“Unnecessary move” or “good initiative”? What Indian Chess GMs Say About FIDE’s Latest ‘Experiment’

Top Indian Grandmasters Pravin Thipsay, SL Narayanan, Abhimanyu Puranik, Srinath Narayanan, SP Sethuraman and Shyam Sundar M (suggested by TimesofIndia.com) NEW DELHI: Getting an official FIDE (the primary governing body for chess) rating has never been easy. A player must participate in FIDE-rated tournaments, which are organized according to strict regulations and often require travel, entry fees and rigorous preparation. To earn a rating, a player must face already rated opponents and achieve the required performance in rated games.However, this tradition may soon change.In a sweeping policy change that has sparked deep existential debate, FIDE and World Chess, the governing body’s official commercial partner, have recently unveiled the “First Rating Experiment”. The two-year pilot program will allow casual enthusiasts to earn their very first Official Flash (OTB) flash and rapid rating exclusively through online play at worldchess.com. It’s a bold attempt to democratize the historically insular sport, as the governing body aims to expand the current global pool of 500,000 rated players into the millions so that every Tom, Dick and Harry has a chance to earn their first FIDE rating.To manage this new digital frontier, FIDE plans to use an AI-driven fair-play screening framework and a specialized technical coefficient designed to align online performance with physical standards. To protect the upper echelons of the sport, the governing body has also installed a regulatory firewall where these online incubated ratings will be strictly limited to 1,800 Elo.Although FIDE intends to launch the program this July, after a period of community review, Indian grandmasters, the vanguard of the modern chess renaissance, are locked in a merciless cerebral tug-of-war over the decision.For some, it represents a visionary breaking down of economic barriers; however, for others, it’s a dangerous compromise of the game’s ultimate currency, which lies in the integrity of the rating system.

“Unnecessary move” by FIDE?

According to several Indian Grandmasters, the line between online and offline chess must remain completely sacred. In an exclusive interaction with TimesofIndia.com, Grand Master (GM) SL Narayanan was blunt in his disapproval.“I think it was an unnecessary move by FIDE. You can’t combine online tournaments and then convert the ratings to overboard ratings because the rules are different for online and offline chess,” he said. “For recreational players, they would see this as a welcome move, but the real issue is that it could affect the credibility of the rating system.”This sentiment was strongly echoed on X (formerly Twitter) by prominent coach GM Srinath Narayanan, who expressed deep reservations about online security. He wrote: “Highly skeptical of the effectiveness of fair play controls. Online and over the board ratings should not be mixed.”GM SP Sethuraman also pointed to X to highlight how this integration could destabilize an already fragile rating ecosystem: “I already feel that the chess rating system is far from perfectly calibrated for different regions, formats and activity levels. We’ve already seen significant rating inflation and deflation issues over the years, making it difficult to compare ratings across generations.” “The introduction of official online ratings that can be converted to OTB ratings may cause even more noise and uncertainty. While the intention is to make chess more accessible, I hope FIDE will proceed very carefully.”GM Abhimanyu Puranik offered a more relaxed but similarly cautious view of the site: “Generally (it’s not) great to link online and play OTB, but the rating itself starts so low that it doesn’t change that much.”“It’s a very difficult decision to doubt players based on moves alone.In an interview with TimesofIndia.com, one of Chennai’s most respected coaches, GM Shyam Sundar M, admitted he was very surprised by the news considering the massive operational shift against the dark cloud of digital cheating:“The good thing is that FIDE is trying some new initiatives… But by combining online chess for over-the-board ratings, I’m not sure. I think even playing without a physical board. Like a hybrid system, I understand. That makes sense too.”Shyam Sundar suggested that a hybrid system where players gather in physical regional halls monitored by local referees and 24-hour Zoom surveillance would be much safer and just as economical for the organizers.He expressed his main concern about the anti-cheating algorithms, adding: “I strongly believe that not one innocent person should be punished. It’s not easy and it’s a very difficult decision to doubt players just based on moves, the quality of play in two, three or four games.”However, he remains open to the future, adding: “Maybe AI-based or even server-based. Maybe something like that AI browser, maybe it’s possible. If it happens, maybe it’s good.”

Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay welcomes the initiative

In stark contrast, Arjuna awardee and veteran GM Pravin Thipsay hailed the initiative as a visionary leap, noting that less than 1% of the world’s chess enthusiasts actually have the means to play physical, ranked tournaments.“I think FIDE has taken a bold step … There are several million players … who play chess online and play quite regularly, because Karpov established one third of the Western world, they play chess almost every day, but they play with a computer, and then they remain outside the mainstream. And somewhere, the barricade between online chess players and across the board has been removed,” chess players and chess players said that this was a good step. TimesofIndia.com.Acknowledging that the system could face serious problems if cheating goes unchecked or if the rating coefficient is calculated incorrectly, Thipsay pointed out that previous FIDE coefficient changes for players under 18 had “boomeranged and failed”. Still, he believes the 1800 ceiling is an excellent filter.“If someone goes over 1,700 or 1,750, there’s a reasonable chance that that particular player will try to play chess more seriously, to be an overboard player,” he added. “So I think it’s a good initiative, we’ll have a large number of players coming to chess across the board.”With FIDE currently gathering feedback ahead of its final rollout, the chess world is at an unprecedented crossroads. What do you think of this proposal? Let us know in the comments.