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ENTERTAINMENT
Chess is about to get more unpredictable

Magnus Carlsen isn’t participating in this year’s World Chess Championship, but the game’s biggest star and top player is making moves that can’t be ignored.

The best-of-14 title match between defending champion Ding Liren and teen phenom Gukesh Dommaraju that began yesterday remains a marquee event. But Carlsen, who vacated the crown two years ago after winning it five consecutive times, is looking to capitalize on the growing popularity of chess with a league that emphasizes unpredictability:

• Carlsen has received $12 million in VC backing for his startup, Freestyle Chess, which is launching a tour next year and has attracted 25 of the world’s best players ready for a new challenge.

• Matches will use the Fischer Random chess variant (popularized by US chess champ Bobby Fischer), which gives players 960 possible starting positions for pieces along the back row. That means more spontaneous decisions that show off different skills as opposed to players resorting to the same memorized sequences.

World No. 1 Carlsen and second-ranked Fabiano Caruana played one of these matches to promote the tour's launch.

Taking advantage of the boom: Carlsen feels the timing is right for innovation, with people embracing chess in greater numbers since the pandemic. Chess.com has 190 million users, up from 50 million in January 2020, but the platform only boasts 340,000 players from Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa combined. -EA.

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NEWS
Round the continent

• South Africa flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit was named one of the two best Rugby players in the world on Sunday. The other player was England’s Ellie Kildunne.

• Namibia’s Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is leading public polls to become the country’s first female president this Wednesday.

• African countries have slammed the UN COP29’s $300 billion commitment to fund climate change efforts calling the amount “far short” of what is required.

• At least 17 people have been reported missing after a tourist yacht sank in the Red Sea this past Monday.