This space offers a respite for those afflicted by chess-o-phobia.
Chennai: Then the auto carrying me drew closer to Hyatt Regency, the venue of the world chess championship, on Wednesday, I was haunted by the draws in the first three rounds. After losing the argument with the auto driver on the electronic enhancement of his meter, I went under the security apparatus of the hotel that wouldn't have known that I had nothing to declare except my ignorance.
The dreaded four-letter word — I’m only referring to a draw — is always on the back of my mind these days, even though I’m light years away from being called a chess analyst.
Paradoxically, chess analysis is also as easy for many people as catching the common cold. My friends in politics tell me that getting Tamil Nadu governor K.Rosaiah to attend a family function is the easiest thing in town now. Okay, let me not digress from chess and the chaos it has unleashed on Chennai.
There are three results possible if you play chess: win, loss and draw. If the third option becomes the norm in the biggest match in recent times, agony is guaranteed for the uninitiated. But the game is truly democratic, as it lends itself beautifully to subjectivity. It empowers everyone. You have all the freedom in the world to interpret Anand’s e4 or f7 of Carlsen as long as the person sitting in front of you doesn’t press Alt+F4 on your keyboard.
I have been hearing about the beauty of draws whenever I’m not listening to gossips within the cramped media centre. The probability of stumbling into a journalist with humility is higher than finding seminal moments in chess.
Needless to stress, the only move I understand in the whole mess is a checkmate that says your opponent is gone for good. As the heady climax hasn't materialised so far, I'm not really interested whether the draw was a sprint or a marathon. I would prefer a bullet to the head than death after torture. You get the point? If you don't, you only get halfa-point, which is, incidentally, what you get for a draw in chess.
If you listen to Manuel Aaron's interview on BBC Tamil after the first two games of this worlds, then you will realise the chess on offer here can benumb even India's first international master. He has highlighted the lack of spark in no uncer tain terms.
Maybe the current series is Aaron's j u s t deserts f o r popular ising chess in the 60s.
One of the greatest pleasures in life is meeting somebody who knows less than you about a hot topic.
A gentleman wearing a finely-tailored coat during a press conference stumped me when he identified GM Susan Polgar, one of the most notable names in world chess, as some lady from Fide. He mistook GM K. Sasikiran for GM R.B.Ramesh. The 50-something man reserved his best for Fide press officer, Anastasia Karlovic. He was confident that the lady was Carlsen’s younger sister. I didn’t dare to ask him to identify Carlsen. Don’t be surprised to know that he is an administrator of a state chess body.
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( Source : dc )
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