Root for the player or the country?

The Game Room
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1

I’m currently watching the FIDE World Cup and FIDE Women’s World Cup. I don’t know a whole lot about the current chess scene. I haven’t played anything but a computer for a long time. But this caught my eye and it keeps my attention.

It’s the semi-finals in the World Cup (an open), with Magnus Carlsen, a Norwegian playing Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov; and American Fabiano Caruana against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from India.

And in the Women’s World Cup (women only) the championship match is Nurgyul Salimova from Bulgaria against Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina; and Ukranian Anna Muzychuk versus Tan Zhongyi from China for third place.

I don’t have any vested interest in the outcomes, but each game interests me. Carlsen, I think, is the #1 ranked player in the world and has been for some time, but he has yet to win a World Cup, and it would be neat to see him not so much beat Abasov as win the trophy that his cabinet lacks. And the tourney is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, so Abasov winning in his home country, which doesn’t capture world attention all that often, with, I assume, the national pride a hometown win would generate would be pretty special.

And then I would like to see Caruana win since he’s from the U.S., the same country that I am from. But Praggnanandhaa, who is very young, having turned 18 during this tournament I think, an Indian, where the game originated, winning is appealing.

We didn’t have a Russian - Ukranian face off in the finals of the Womens World Cup and while I’m thankful for that, I guess I’d still kind of like to see Salimova win and the Russian lose, but that would be assigning the Russian government’s actions to Goryachkina, which I think is wholly unfair. But it’s where my mind goes. Likewise, with Muzychuk and Zhongyi, rooting for the Ukranian against the Chinese player would be a political act, and I don’t like injecting politics into this.

My question is when it comes to international gaming and sporting competition, and the like, and you don’t have a clear favorite, who do you root for and why? I think the Olympics is probably the apex of international competition, and I assume most people root for the athletes from their home country, whether it’s for national pride due to shared heritage or political reasons, which I don’t think I have a problem with in that context since the Olympic Games have long been used politically, but I think it’s appropriate to talk about that in this conversation, so feel free.

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Root for the player. It’s them who put in the effort, dedication & commitment. The country is only where their mother happened to be at the time of birth.
My thinking is; with country comes politics, religion, flag waving . . .and we know what that can devolve into.
All the player ever wanted to do was what he/she enjoyed doing.

3

The one I use typically more than the other 2 is root for the underdog. I do that sort of self serving as when the underdog wins it is typically a good game, and sometimes a nail biter.

4

Root for the player you believe should win in individual contests, regardless of the country they’re representing. Root for the team in team contests, regardless of the country they’re representing. Sports, IMHO, shouldn’t be tainted by the politics of the countries sending teams. I guess that’s just my interpretation of the ancient Olympics.

Personally, I’m not rooting for anyone; I’m just enjoying the contests and I appreciate it when the individual or team displaying the most skill and sportsmanship wins. I also enjoy it when both contestants/teams are showing great skill and sportsmanship. I applaud them all for that.

There is one sport where I do root for a particular team: Major League Baseball. When I was stationed aboard the USS CARL VINSON, the homeport was Alameda. The San Francisco Giants let active duty military into general admission for free. I really appreciated that at the time and they got themselves at least one loyal fan from it.

5

Yeah, I root for the player, not the country. I’m rooting for Salimova right now, because she’s been playing so far above her rating… definite underdog vibe. It would be awesome if an IM won the world championship.

6

If the players/team are not officially representing any particular country (or geographic location, or company, or whatever), then I don’t care what country they actually happen to be from.

If they are officially representing someone, then it can matter. Goryachkina chose to enter a tournament where she’s representing a country, and she chose to do so as a representative of Russia. I don’t know if it’s possible to enter the Chess World Cup as an unaffiliated player, but if not, she could still enter any number of other tournaments where she’s not officially representing anyone but herself.

That said, while it can be an issue when players are official representatives of something or someone else, it’s not the only issue, and how much weight I put on that depends on whether it’s an individual or team competition, and if team, how much of a team competition.