NEW DELHI: The 46th edition of the Chess Olympiad kicked off in style for the French men’s team on Wednesday as they secured a clean 4-0 sweep over lower-ranked Tunisia. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, popularly known as MVL, was absent from action as the Board 1 player was rested, perhaps much needed after a gruelling week of matches in India’s Global Chess League (GCL).This time, France’s team enters the fray with a solid side featuring MVL, Étienne Bacrot, Maxime Lagarde, Jules Moussard and youngester Marc’Andria Maurizzi. Sébastien Mazé serves as captain.But ask MVL whether France can win the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, and he does not reach for a diplomatic hedge, a motivational cliché or the line about how anything can happen in a Swiss system.“We’re nowhere near favourites,” he told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interaction. “But we have a good solid team, and I think everyone’s really motivated. So that’s all I can say, and we’re hoping for the best.”Then, who are the favourites in his opinion?“There are three main favourites, I think. Even four, I would say. USA, India, China and Uzbekistan,” the French grandmaster added.Four teams named without hesitation, France not among them, by the man who will be leading France from its top board. This is not pessimism. Spend twenty minutes with MVL, and it becomes clear that it is something closer to the opposite.He possesses a settled, unsentimental clarity about what he can control and what he cannot, precisely the mindset that has kept him at the sport’s summit for the better part of two decades.
Chess began as a hobby for MVL
“I learned the rules at five years old, and gradually I enjoyed the game more and more and started winning,” MVL recalled. “This is always, as a kid, the way you kind of pick up a hobby or passion. The more you win, the more you want to play.”What he did not anticipate was permanence.“I didn’t know at the time that I would still be doing basically only that as my profession thirty years later,” he continued. “But here we are, and hopefully I’ve got a few good years remaining.”
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at 2024 Chess Olympiad (Photo by FIDE)
Even when discussing his own longevity, the 35-year-old declines to overclaim. He is careful, too, not to romanticise the profession, even as he defends the choice that led him into what he now calls “a great decision”.“Overall I have it easier, because of course it’s something I profoundly love since my childhood,” he told this website. “But of course, as every profession, it has some moments of doubt, some moments that are not so easy. I think I made a great decision twenty years back.”
The MVL philosophy
Along the way, there have been setbacks, but he has learnt to put them aside.“For everyone, every sportsman, every chess player, there are moments of doubt, moments where things don’t go so well. It’s just important not to focus on those moments. But to learn the lessons that need to be learned, and to focus on the moments of enjoyment,” he said.“An improvement curve cannot be a straight line. It has some ups and downs. You just need to always be looking forwards for the ups.”
Every time I come to India, in the morning I feel very tired, no matter how I slept.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, French Grandmaster
Over the past fortnight, MVL had a good time in India, playing for Mumba Masters, who finished fourth in Season 4 of the GCL, although there has not been much sightseeing for him, why?“Every time I come to India, in the morning I feel very tired, no matter how I slept,” he admitted, a little apologetically.Besides chess, little sightseeing and tired mornings in India, he found friends who would wake up late to play board games with him, as well as physical sports such as padel during his free time. When he is alone and has some time to himself, his downtime runs to variant sudoku.ALSO READ: Chess Olympiad: How India’s Arjun Erigaisi suffered biggest Round 1 upset against lower-rated opponentIn Samarkand, he’ll sit on Board 1 for a team he has already told you isn’t among the favourites, and then, presumably, play as though nobody had mentioned it.
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