It’s not often that the world of competitive professional chess gains mainstream attention. The veneer of a stately, polite board game has been blown away in recent months, thanks to a saga involving the world’s number one player and a young feisty upstart from America. Accusations of cheating, a $100 million dollar law suit and profanity-laden tirades are just the tip of the iceberg in this case that has caught the attention of the wider public.
Dylan Loeb McClain is the former chess columnist for the New York Times and himself a chess master. He joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to unpack this bizarre story and all its twists and turns.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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