New Delhi: The news of Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath trouncing Vishwanathan Anand shocked the chess community beyond their belief. Nobody could digest a rookie defeating 5-times world champion in the game, he excelled in.
Hours later, when Nikhil Kamath’s account on Chess.com was banned for violating Fair-Play policy, users heaved a sigh of relief. In fact, Kamath himself admitted to taking help from computers and also apologized for the ‘silly behaviour’.
The match was held as part of Chess.com India’s ‘Checkmate COVID’ campaign on its official YouTube channel on June 13th, 2021. The event being a fundraiser for helping in Covid-relief measures, raised over ₹10 lakhs during the live stream.
Zerodha founder’s apology
After reports came to the light, claiming that Kamath had been banned, he too revealed that he took help from some people and computers to analyse the game. He also apologised for his “silly” behaviour.
“Yesterday was one of those days that I had dreamt of when I was a really young kid learning chess, to interact with Vishwanath Anand. Got the opportunity thanks to Akshaypatra and their idea of raising funds for charity conducting a bunch of chess games with Vishy. It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt,” Kamath said in a statement.
“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…
“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 further wrote.
It was all pre-planned, and his motive was to ‘treat the game as a learning experience,’ added Nikhil, in his apology.
How Vishy Anand reacted
The 5-time world champion Viswanathan Anand himself replied to the drama and stated that he had just continued the position on the board while sustaining the ethics of chess.
Other than Anand, other notable personalities in the Chess community also reacted to the incident.
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 onthe board and expected the same from everyone . pic.twitter.com/ISJcguA8jQ
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) June 14, 2021
I must admit, chesscom does have an amazing fairplay detection system pic.twitter.com/4bFIFaHyf5
— Srinath Narayanan (@nsrinath69) June 13, 2021
After blundering pawn in first move (1.Nf3 e5) I wonder which friend could beat @vishy64theking. Of course Anand didn’t know anything apart from the strength of the engine. Respect for Anand keeps growing. Amazing composure and sportsmanship by the #legend. Ridiculous indeed 🙂 https://t.co/0DLfJSFUzI
— Surya Sekhar Ganguly (@suryachess64) June 14, 2021
