AT HOME WITH THE MASTER
Jaya Menon
Posted online: Sunday, October 28, 2007
Customs colony, Second Cross Street, a quiet by-lane in uptown Besant Nagar, Chennai, is no Collado Mediano, the picturesque Spanish town near Madrid where World Chess Champion, Vishwanathan Anand, and wife, Aruna, spend quiet days. But for Anand, coming home to Amma Susila’s thayir sadam and gentle fussing after the World Championship victory in Mexico City has been special.
This afternoon, lunch was his favourite—elumbicha rasam sadam (lemon rice with rasam) cooked by mother. Anand is sprawled on the living room sofa after the meal, a picture of comfort. Till 1995, when he decided to shift base to Madrid, this was his home too. Not surprisingly, the large cabinets in the living room are full of trophies, framed certificates and photographs of his many moments of triumph.
Krishnamurthy Vishwanathan, and the two women who shore up his life and career—mother Susila and wife Aruna—settle down to a cosy chat, memories flood the room. Of six-year-old Anand being taught the game by mother, of a teenager determinedly breaking record after record and of the slip-ups which have become part of family lore.
“Remember the time when you missed a tournament in school,” teases Susila as Anand breaks into a smile. “I was at a birthday party and everyone was going on about how I must have crushed my opponents in the tournament. I was a little puzzled. I told them I would win, but when I played the event the next day. What I didn’t know was that the tournament had got over the previous day.’’ To this day, schoolmates rib him about how his house failed to win a tournament even with a World Number One on its team.
Father Krishnamurthy is the quieter of the two parents, who made sure his children dabbled in different sports. Does he play chess too? “My wife is the expert. So, I leave it to her,’’ he jokes.
September 30, of course, was one of this family’s biggest nights. As Anand mulled over his moves against Peter Leko of Hungary at the World Championship in Mexico, in Chennai, Susila spent agonising moments in front of her computer screen. “I follow the game on the Internet. But waiting for Anand to make the next move makes me very tense. I am so scared he will forget a good move when he thinks for so long, sometime as much as half an hour.’’ It was around 1 am when the match ended in a 20-move draw. Minutes later, the phone rang. “I called because I wanted them to go to bed fast,’’ says Anand.
Here is the full story.
Chess is an activity that is played by about as diverse an audience as one can imagine. Travel to any given tournament in the U.S. and you will span all possibilities of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, personality, physical stature, educational attainment and social class. It is perhaps the only competitive activity where an important millionaire business executive can meet an opponent who has just reached his/her 6th birthday, or even someone who appeared as if he were straight from a homeless shelter… certainly improbable events in the real world.
If you put the whole spectrum together and add the points,then Anand is the greatest.