Musings on Chaturanga-9            Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan   Any one loves a controversy. President Abdul Kalam said, “ I have travelled the world. I have never seen a country more devoted and dedicated to reveling in controversies. That is why print and electronic media manufacture controversies out of thin air to gain traction”.

Musings on Chaturanga-9

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

Any one loves a controversy. President Abdul Kalam said, “ I have travelled the world. I have never seen a country more devoted and dedicated to reveling in controversies. That is why print and electronic media manufacture controversies out of thin air to gain traction”.

 

The match that was played at the peak of the controversy on the world championship title also turned out to be the first failure in Kasparov’s life. Kramnik crushed him in 25 moves.

 

Kasparov had separated ways with FIDE and established PCA, the Professional Chess Association. But the organisation collapsed as Intel, its main sponsor withdrew.

 

 

 

 

 

For the London match,2000, Alexei Shirov had qualified to play Kasparov as he beat Kramnik in the candidates final. But negotiations regarding a match between the two went futile. Kasparov tried to rope in Anand but in vain as negotiations failed again.

 

Finally, the card came upon Kramnik as he was the next as per the rating list. But he turned out to be the nemesis of the World Champion in the match. The match shocked the world as Kasparov lost without winning a single game for the first time in his life.

 

Kramnik-Topalov, WCC Elista 2006 match between Vladimir Kramnik, the Classical World Champion, and Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian grandmaster, and winner of the 2005 FIDE World Championship dragged the former into yet another controversy. Kramnik was accused of cheating by secretly using a computer.

 

Vishy  Anand and Pragga

 

 

After the initial two games that Kramnik won, Topalov and his team found the champion’s frequent excuses to the toilet fishy and accused him of cheating. While FIDE gave in to Topalov’s demands, Kramnik protested and forfeited the fifth round. Though the match continued, Kramnik threatened that if he were to lose because of the forfeit, he would hold it against FIDE and take legal action.

 

The match ended with Kramnik winning on tie-breaks But the hostility remained between the two grandmasters who even refused to shake hands in their future matches.

 

Controversies include cheating too in chess. Yes, cheating. In 2020, during pandemic times, Chess.com, the world’s biggest site for online play, said it had seen 12 million new users this year, against 6.5 million last year. The cheating rate has jumped from between 5,000 and 6,000 players banned each month last year to a high of almost 17,000 in August.

 

 

 

In one famous instance, Garry Kasparov changed his move against Judit Polgár in 1994 after momentarily letting go of a piece. Kasparov went on to win the game. The tournament officials had video records proving that his hand left the piece, but refused to release the evidence.

 

In 2019, The International Chess Federation suspended a player at a tournament in France after the man was “caught red-handed using his phone during a game”.

The organization said  on Twitter that all the evidence in the case of Igors Rausis had been sent to its ethics committee and that it was “determined to fight cheating in chess”.

 

Rausis is a 58-year-old Latvian-Czech player who won the grandmaster title in 1992 and has over the years represented Latvia, Bangladesh and the Czech Republic. At No 53 with an Elo of 2686, he was the oldest player in the Fide world ratings by seven years.Federation director-general Emil Sutovsky wrote on Facebook that Rausis had long been under suspicion for cheating and that catching him was “merely the first shot” in a years-long battle against cheating.

 

 

 

Chess.com reported a phone was found in a toilet that had just been used by Rausis at the Strasbourg Open, and the grandmaster later signed a declaration that it belonged to him. “I simply lost my mind yesterday,” Rausis told the website. “I confirmed the fact of using my phone during the game by written [statement]. What could I say more? Yes, I was tired after the morning game and all the Facebook activity of accusers also have a known impact. At least what I committed yesterday is a good lesson, not for me – I played my last game of chess already.”

 

In online chess, cheating has become a veritable plague and you constantly have to reckon with the possibility that you are playing against a computer. However, when Vishy Anand agreed to take part in an online charity simul on chess.com he certainly didn’t expect to play against machines. The online simul, titled “Checkmate Covid”, was a fundraiser to collect money for the Indian Red Cross and COVID aid. Spectators could donate money and chess.com promised to double the amount raised.

 

 

 

On 13 June,  2021, Anand played against five Indian celebrities simultaneously – online. The event was streamed live and with commentary.Anand played, among others, against the Indian entertainer Sudeep, the film producer Nadiadwala and against Nikhil Kamath, Chief Information Officer and co-founder of the financial services company Zerodha and known as “India’s youngest billionaire”. The quality of the games of these three players were astonishingly good and all three put up great resistance against the former World Champion.

 

While Nadiadwala and Sudeep eventually slackened in their “skills” and lost in the endgame, Nikhil Kamath outplayed Anand after blundering a pawn on the very first move. However, Anand could still have won the game by flagging his opponent who in the end had only 13 seconds left on the clock but Anand decided to show sportsmanship and resigned.

 

Of course, Anand knew that the two Bollywood stars and the billionaire had not played the games without help. But he put on a good face though he could not quite hide his disapproval.

 

Do you know this? Chess boxing, or chessboxing, is a hybrid sport that combines two traditional disciplines: chess and boxing ; Two combatants play alternating rounds of blitz chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout. It is also possible to win by time penalty as in normal chess, and by boxing decision if there is a draw in the chess round.

 

Typically, events are held in a standard boxing ring using standard amateur boxing equipment and rules. The chess round is also played in the ring with the table, board, and seating being moved in and out of the ring for each round.

 

There is no limit to ingenuity in chess. It cannot be slotted as a simple board game. Can we?

