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Indian Express
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
WATCH: Ceremonial first moves at Norway Chess made by people sporting traditional Indian mundus
The ceremonial first moves in the fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament on Saturday were made with a distinctly Indian flavour: six Indian-origin owners of a South Indian restaurant in Stavanger made the first moves on all the six boards while wearing white mundus. The ceremonial first move is a chess tradition where special guest can make the first move on behalf of the player with white pieces. The player can then take back the move and play their actual first move as per their opening prep, or continue with the same move. The owners of a South Indian restaurant named Spisoh, which is also a partner of the Norway Chess tournament, made the ceremonial first moves on Saturday. All the four Indian players, D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Koneru Humpy and R. Vaishali have been ordering their meals from the restaurant while in Stavanger for the ongoing Norway Chess tournament. A post shared by Chess With Lokesh (@chesswithlokesh) Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand and player-cum-commentator Tania Sachdev recently visited the restaurant on the rest day for lunch. 'Last time Magnus Carlsen broke FIDE tradition by wearing jeans to a game (at the FIDE world Rapid and Blitz tournament in December 2024). We wanted to extend that and show a fairly unknown India to the West by wearing our traditional dress to the strongest chess tournament in the world. We were not being disrespectful here, we did ask for prior permission to do this,' said Rathish Kunnath, one of the co-owners of the restaurant. A post shared by Chess With Lokesh (@chesswithlokesh) At the halfway stage of Norway Chess, reigning world champion Gukesh finds himself in the last position with 5.5 points in an extremely strong field of six players. Carlsen is the runaway leader with 9.5 points, USA's Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura in the second and third place, respectively. Arjun sits fourth while China's Wei Yi is fifth ahead of Gukesh. In the women's section, Humpy is leading the pack with 8.5 points while the other Indian, Vaishali is fourth with 6.5 points.


New Indian Express
7 days ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Biryani to podi dosa, Kerala eatery serves Indian chess stars in Norway
STAVANGER (NORWAY): After obliging the vast array of autograph hunters outside the playing hall at the venue, Arjun Erigaisi got into a car and made his way to an eatery that has become the rage among Indian chess players here. It's a trip all four Indian players — R Vaishali, D Gukesh and Koneru Humpy the others — have already made at the ongoing edition of Norway Chess. Erigaisi, featuring in Stavanger for the first time, was told about the place by R Praggnanandhaa, who tasted their food last year. The players' favourites include lamb masala, chicken biryani and, in Vaishali's case, podi dosa. 'A few of the players ordered south Indian style lamb masala,' says Nitish Kamath, one of the five owners of Spisoh. 'Humpy doesn't have a set template and we have noticed that Vaishali has picked up podi dosa on a few occasions.'


Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
For Indian players at Norway Chess, tiny Stavanger restaurant serves taste of home
Before Arjun Erigaisi flew to Stavanger to compete at the Norway Chess tournament for the first time in his life, he got a helpful tip from his close friend, R Praggnanandhaa. Pragg is not here this time around after his heroics last time, where he had defeated Magnus Carlsen for the first time in history in the classical format. 'Pragg just told me about the South Indian restaurant where I can order food from,' said Arjun after defeating world champion Gukesh on Tuesday. So right after taking down a world champion in the classical format, Arjun made a quick pit-stop at the downtown restaurant called Spisoh to pick up aatu irachi (lamb masala), parotta, mango lassi and cocktail samosas. Arjun had dined on the same meal the previous day too, when he had won in the Armageddon against China's Wei Yi. Arjun isn't the only one. The rest of the three Indian players competing at the Norway Chess tournament — world champion Gukesh, Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu — also rely on the Indian restaurant, which was started by five Indian-origin partners in the middle of the pandemic in downtown Stavanger, for dinners after games and even lunches. In 2023, when Gukesh played at Norway Chess, he and his father would order meals from the restaurant. Last year, Humpy, Pragg, Vaishali and the duo's mother, Nagalakshmi, also turned to the South Indian restaurant in the fourth biggest city of Norway for a slice of home. 'Aatu irachi masala (lamb masala) was Gukesh's favorite, even in 2023. So, he is still going for that,' says Nitish Kamath, one of the owners of the restaurant. 'Vaishali has, at least for the past two days, ordered this podi dosa. Humpy has ordered the chicken biryani a few times.' The restaurant was Gukesh and his father Rajini Kanth's find in 2023. All five owners came to Norway many years back, drawn by jobs in the country's booming energy and IT sector. But then they found time to dabble in their favorite passion: cooking. The venture was started in 2021 when the world was still clawing its way back to normalcy after a hard year of COVID-19 as a ghost kitchen (a food service that operates solely on delivery and pickup via apps rather than having a place to eat meals). Kamath says that while his restaurant is focussed on serving authentic South Indian fare, there are other restaurants in the city that usually offer items that foreigners have heard of. 'Sometimes it has been an uphill task for us because we were fighting against the chicken tikka masalas, the naan breads, the butter chickens, the rogan gosht, the kurmas,' he says. For now, most players have stuck to picking up takeaway from the restaurant. But on the rest day, players usually personally visit the place — like in 2023 when Gukesh took his Polish trainer Gregorz Gajewski to eat there in what was their first full-time event linking up as trainer and player. With the Indian contingent already locked up, Kamath says they're also open to serve other players at Norway Chess. 'We want the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura to also come, but I am not sure if they will. We would be more than happy to have them,' he grins. The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess