Tennis and Chess: Tennis Star Carlos Alcaraz Explains Similarities
Is tennis the next sport where leading stars want to showcase their chess skills? Perhaps it is if Carlos Alcaraz, the number-three tennis player in the world, is any indication.
- Similarities Of Chess And Tennis
- How Chess Helps Tennis Star Alcaraz
- How Alcaraz Became Interested In Chess
- Alcaraz And Hometown Chess Club
- Chess And Other Sports
Similarities Of Chess And Tennis
In an interview in Vogue magazine, Carlos Alcaraz, who began his career as a professional tennis player in 2018, said: “I love chess. Having to concentrate, to play against someone else, strategy—having to think ahead. I think all of that is very similar to the tennis court.”
About the benefit of playing chess and relating it to tennis, he told Vogue: “You have to have intuition about where the other player is going to send the ball, you have to move ahead of time, and try to do something that will make him uncomfortable. So I play it [chess] a lot.”
The 21-year-old has been ranked as high as the number-one player in men’s singles. He achieved that lofting ranking at the age of 19 years, four months, and six days to become the youngest male and first teenager to do so. He has won 13 singles titles on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour, including two major titles (2022 U.S. Open and 2023 Wimbledon Championships).
How Chess Helps Tennis Star Alcaraz
In an interview with Marca, a Spanish news media, Alcaraz said that he likes to play chess before his tennis games. How does chess help him? Alcaraz explained: “It helps me to be faster mentally, to observe plays, to see the moves you want to make, the strategy….”
He also discussed the benefits of playing chess with ATP Tour officials: “In chess, like in tennis, if you take your eye off the ball for a minute, you can lose the match. In that regard, they are pretty similar disciplines. It helps me because you are focused; your mind is working.”
To Tennis World USA, Alcaraz said: “It is important to have precision; you have to seek to put your opponent in trouble.” In relating tennis to chess, he added that tennis is “like chess, trying to make your opponent run and putting him in trouble."
How Alcaraz Became Interested In Chess
His chess-playing interests predate his professional tennis career, although he did learn to play tennis at the age of four. He was taught to play chess when he was a child by his grandfather. His passion for chess has continued into adulthood.
Alcaraz And Hometown Chess Club
In his hometown of Murcia, Spain, the Thader Chess Club promotes the game of chess and conducts several tournaments each year. When Alcaraz joined club members for several games outside in a city plaza, it caught the attention of local and international media. Alcaraz played five-minute blitz games (with no increment) against three club members. They certainly enjoyed playing against the young tennis star.
Chess And Other Sports
Like tennis, other sports have been linked to chess as well. Chess.com has been matching NFL stars in rapid chess games in the BlitzChamps series, with the third just concluded. In addition, Chess.com’s athlete bots feature several pro basketball, football, and soccer NFL stars. The passion for chess of football quarterback Joe Burrow and baseball pitcher Tyler Glasgow have also been topics in my blog.
Chess.com recognized the increased attention that Alcaraz has been receiving and added him last year to its lineup of athlete chess bots (although this bot doesn’t seem to be currently available). When the bot, rated 1000, was created to represent his chess-playing style, Alcaraz was clearly impressed.
The game of chess continues to captivate the attention of the world’s top athletes. Tennis is just the most recent and prominent example.
What do you think? How closely are chess and other sports connected?
Ray Linville’s high point as a chess player occurred when he swiped the queen of GM Hikaru Nakamura in a 60-second bullet game in 2021. This game was reported in a “My Best Move” column of the Chess Life magazine, published by the U.S. Chess Federation.
At Chess.com, he has been an editor (part-time) since 2019 and has edited news articles and tournament reports—including those of the Candidates and World Championship Tournaments and other major events—by titled players and noted chess writers as well as Game of the Day annotations by leading grandmasters. He has also been a contributing writer of chess terms, e-books, and general interest articles for ChessKid.com.
He enjoys “top blogger” status at Chess.com. His blog has won the award for Best Chess Blog from the Chess Journalists of America for several years. In addition, he has also been the recipient of first-place CJA awards for feature article, humorous contribution, online review, and educational lesson as well as honorable mention in the categories of personal narrative and historical article.