 

( Author of Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Kalaimagal Publicatuons,to be published on 15th Aug,2022- and practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)

 

Musings on Chaturanga-9

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

Any one loves a controversy. President Abdul Kalam said, “ I have travelled the world. I have never seen a country more devoted and dedicated to reveling in controversies. That is why print and electronic media manufacture controversies out of thin air to gain traction”.

 

The match that was played at the peak of the controversy on the world championship title also turned out to be the first failure in Kasparov’s life. Kramnik crushed him in 25 moves.

 

Kasparov had separated ways with FIDE and established PCA, the Professional Chess Association. But the organisation collapsed as Intel, its main sponsor withdrew.

 

 

 

 

 

For the London match,2000, Alexei Shirov had qualified to play Kasparov as he beat Kramnik in the candidates final. But negotiations regarding a match between the two went futile. Kasparov tried to rope in Anand but in vain as negotiations failed again.

 

Finally, the card came upon Kramnik as he was the next as per the rating list. But he turned out to be the nemesis of the World Champion in the match. The match shocked the world as Kasparov lost without winning a single game for the first time in his life.

 

Kramnik-Topalov, WCC Elista 2006 match between Vladimir Kramnik, the Classical World Champion, and Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian grandmaster, and winner of the 2005 FIDE World Championship dragged the former into yet another controversy. Kramnik was accused of cheating by secretly using a computer.

 

Vishy  Anand and Pragga

 

 

After the initial two games that Kramnik won, Topalov and his team found the champion’s frequent excuses to the toilet fishy and accused him of cheating. While FIDE gave in to Topalov’s demands, Kramnik protested and forfeited the fifth round. Though the match continued, Kramnik threatened that if he were to lose because of the forfeit, he would hold it against FIDE and take legal action.

 

The match ended with Kramnik winning on tie-breaks But the hostility remained between the two grandmasters who even refused to shake hands in their future matches.

 

Controversies include cheating too in chess. Yes, cheating. In 2020, during pandemic times, Chess.com, the world’s biggest site for online play, said it had seen 12 million new users this year, against 6.5 million last year. The cheating rate has jumped from between 5,000 and 6,000 players banned each month last year to a high of almost 17,000 in August.

 

 

 

In one famous instance, Garry Kasparov changed his move against Judit Polgár in 1994 after momentarily letting go of a piece. Kasparov went on to win the game. The tournament officials had video records proving that his hand left the piece, but refused to release the evidence.

 

In 2019, The International Chess Federation suspended a player at a tournament in France after the man was “caught red-handed using his phone during a game”.

The organization said  on Twitter that all the evidence in the case of Igors Rausis had been sent to its ethics committee and that it was “determined to fight cheating in chess”.

 

Rausis is a 58-year-old Latvian-Czech player who won the grandmaster title in 1992 and has over the years represented Latvia, Bangladesh and the Czech Republic. At No 53 with an Elo of 2686, he was the oldest player in the Fide world ratings by seven years.Federation director-general Emil Sutovsky wrote on Facebook that Rausis had long been under suspicion for cheating and that catching him was “merely the first shot” in a years-long battle against cheating.

 

 

 

Chess.com reported a phone was found in a toilet that had just been used by Rausis at the Strasbourg Open, and the grandmaster later signed a declaration that it belonged to him. “I simply lost my mind yesterday,” Rausis told the website. “I confirmed the fact of using my phone during the game by written [statement]. What could I say more? Yes, I was tired after the morning game and all the Facebook activity of accusers also have a known impact. At least what I committed yesterday is a good lesson, not for me – I played my last game of chess already.”

 

In online chess, cheating has become a veritable plague and you constantly have to reckon with the possibility that you are playing against a computer. However, when Vishy Anand agreed to take part in an online charity simul on chess.com he certainly didn’t expect to play against machines. The online simul, titled “Checkmate Covid”, was a fundraiser to collect money for the Indian Red Cross and COVID aid. Spectators could donate money and chess.com promised to double the amount raised.

 

 

 

On 13 June,  2021, Anand played against five Indian celebrities simultaneously – online. The event was streamed live and with commentary.Anand played, among others, against the Indian entertainer Sudeep, the film producer Nadiadwala and against Nikhil Kamath, Chief Information Officer and co-founder of the financial services company Zerodha and known as “India’s youngest billionaire”. The quality of the games of these three players were astonishingly good and all three put up great resistance against the former World Champion.

 

While Nadiadwala and Sudeep eventually slackened in their “skills” and lost in the endgame, Nikhil Kamath outplayed Anand after blundering a pawn on the very first move. However, Anand could still have won the game by flagging his opponent who in the end had only 13 seconds left on the clock but Anand decided to show sportsmanship and resigned.

 

Of course, Anand knew that the two Bollywood stars and the billionaire had not played the games without help. But he put on a good face though he could not quite hide his disapproval.

 

Do you know this? Chess boxing, or chessboxing, is a hybrid sport that combines two traditional disciplines: chess and boxing ; Two combatants play alternating rounds of blitz chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout. It is also possible to win by time penalty as in normal chess, and by boxing decision if there is a draw in the chess round.

 

Typically, events are held in a standard boxing ring using standard amateur boxing equipment and rules. The chess round is also played in the ring with the table, board, and seating being moved in and out of the ring for each round.

 

There is no limit to ingenuity in chess. It cannot be slotted as a simple board game. Can we?

 

( Author of Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Kalaimagal Publicatuons,to be published on 15th Aug,2022- and practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)