In the realm of boredom, there is nothing more exciting than top chess | James Colley

LLike many Australians, when a Test match ends early, I spend the next day pottering around the house in a completely pointless manner. My soul understands that I should spend this time watching cricket. The fact that there is no cricket to watch opens a gap in my life. What should I fill it with? Housework, charity or family? No, that is not acceptable. I need another way to waste my time.

Luckily for me, there is an even more wonderful, ponderous and sometimes thrilling event happening at this moment, and it is the perfect antidote for anyone who finds Test cricket a little too high-octane. I’m talking about the World Chess Championship currently taking place in Singapore.

The viewing experience has never been more accessible to the casual chess fan like me, who theoretically knows what’s happening on the board but lacks the genius necessary to truly understand the tactical battle that’s unfolding. There are now live streams on YouTube with expert commentators who use the often considerable gap between moves to walk us through both players’ thought process, walking us through the many options they could choose and pointing out the devastating ones Trains to react as they pass. Then, the next morning, you’ll find several recap commentators, like the very popular Levy Rozman, known online as GothamChess, who will patiently explain to fools like me why these moves were devastating, with all the excitement and drama of a football final.

This year is also an exceptionally dramatic showdown. With dominant champion Magnus Carlsen stepping down from the board, the path is clear for reigning champion Ding Liren to defend his title. Ding, who claimed an unlikely victory at the last World Cup, was out of form – but you can never write off a champion. Then there is the story of the challenger, a young man named Gukesh Dommaraju: at 18, he is the third-youngest grandmaster in history and is not yet at the peak of his abilities. It’s the kind of showdown you dream about when you dream of certain chess players meeting at an interesting point in their careers – a dream that even Freud would hardly find interesting.

As with all major sports, timing is a factor. The clocks count down. The pressure is building. They only have two hours each to complete their steps. Unless they reach the 40-move mark, they will be given an additional 30 minutes at that point, and even more time after each move.

But make no mistake, clock management is a problem. Ding is known for thinking for 20 to 40 minutes at the start of the game before making his move. This adds pressure to the back half of his game and he has already lost a round on time. Luckily for him, his opponent is also prone to dramatic fits of thought, such as the moment in Game 11 when, after an hour of deep, intense thinking, he moved a pawn one square forward. Oh yeah, what could be more exciting than watching two men think, livestreamed around the world. I move to the edge of my seat just thinking about her thoughts.

The contestants have just completed Game 12 of a potential 14-game series that at one point included six thrilling draws in a row. But we’re in the final now and the heavyweight champions are throwing haystacks.

Two games ago we saw Gukesh implement an exceptional opening game plan and gain a lead late in the tournament. The seemingly sleeping giant Ding was out of shape, slow and the tournament was at stake. But champions are made at crucial times and with his back against the wall, Ding has deliberately and devastatingly restricted Gukesh, forcing him to break under incredible pressure, and we are once again tied at six games apiece.

Now both players face the specter of a blitz match (a high-speed playoff) like a penalty shootout in a World Cup final, and the tactical decision remains: Do you play for a draw and prepare for the sudden-death playoff? Or can one of these players score another victory and win the World Cup?

I’m a boring man and I enjoy my boring little hobbies, but there’s nothing more exciting in the world of boredom than what’s happening on the blackboard in Singapore. Hop on in, my boring brothers, things just got interesting.