Global chess enthusiasts are sitting enthralled this week as the sport's latest World Championships head toward a tense finale in London. $600,000 in prize money awaits the victor of the 12-game clash between Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian wunderkind and current titleholder, and his younger challenger Fabiano Caruana, a combative U.S.-born grandmaster of Italian descent.
Yet while this long-anticipated contest is being fought out between an American and a European, rapid developments in modern chess hold intriguing lessons -- technologically, geographically and institutionally -- for the future of Asia too.
