Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand played a 'simultaneous exhibition' match against the country's renowned celebrities and businesspersons to raise funds for The Akshaya Patra Foundation's COVID-19 relief feeding efforts. The chess grandmaster, in a shocking turn of events, lost to Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath while defeating every other celebrity in the match. That sure raised many eyebrows and when Kamath admitted using unfair means to defeat the five-time champion, there was an outburst of anger and criticism.
Anand responded to Kamath's admission of getting "help from the people analyzing the game, computers and the graciousness of Anand sir himself" with a sly dig at the entrepreneur's unusual methods of playing. "It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game," he tweeted, adding that he just played the "position on the board and expected the same from everyone."
In his apology, Kamath had said, "It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy sir in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt."
Banned for violation, not for long
After the revelation, Chess.com banned Kamath's account in the game for violating fair-play policy in the game against Viswanathan. To everyone's surprise, two days after the gaming event, Chess.com decided to reopen all accounts in question during the fund-raiser event.
"Regarding the games played in the Vishy Anand simul for charity, as well as with full cooperation of Vishy Anand, Chess.com has elected to reopen all of the accounts in question during the event," Chess.com-India said in a statement posted on Twitter.
"Given the forthcoming cooperation of the players and the clarification that not all the rules were properly understood, neither Chess.com nor Anand himself see any reason to uphold the matter further."
People's faith in Kamath, by extension in Zerodha
When Kamath defeated the former world chess champion by making near perfect moves with 99 percent accuracy, Twitter was full of praise for the Zerodha co-founder. People took to Twitter to express pride and faith in Kamath and his company, which is a stock broking company. But when it was discovered that Kamath cheated in the charity game, people's faith in Zerodha also took a hit.
Many users reacted strongly against Kamath's decision to use foul practices not just in the game, but in the COVID charity event. So much so that netizens questioned Kamath's ethics as a business leader.
By cheating in a charity game, Kamath has also put at stake Zerodha Broking's reputation.
The Queen's Gambit and India
Popularity of chess as a game in India further gained along with global trends after Netflix released The Queen's Gambit series. When the series was released, people's interest in the game of chess grew and Google's search for the term chess increased to 110% in the first week itself.
The storyline of the popular Netflix series is based on chess. When a nine-year-old orphan Beth Harmon plays her first game of chess, her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, feels in control, opposite to how she'd been feeling before the game. By the age of sixteen, she's competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting. The story is based on the book by Walter Tevis.
