What Makes life Interesting?
With Chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand
Today | 16th July 2024
When I got a special invite to meet with Indian Chess grandmaster today at The Leela Palace, Chennai, I impulsively ‘carpe diem’ed it!
Well, one game I’ve loved playing for all of eternity is chess! Right from my childhood to my hostel years in MCC School, to my College days, the game has had such a sway on me! Watching bigwigs of the game - right from Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand back then in our teen years, we’ve indeed had a great admiration for these legends for the poise and the calm they maintain before, during and after the game!
Meeting the Chess grandmaster Anand today was a dream come true!
The interactions we had with him were very rewarding!
When asked about the Soviet domination of the game for decades, he quipped,
The era of Soviet domination is over. After the 1990s they gave it away! First to the computers and then to champions from other parts of the world.
In fact, American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was fighting a lonely war in his country, which was uninterested in the game. In fact the Soviets loved him more!
To such an extent that, if he had retreated to an island, he would have sure taken along the Soviets with him, and not his fellow countrymen, said Anand.
When asked for his ‘One tip to maintain mental fitness’, he had this to say -
The number one tip is to sleep early. If you sleep well, and not think about the previous game, you’ve got it. As for the rest, finding something exciting to do everyday is what makes life interesting and what makes life easy to concentrate!
It’s not only in finding what you love, but finding something interesting to do everyday! The brain responds to new things, and that’s actually the best way to concentrate,
said Anand.
You may want to read our past blogpost on ‘A Game of Chess’ from my past diaries HERE
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