The strange logo, created by the Moscow-based studio Shuka Design, depicts two chequered bodies wrapped around each other in a position right out of Kamasutra! And wait for this… there is chess board placed strategically between them.
The game of chess is often considered an esoteric, cerebral exercise, which doesn’t exactly set your pulse racing and is devoid of spice. And that is perhaps the reason which impelled the organisers of the World Championship to come up with the logo that they have. Or it was simply a faux pas by the designer. Well, whatever be the case, what we are left with is something risque, and well, embarrassing. And it has the world in splits. [caption id=“attachment_4268463” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]![The new FIDE World Championship 2018 logo. Worldchess.com]()
The new FIDE World Championship 2018 logo. Worldchess.com[/caption] The strange logo, created by the Moscow-based studio Shuka Design, depicts two chequered bodies wrapped around each other in a position right out of Kamasutra! And wait for this… there is chess board placed strategically between them. It is an erotically suggestive image, completely out of place in a game of the brain that chess is, or for that matter, in any game that you can imagine. Not only it is defiling the sanctity of the game, the logo is sure to give the purists a heart-stoppage. In reality,it is a massive mockery of what is the most important and marquee event in chess. Five-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand, saw the funny side. “Finally, a position where DeepMind will have to do more than just calculations. If you’re in this position you can definitely count yourself off Santa’s good list!”
Anand told ESPN. “Thanks, I guess, to everyone sending this to me. I’ll answer with a line from the great Tim Rice musical, Chess: “I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!” tweeted another legend Garry Kasparov. The World Championship will be held in London from 11-30 November next year and will see title-holder Magnus Carlsen taking on a challenger, who will be decided from the Candidates tournament in March, 2018. The organisers, however, seemed unperturbed by the raging controversy, saying that the logo was “controversial and trendy, just like the host city”. Here are some of the angry tweets that this logo attracted from chess players:
Another goof-up that the designers have done is that the chess board has 6x6 squares. “As a chess player, I wish the board was 8x8 and the pawn not on the back rank. In the end, people watch chess for the games. I’m hoping this doesn’t end up pushing us into late night TV,” Anand is quoted as saying by ESPN. Now this is what can be called taking the concept of mating and checkmate in chess to a whole new distorted level.
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