It was a higher-profile fund-raiser that had all the components of a blockbuster: 5-time former world champion Viswanathan Anand taking on Bollywood star Aamir Khan, singers Arijit Singh and Ananya Birla, cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal, young billionaire Nikhil Kamath, and film producer Sajid Nadiadwala — all at the very same time.
But the celebrity on the net chess occasion ended up becoming marred by a bizarre controversy involving Kamath, who is the founder of Zerodha, a unicorn stock brokerage firm. At the occasion to raise funds for Akshaya Patra Foundation, the 34-year-old beat Anand at the Checkmate Covid Celebrity Edition hosted by chess.com. But hours soon after the game, chess.com, which live-streamed the action, closed Kamath’s account for violation of its fair play policy.
On Monday, Kamath issued a public apology on Twitter, admitting that his Grandmaster-like moves have been only probable due to the fact of external assistance.
“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 100 mt race with Usain Bolt. I had help from the people analyzing the game, computers and the graciousness of Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience. This was for fun and charity. In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn’t realise all the confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies,” he posted.
That tweet, having said that, appeared to have soured the predicament additional.
Anand’s manager and wife Aruna mentioned Kamath had spoken to them more than phone prior to sharing the text of what he was going to tweet.
“Anand didn’t insinuate anything but said he will go by what the algorithm (used by the fair play team at chess.com) says. He told Kamath, ‘please do not personally involve me in whatever you want to say. Whatever you do in your personal capacity to clear the situation is your call, but do not use my name in your personal tweets’,” Aruna told .
On Kamath’s tweet, Aruna mentioned: “It (tweet) basically alleges that Anand was helping him and it is the most outrageous thing I have heard in Anand’s career. He (Kamath) has taken a lie and used another lie to cover that. If he was helped by computers and friends, so be it. That is on his conscience. But he can’t drag Anand’s name and say Anand helped him.”
Anand chose not to get dragged into the controversy. In a brief tweet, he mentioned: “Yesterday was a celebrity simul for people to raise money. It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game. I just played the position on the board and expected the same from everyone.”
At the occasion, Kamath, who has played chess as a teenager, began with a hardly ever-employed opening to shed a pawn. But soon after the early setback, a great deal to everyone’s surprise, he pushed Anand to the limit in a 30-minute speedy game. Anand graciously resigned rather of waiting for Kamath, who played with black pieces and had just seconds left, to run out of time. On Monday, Kamath did not respond to text messages and calls from looking for comment.
Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay mentioned: “Anand is a master of tactics, accuracy and calculations. Even (world champion) Magnus Carlsen hasn’t beaten Anand in this way. It was obvious that he (Kamath) was getting external help.”
Chess.com, which was swift to block Kamath’s account, mentioned its Fair Play Team comprised various professionals, which includes titled players and engineers who specialise in algorithms. “Our systems have been thoroughly vetted by mathematicians and experts in the fields of data science and audits have shown that chess.com makes its decisions conservatively and with the confidence that an account once closed is statistically certain to have violated rules,” Danny Rensch, chief chess officer of chess.com, mentioned in a statement.
The storm did have a silver lining, although: chess.com director Rakesh Kulkarni mentioned the occasion raised about Rs 12 lakh.