Today, the 11th of May 2010 goes into the History as one of biggest ever achievement by an Indian. Vishwanathan Anand does it again, retaining his World Chess Title for the 4th time.
This time, it was a Drama, an adventure, a story and finally an EPIC.
A Drama:
It all started with the volcanic eruptions, forcing flight cancellations across Europe. Anand being one of the thousands stranded in the Airport, rather “pinned” (in chess terms).
An Adventure:
With his request to postpone the tournament opener being rejected,40 hours of land journey is all that Anand had to manage to get in time for the opening ceremony of the World Championship.
That was an added advantage for Topalov, or so would be for any player when the opponent is not in the best of his health or fitness.
While a 12 hour overnight bus journey puts most of us to dose on a Monday morning in Office, imagine the condition of this poor champ..!!
A Story:
Then starts the main story: 12 games to be played, with each player having 6 games with white and 6 games with black.
Quite the usual start to a tournament with both players securing win, and displaying the fact they are interested in a result game rather than a draw.
Comments, discussions, arguments, debates, suggestions, opinions and blames! all started to progress along with the tournament. But it was the 9th game where it all peaked and went against Anand when he missed a number of winning opportunities, resulting in an unconvincing and undeserving draw that again saw the scores level.
An EPIC:
After two more drawn games, the scores read 5.5-5.5, preparations for the final game was in progress. The floor boys were arranging for the tie-breakers to be played the day after, assuming this too would end in a draw.
STOP THEM..! Anand has WON.. This time, with the black pieces, in 56 moves. He has once again silenced his critics who keep complaining about the age criteria.
More than winning the title, it is retaining the title that is critical and tougher. That is what you call “CLASS” and one who does it “CHAMPION”.
And for me, what more can I ask for: Being an ardent Chess fan, I managed some technical stuffs whereby I could bring the live transmission of the final match , from my laptop, to my LCD TV.. and on the big screen , watch Topalov surrendering his king to a “Chess King”..!! Hail the King..!
