In chess, a fan and a legend get to meet on a board

It's Saturday afternoon and John Chan, 32, is possibly in a joyous daze.

- Rohit Brijnath

You know when you win a small lottery. Or catch an absurdly sized fish. Or find you incredibly topped your exam. Actually this might be sweeter. He's a research fellow at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and he's just beaten Xie Jun, a former world chess champion.

Yes, it's an exhibition, where she played against 10 people simultaneously. And, yes, the charming Xie, 54, the first Asian woman to become a grandmaster, is hardly stretching herself. But that's scarcely the point, neither is the result.

It's that Chan is doing what you dream of, prayed for, yet know probably won't happen. Which is to be a nobody who gets a chance to play a somebody. You're not going to be asked to take penalties against Gianluigi Buffon. Or stride down a trail with Eliud Kipchoge. Or have Roger Federer across a net shout "play".

Yet in chess, this happens.

In this game, fans know how to play. They're not boxing aficionados who've never stepped inside a sweat-stained ring. Or hockey fans who've finally retired their weathered sticks. Here, in parks, online, against computers, chess people of all ages just play. In a way, they have to. This isn't gymnastics where you might be ignorant of the intricacies of a Yurchenko vault but can still admire the art form. Chess is not explicitly beautiful, its poetry not immediately apparent, and so to enjoy the game you have to play it.