WIN VISHY WIN 

SUNNY THOMAS

What is success?

To some, going to Tihar jail and coming out on bail to a grand reception is success. Building monuments and their own statues across the nation to the aesthetically-minded is success. To the flaming patriots, an edifice to Kargil martyrs even in the form of a housing complex is success. Sports freaks love to organize Commonwealth Games and bank-roll money to script their success. Organizing a thorough cultural cleansing and escaping the arm of the law is deemed by some as the ultimate success story.

But to Bill Gates and Viswanathan Anand , success is a matter of brains, not brawns. Any award given to Anand will be an honour for the award, rather than for the world chess champion – except the Bharat Ratna! By winning the fifth time, he has reminded the world chess buffs that the game originated in India, once known as Chaturang (Square Game), but was taken to Persia, from where the Arab traders carried it to Europe, who thought it their monopoly. Anand has now brought the glory back to where it belongs.

With his latest victory, Viswanathan Anand – acknowledged the most versatile player – joins the all-time greats like Garry Kasparov, the brilliant tactician, Bobby Fischer, the superb strategist, Jose Kapablanca, the Perfect Chess Machine, Alexander Alekhine, the thunderstorm, Anatoly Karpov, who grinds his opponent to dust on the first error, Emmanuel Lasker, the genius of endgame, Vladmir Kramnik, the Iceman, Mikhail Botvinnik, the insightful, and Mikhail Tal, the sacrificial stylist.

Meteoric has been Anand’s rise: from a National Sub-Junior Chess Champion at 14, (1983) to an International Master at the age of 15, to a National Chess Champion at 16, and World Junior Chess Champion at 18, he has travelled miles on the fast track; won  Padma Shri when he was still 18; and became  the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honor, in 1991–92.

After several near misses, he won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 at Tehran, and in 2007 became World Champion again in Mexico City. He repeated the performance in 2008, 2010 and 2012 to be a five-time champion.

Home proved the best school for Anand. To have a meritorious ex-General Manager, Viswanathan Iyer of Southern Railway, as his father and a Chess buff Susheela as his mother, who along with her friend Deepa Ramakrishnan groomed Anand is the best thing that has happened during his fledgling days. Perhaps, he couldn’t have asked for anything better.

From Chennai to Moscow, it is a long drive even by road; and by the professional route, it is much longer, bent and steep.

“For me, the number has been irrelevant. I simply want to enjoy playing chess…But winning in Moscow meant a lot more emotionally,’’ he said immediately after his 2012 win.

When a pugilist meets a chess grandmaster, what do they discuss? Boxing or chess? Fortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin knew enough about chess to keep their tea session interesting.

Analyzing his performance later, the Grand Master said, “We worked very hard and developed some thoughts. I had several systems prepared with black and white. You always had to start with something new.’’

Creativity is the key to success anywhere in the world and in any field. And Anand has proved it once again!

Ralph Waldo Emerson has defined success as,

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

(Some say the quote is wrongly attributed to Emerson).

Gen V K Singh has decided to join Ramdev! Said the wag, he should have joined Ramdev before joining the Indian Army. What do you expect from a man who could not get his own date of birth corrected, or win back the honour from the Supreme Court, or who was seen vindictive to some of his own colleagues? Long at last, the general is in the right company.