New Delhi: Yes, you heard it right. Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath, among the youngest billionaires of India, was apparently caught in an embarrassing situation recently after reports emerged that he cheated world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand in a charity chess match.
It happened during India’s biggest-ever chess fundraiser event in which the Indian chess grandmaster was playing against many celebrities, as part of fund-raiser event for Covid-19 relief.
Nikhil Kamath banned by Chess.com
Chess.com has banned Nikhil Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha after his shocking win against 5-times world champion Anand.
THE CELEBS ARE HERE!!!https://t.co/VeTsWrSZTf@vishy64theking @KicchaSudeep @yuzi_chahal @NGEMovies @Riteishd @nikhilkamathcio
With our hosts: @ReheSamay & @TaniaSachdev
Feel free to donate here: @AkshayaPatra https://t.co/mgOmSwr54n pic.twitter.com/D2jiiY7c6i
— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) June 13, 2021
Chess.com had hosted a charity event to raise COVID-relief fund. The event named Checkmate COVID (celebrity edition), featured multiple personalities including Nikhil Kamath, Viswanathan Anand, Aamir Khan, Sajid Nadiadwala, Manu Kumar Jain and more.
The ‘Checkmate COVID’ was organized on Chess.com’s YouTube channel on June 13th, 2021. It managed to raise over Rs 10 lakh during the LIVE streaming and it will be utilized to help those affected from pandemic.
Massive THANK YOU to everyone for making this event a grand success! ??
We are glad to share that we managed to raise more than 10 Lakhs from this event! @AkshayaPatra
Note that you can still make a difference by donating here and help us #CheckmateCovidhttps://t.co/mgOmSwr54n pic.twitter.com/fZxZAGrleR
— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) June 13, 2021
Kamath banned for violating Fair-Play Policy
The chess champion, as expected, decimated the first set of celebrities in just a few minutes but Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath got the better of him.
One could credit latter’s victory to his brilliant tactics game-changing moves but the audience was clearly not convinced. In fact, Nikhil’s accuracy turned out to be 99%.
After the match ended, viewers discovered that Nikhil’s Chess.com account was banned for violating Fair-Play policy. The news spread like wildfire on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter before Nikhil responded to the cheating allegations.
Kamath’s apology for defrauding the Chess Champ
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.
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. ? pic.twitter.com/UoazhNiAZV
— Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) June 14, 2021
‘It was all pre-planned,’ admits Kamath
“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 Anand & other Chess personalities reacted
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
