Book Review: Mind Master

Chess is a game of Indian origin. Folklore has it that in the 16th Century, Emperor Akbar played chess on gigantic chessboard “floors” and real men walking on it as pawns and pieces. Yet, there is almost no documented history of the game in India since then. 

Until now, that is. 

As I write this, a different type of history is being made. A wave  of chess enthusiasm has swept the country since the last few years. Today, if you place one Indian Grandmaster (GM) on each square of Akbar’s chessboard, you would fill all the squares on the board and still be left with a GM or two to spare! The number of International Masters (IM) – a title junior to a GM, awarded by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) - that India boasts of now runs into three digits. History is being made, everyday.

But it has not always been so. When Anand started out his career in the mid-1980s, attaining an IM Title was what most Indian chess players aspired for. All that changed one day, when a 13-year old boy suddenly burst onto the national chess scene and swept away the honours.

In Mind Master, India’s first GM “Vishy” (a misnomer given to him by the Europeans, for Viswanathan is his father’s name) Anand looks back at more than a quarter century of career playing chess at a professional level. Dubbed the “lightening kid” in his younger years for exceptional speed, Anand went on to win the World Chess Championship several times, not to mention many other awards and accolades along the way. The book gives the reader a close peek into the thinking, strategizing and planning that went into several of his crucial matches. What were the challenges that Anand faced? How did he overcome them? What were the mistakes he made, and the lessons learnt?  Anand speaks out his mind to you, narrates his story. Though chess is an individual game, Anand’s book also brings out vividly the importance of how having a close knit team of coaches and assistants working in unison towards a common goal can make a difference to the final result of the game. 

The book is not exactly a chronological account of Anand’s personal or professional life. Rather, the chapters are divided subject wise, such as one on the art of remembering, another one on preparing for tournaments psychologically, one on the role of talent, hard work, luck & aptitude and so on. Within each of these chapters, Anand shuffles back and forth, narrating his experiences, sharing  his insights and drawing lessons from his long years in the game. There is the inevitable touch of humour here and there, and often the politics that goes hand in hand with the game. Each chapter ends with a chess position – and a summary paragraph carrying the central message that the chapter contains. I find this design beautiful.

In recent years, chess has undergone a dramatic change, with computers (“chess engines”) marauding the game in a big way, busting the myth of human superiority over machines. Anand has been on both sides of this fence, having started out the old fashioned way in the 1990s and transitioning successfully into the computer age, still winning tournaments in the 2010s. The chapter on making this change from the pre-computers era to the post is the one I liked the most.

The later part of the book is dedicated mainly to his World Championship matches (i.e. finals), such as the one against Kramnik (2008), Topalov (2010), Gelfand (2012) and Carlsen (2013). Anand takes a deep dive into each of these matches and narrates the story that did not appear in the press – the challenges, the hard work, the politics, the preparation and the execution. What the world saw is only the final result. But as Anand says at one of the places “chess players do a lot more than sit motionless, staring at moving pieces on a board”. In this book, you get to see what that lot more is.

Clearly, the book is meant for an informed audience. You need to have at least a basic introduction to the game, to make sense of what is written in the book. Words such as variation, pairings, notation, blitz, compensation or fianchetto are straight out of the chess jargon, and a dictionary will help little to a reader if he has never been introduced to the game before. The uninitiated may be forgiven for failing to understand what a sharp Dragon or a dry Catalan is, let alone why playing 1.d4 instead of 1.e4 in a crucial match against Kramnik deserves an entire chapter of its own.

For chess playing generation of today aspiring to be the Anands of tomorrow, the book is an investment worth their time.

Finally, here is a link to the game that Anand says is one of the best games he has ever played. Enjoy!

Aronian Vs. Anand, Wijk aan Zee, 2013

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1704763

(P.S.: You can read my earlier take on why Viswanathan Anand is the greatest sportsman India has ever produced. Click here)

Why Anand is the greatest sportsman India has seen

This story dates back more than a quarter of a century ago. A 17-year old boy traveled by train from Madras to Sangli, a small town in the heart of the sugar belt of Maharashtra. In the train, the boy immersed himself in books on chess, playing out games of champions of the past on a board spread out in front of him. An elderly co-passenger, amused at the boy’s interest in the game, asked him if they could play a game or two. The boy agreed, and it was soon clear to the gentleman that his age and experience was no match to the boy’s talent at the board. “What is your name? You play quite well!” asked the somewhat shaken gentleman, trying to salvage his bruised pride at having been beaten by a young lad perhaps one-third his age. “My name is Anand”, came the reply, “I am the champion of the country”.

A young Vishwanathan Anand, at that time in 1986, was on his way to the National Junior (Under-19) Chess Championships at Sangli, but he was already a National Champion (seniors) then, having won the National Chess Championship a year earlier at the age of 16. Needless to say, Anand won the Sangli Juniors with ease, went to the World Junior Championship, won that too and in the next few months, became the first Chess Grandmaster of the country.

The rest, as they say, is history. But my intent here is not to profile Anand and his trophies, of which there are many, as enough material is already available on the internet. Nor do I plan to write about the other qualities of this exceptional gentleman, such as his extraordinary memory, amazing speed and spotlessly clean character. Why then do I say that Anand is the greatest sportsman this country has ever produced?

Vishwanathan Anand walks in for his game against Boris Gelfand in the World Chess Championships, Moscow 2012 (Photo Courtesy: www.chesstrainer.com)

Anand has spawned an industry. Thanks to Anand, the game has acquired the status of a 'sport' and become a household name in the country. Today, hundreds of eight-and-ten year olds can be seen sitting across the board and fighting their wits in inter-school chess tournaments. A plethora of chess commentators, journalists, organizers and coaches are able to make a comfortable living solely out of the game. The game has been introduced in schools in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, while Punjab Government would be recruiting chess coaches, the newspaper announced last week. The country now boasts of a staggering 26 Grandmasters, 12 Women Grandmasters and an astonishing 76 International Masters of the game. When Anand started playing, India had no Grandmasters, and the number of International Masters was probably in single digits. India now ranks 8^th on the FIDE’s (World Chess Federation) ranking of countries, a ranking based not just on Anand's strength but on the average strength of its top 10 players. This is far better than India’s ranking in any other sport that is played in a large number of nations and would make India a serious contender for a medal at any Chess Olympiad. India’s success at chess is not restricted to Anand’s individual talent alone; it has percolated down to the rank and file in the country. Clearly, Anand has elevated the status of the game in the country of its origin, and this, to my mind, is Anand’s biggest contribution to the game.

Before Anand burst on to the national scene, Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi, which portrayed chess in none too flattering a fashion, dominated public memory of the game. Like that gentleman in the train, the game would evoke amusement & curiosity at best, and contempt at worst. A chess player would be seen as a wayward maverick, who had lost his way and was unable to do something more meaningful in life.  Anand gave the game a respectability it deserved. Anand created benchmarks that are worthy of emulation.

As I drove home from office, an advertisement announcing an upcoming chess tournament in the city played on the radio. As I listened to the ad, these were the thoughts that rankled in my mind….