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Indian Express
5 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Viswanathan Anand on what will happen when Magnus and Hikaru leave: ‘Sport goes on, hundreds of new talents coming in'
The world of chess has been left pondering about what would happen if stars like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura call it a day and stop playing classical chess, as indicated by the Norwegian world no 1 recently. Five-time world champion Carlsen has anyway reduced his classical appearances to a bare minimum — the ongoing Norway Chess is likely the only classical tournament he will be competing in this year as he trains his focus on playing in faster time control events, freestyle events and events like the Esports World Cup. Nakamura too has spoken more frequently in recent years about dialling down on the longest — and the purest — format of the game. But former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is also a Deputy President in FIDE, the global governing body of the sport, believes that the sport can endure even when the most popular crowd-pullers like Carlsen and Nakamura walk away. 'In a sense, we can't ask what's the future every time somebody decides to dial it down. I mean, nobody asked me. I also dialed it down (reduced playing in tournaments). So what's going to happen? So the sport goes on. There are hundreds of new talents. 11-year-olds, 80-year-olds. It's coming at both ends. It's a normal part of life, I think,' Anand told journalists from India during the ongoing Norway Chess tournament. 'Magnus and Hikaru have advertised this for some time (them not playing classical chess). I mean, Hikaru doesn't play very much anyway, he is really quite busy with his other commitments, streaming and so on. And the same with Magnus. He has mentioned this many times that he wants to work on this and that. And in this case, we had a lot of warning. I mean, Magnus has been talking about it for at least six years. Then this kind of came into focus in 2022, during the Madrid Candidates tournament. And it's the same with Hikaru. So it's not at all unexpected. Carlsen made global headlines recently after slamming a balled fist on the chess board after an uncharacteristic error from him resulted in a defeat to Gukesh, his first loss to the reigning world champion from India. Carlsen later said that classical chess was not 'fun at all' for him. He mentioned that at some point during the game against Gukesh he was asking himself why he was playing the format at all, and later also mentioned that he should 'maybe totally stop playing classical chess.' Nakamura too had said that there was a good chance (about 80 percent) that the world had seen them playing against each other at Norway Chess for the last time. Carlsen had told Norway's TV2, 'I don't think that (the game against Gukesh) was fun. I have to consider how to avoid it… maybe I should totally stop playing classical chess. It was not fun for me at all. In general I feel I have played well in the tournament but I don't feel it is fun playing. I am not worried about my level.' Meanwhile, Anand also praised the 19-year-old Gukesh, who currently occupies the world champion's throne. Gukesh started Norway Chess in the worst way possible, losing to Carlsen and then Arjun Erigaisi in the first two games, before stabilising his tournament with some big wins, including the one against Carlsen and Arjun as well. 'He's tough, quite tenacious, copes pretty well with setbacks. Obviously, this (Norway Chess) is a higher test, more intense tournament, so he seems to be under pressure every day, but several days he came out (and played well). I think yesterday (against Nakamura), he flipped a little bit. something was off with him. But that's also normal. You have big off days after a good run,' Anand said about his protege. Asked if Gukesh should take a break from tournaments rather than playing non-stop, Anand said: 'It depends what you want to try. And I also think you have to grab opportunities. Maybe going forward, careers won't be as long. You have to schedule some timeouts, do some (few) tournaments. After this (Norway Chess), he gets a break. But I guess he will play Zagreb. So he's got to enjoy the moments of break as well, because there's no use if the brain refuses to come along.' (The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess. Matches are live-streamed on Sony LIV.) Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Port Canaveral breaks $100M in revenue over 6 months after record cruise month
Port Canaveral's nearly 926,000 cruise passengers in March fueled a record month that saw operating revenue halfway through the fiscal year top $100 million for the first time. 'It wasn't that long ago that we were excited about a half a million guests, breaking the 500,000 mark, and 926,000 is crazy in one month,' port CEO Capt. John Murray said during the port authority commission meeting Wednesday. For the six months from October 2024 through March 2025, the port had 544 ship calls with more than 4.4 million multiday passenger movements. At this point last year, the port had only 480 ship calls and 3.9 million passenger movements. The fiscal year runs through September. And more passengers means more parking fees: The port set a one-day record in March of more than 11,000 cars. 'It's even stronger demand this year than it was last year during spring break,' Murray said. 'We've been predicting it, and we're ready for it, so it's been successful.' For the six months, cruise-related operating revenue topped $102 million while cargo, leases and recreation added nearly another $10 million. Overall operating expenses were near $67 million, which gives the port around $43 million to pay off debt and invest in projects. During the same six months of 2019, operating revenue was around $52 million while expenses left it with only around $9 million. Port Canaveral 'doing more with less' but pursuit of new terminals not dead It's been busy at all six terminals as Canaveral was homeport for a record 16 ships over the winter sailing season. That includes the first time both Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises called it home as well as the debut of Disney Cruise Line's newest ship Disney Treasure. 'We're pretty much at capacity right now, unless we start doing some odd rotations on midday sailings and that sort of thing,' Murray said. 'And that's been a challenge for us.' Numbers will drop off, though, as ships redeploy to Europe and Alaska for summer. December and March are historic highpoints of the port's fiscal year, but cruise demand is expected to drive record revenue and passenger totals for the remainder. Passengers are projected to top 8.4 million from more than 1,000 ship calls, feeding the majority of the budgeted $211 million in operating revenue. That's up from 7.6 million in 2024 as it trails only Miami for busiest cruise port in the world. Commissioner Wayne Justice said he was happy with the numbers but wondered what the future holds. 'Where does this end?' Justice asked. 'I mean, at some point the ships are all sailing full. They're all full.' 'Bigger ships are coming,' replied Murray. 'Tough problem.' That includes the August arrival of what will be the world's largest cruise ship when Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas debuts. Meanwhile, the port still will have what is currently the No. 2 largest ship in the world (which will become No. 3) in Utopia of the Seas, which arrived last summer. Also new this year is this week's debut of Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship and first in the Prima Plus class, the Norwegian Aqua. And MSC Cruises is bringing one of its largest ships to the port this fall with the arrival of the MSC Grandiosa. In 2027, the port is slated to get the next Carnival Excel class ship, Carnival Festivale, as well as the MSC World Atlantic, which will be the biggest in the MSC Cruises fleet when it arrives in 2027. Cruise industry riding global wave despite economic, political uncertainty Murray told the Sentinel earlier this month during an interview at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami Beach that budget projections are pretty close, but demand has still been growing. 'We still get surprised from vehicle parking and new ships come in, and all of a sudden the parking ratios change because we've got more drive-in audience, because of the asset that's alongside the berth,' he said. Port Canaveral traditionally has not always been first for cruise line deployment choices, but that has shifted. 'We'll have number one and three in the Royal Caribbean fleet, which is quite a bit different from 10 years ago, when usually we got the leftovers from the South Florida ports,' he said. Until the port can pursue new terminals, which are still years in the making, it has to make do with solving the complicated parking puzzle. Although right now Murray said the port offers something places like Port Everglades and PortMiami cannot — a smoother vacation for drive-in customers. 'One of the things we pride ourselves on is easy access in and egress out of Port Canaveral,' Murray said. 'Some other ports to the south will say they're having significant traffic issues now that were not generated by the ports themselves. 'It was generated outside of the ports, and it's causing significant heartburn right now.'
