2017 Gross-Federal-Debt-to-GDP ratio of USA is 105.4%. We can call it very high because, never since 1940s, has it been this high.

It was an all-time high of 118.9% in 1946 (But it was during the Second World War, which is understandable). It was a record low of 31.7% in 1981.

Interestingly, from the historical data, from 1940 to 2017, we can see that the Government Debt to GDP ratio had averaged at 61.7%.

Borrowing 60%-62% of what you are producing may not be a bad idea. In fact, it could be a great idea, to surge ahead. But when, eventually, borrowing becomes greater than what is being produced, danger-lights and alarm-bells should start off.

In 1988, the debt was only half of America's economic output. But by 2017 it has become greater than its output.

Today, therefore, letting this percentage rise more could be disastrous. Especially, for a nation in whose treasury bonds, other countries have heavily invested.

When a nation’s leaders decrease revenue by cutting taxes, and yet increase expenditure by putting more dollars into defence, education, medical care, and social security, it is obvious that they will be forced to borrow.

Now, with the mid-term elections going on in the USA, let us hope that some new decision makers would emerge, with fresh thoughts, to effectively address both; the fiscal deficit and the debt-to-GDP ratio.

In an article titled “What would it take to get US debt under control?” James C Capretta - of the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank - suggests that keeping debt under 50% of the GDP, by 2033, is ideal and possible. But getting it under 100% should be a top priority.

“Procrastination is the enemy of sound fiscal policy. The longer political leaders wait to take action, the more difficult it will be to reach reasonable goals”, he says.

Republican leaders, including those in the Trump administration, are telling us that the growing deficit is an example for why entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security must be cut.

Democrat leaders, on the other hand, are telling us that they can reverse some provisions of the GOP tax law to increase revenue.

But, for whoever comes to power, there’s another Shakespearean advice: “Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.”


Related Links

1. 3 charts that show why the US should stop ignoring its debt problem
2. Does US Debt Matter? CNBC Explains (YouTube Video)
3. What would it take to get US debt under control?