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
Aronian Vs. Anand, Wijk aan Zee, 2013
(P.S.: You can read my earlier take on why Viswanathan Anand is the greatest sportsman India has ever produced. Click here)
