The Hindu : Sport : India’s most consistent champion

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Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Sport

India’s most consistent champion

Anand is unique in the Indian landscape, writes Rohit Brijnath

— Photo: AFP

HAIL THE KING! Viswanathan Anand at the awards ceremony after winning the world title.

Viswanathan Anand doesn’t need a parade at home, and garlands, and speeches, to feel celebrated (though don’t let it stop you). Sometimes the affection his land feels for him can be felt miles from its shores in the single act of a stranger.

In Mexico, when it’s all over, after the Indian has out-thought and out-manoeuvred his peers, the organisers want to take him to an Indian restaurant. But it’s Sunday, and sorry says the restaurant owner, but we’re closed in the evening. But, just by the way, what’s the occasion.

Oh, we wanted to bring Anand there, says the organiser. Anand! Why didn’t you say so, says the owner. So he keeps his restaurant open, and his staff work on their day off, and Anand (who is telling me the story with unaffected delight) gets his meal, and when it’s over no bill appears. No chance, no way.

“It blew me away,” says the world champion. That’s okay, fellow, you’ve blown us away, too.

Intricate patterns

Chess appears a sport of quiet solemnity, full of intricate patterns and testing decision-making, sly plots and mental agility, yet somewhat opaque to the general viewer. It is not a sport of cheering crowds, and it is a pity that what Anand does beautifully, and ably, and stylishly, is not apparent to most of us.

It is partly why when it comes to appreciation, the cricketer is more celebrated. It is unfortunate, and awkward, too, that India’s most consistent champion and engaging role model has but a single sponsorship, but it is also the way of the world. Yachtsmen aren’t viewed as heroically as footballers in Brazil, nor soccer players as precious as baseballers in America.

But in acknowledging that, let’s also not confuse who Anand is. Let’s say the Twenty20 champions were terrific and inspiring, but their win was akin to a blitz chess title.

This man is the world champion of his game in its purest form. For the second time. In a sport played in more parts of the world than any cricketer’s name ever travelled to.

The authenticity of this Spanish-speaking, ’80s-music-listening, unfailingly-polite, considerably-amusing champion is beyond dispute, and his feats beyond comparison.

Anand is unique in the Indian landscape because he has courted success over a considerable period. He has been great for the longest time.

At 37, his passion is undiminished, the circuits of his brain firing as strongly, his desire to learn still pure.

Asked where he discovers pleasure in chess, Anand says: “In finding a new idea, in doing something unusual, like breaking known tenets or finding the exception to a rule. It’s also doing what you hadn’t, like beating someone with black who you haven’t before.”

As in all sport, and with all champions, the attraction lies, he says, in the challenge. And for the challenge of this championship, he sweated.

For nine hours a day (1.5 hours of it in the gym), Anand trained, like some prizefighter of the mind (it is appropriate that helpers in chess are known, as in boxing, as seconds), giving his brain a workout for weeks through June, July, August.

His database holds 5-6 millions games, and every week a 1000 to 2000 games arrive, and as he explains, “you can’t see them all, but you look at what’s relevant to you, what impacts your repertoire.”

Searching for clues

Anand, in a sense, is a detective, alert to changes in theory, searching for clues that lead to new ideas, investigating his opponents. In the world championships’ eight-man round-robin format especially, he required a breadth of knowledge, an education in a variety of styles.

Thorough in his opening preparation, this Hercule Poirot of the board was pleased that “a good percentage of what I prepared actually happened.” He was pleased, too, that he grabbed his chances, wherein games that could have fizzled into draws were won by making “precise moves at certain moments.”

Viswanathan Anand stands comfortably at the pinnacle of his sport, a bright man in his vivid shirts. He is world No. 1, world champion, multiple chess Oscar winner, but not done yet, the mysteries that lie within those 64 squares still provoking his imagination.

“I still feel the challenge,” he says.

“What I like most is sitting across a board and out-foxing my opponent.”

And outsmarting the planet.

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