Cooped up in his home in Alpine, Padres television analyst Mark Grant discovered a way to escape … to Eastern Europe … to the shores of the Adriatic Sea … to far-flung places in a locked-down world.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced baseball to hammer the pause button, Grant downloaded an app to play chess with people all over the planet. He watched videos of reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, a 29-year-old Norwegian prodigy.
Then he braced for the beatings.
“I was always intrigued by chess,” Grant said. “I’m a novice at this, but the strategy, the movement of the pieces, how you set up certain situations is really interesting to me.