Will brand owners now sign up chess players in the wake of Gukesh and Humpy winning the world titles?

With the 18-year-old Indian chess Grandmaster (GM) D.Gukesh becoming the 18th World Chess Champion and the 37-year-old GM Koneru Humpy winning the World Women’s Rapid Chess title, the next question that pops up is whether the brand owners would sign them up as their brand ambassadors.

In this cricket-crazy country, some brand owners have also signed up chess, tennis, badminton, hockey players, weightlifters and athletes for their product or brand promotions.

So will brand owners queue up before World Chess Champion Gukesh?

Responding to that Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert and Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc said Gukesh is the new star for the brands to head to. Brands may bet deep on the young horse Gukesh but may also bet on the old war horse.

In India, cricket has a mass following and brand owners of products used by many people will opt for cricketers as their brand ambassadors.

Mass brands for want of money may look at well-known non-cricketers as brand ambassadors.

According to Bijoor, niche product companies – products used by few but globally known look at sporting personalities in niche games like chess, golf, and Olympic sports.

Recall value of a player is what brand owners look for. And till now, former World Chess Champion GM V. Anand is the only chess player having a better recall value.

However, Anand was at the top of the chess world for a very long time to command that recall value.

Even now Anand is still in the top 10 in the world. But he is now an old horse or knight in chess terms while Gukesh is the young colt and has several decades ahead.

Several years back, Anand was the brand ambassador for the `Memory Plus’ capsule, NIIT, Union Bank of India, Horlicks, Complan, Crocin, Parle Milk Shakti, Vodafone, AMD, and others.

The owners of various brands will look for eyeballs that a champion chess player can grab and its positive rub-off effect in terms of sale and furthering the brand equity.

Players in the financial services sector sign up chess champions as their brand ambassadors.

One would have seen financial services players using chess boards with pieces in their advertisements.

Incidentally, RBL Bank had recently signed up Gukesh as their brand ambassador.

According to GM Susan Polgar, winner of four women’s world championships and several Olympiad medals, investment decisions are linked to strategies and computers to their power of computing. These two qualities chess players represent.

The recently crowned World Women’s Rapid Chess Champion Humpy had been a brand ambassador for some brands in the past.

She said companies are now looking at the chess players as their brand ambassadors.

The advantage a chess player has over cricketers and other field sports personalities is that they can be at their peak for a long time provided they hone up their skills and age does not matter.

Chess players also get sponsorships. But some sponsorships are milestone-based, that is, the player has to achieve certain milestones.

Last year, world number 4 and Indian chess GM Arjun Kumar Erigaisi inked a five-year $1.5 million sponsorship contract with the Singapore-based Quantbox Research.

Erigaisi said the deal has no strings attached like ELO rating, winning tournaments or qualifying for the Candidates to target the world title.

In recent times, the Adani Group has sponsored another  Indian rising chess star GM R.Praggnanandhaa.

Several years ago, the Bengaluru-based dairy company Akshayakalpa Farms  & Foods signed GM Nihal Sarin as the brand ambassador and a pharma company Geno Pharmaceutical had contracted GM Leon Mendonca.

According to GM Pravin Thipsay, there is a possibility of corporates looking at chess players are their brand ambassadors and mostly Anand and Gukesh might be preferred.

If not today, brand owners may not be able to avoid the leading and young Indian chess stars.

Gukesh, Erigaisi, and Anand are in the top ten in the world. In the global women’s segment India’s Humpy is ranked sixth. In the Juniors segment GMs Nihal Sarin, and Raunak Sadhwani, and in the girls segment IM and WGM Divya Deshmukh are in the top ten in the world.