A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

Why am I writing this now – shouldn’t this have been written almost a year and a half back.

I am writing this now because people seem to be completely uninterested in the momentous and highly expected chess encounter about to start in Sofia, Bulgaria – the World Championship match-up in the classical format between our very own Vishwanathan Anand and Vaselin Toplaov from the host nation.

So much so that not a single corporate house came forward to sponsor the event in India

I am hoping that an analogy for the Kramnik match will apprise them of the sporting significance of that victory and, hopefully, in turn, enlighten them about the Topalov duel as well; thereby ensuring that a few of them sit up and take notice. Anand’s place in the pantheon of chess greats is at stake and he needs the support and good wishes of all sports loving Indians.

A cricketing one is required because that is the only language most of us understand.

Anand’s win in the classical format over the only player ( Kramnik) to have beaten the strongest player ever ( Kasparov)is comparable to

India’s triumphant 1971 test series wins over England and the West indies

A more modern day equivalent would be the Indian team going to Australia and winning a test series against Mark Taylor ( or Steve Waugh’s) all conquering Australians

Get that!!!

We were part of the celebrating group at the closing ceremony of the Olympics !!!

Poll – What was the most significant sporting moment for India in 2008?

Results – India winning three medals at the Beijing Olympics – 45%
Vishwanathan Anand winning the World Chess title in the classical format -31%
The super success of the IPL – 10%
India’s cricket team winning the one -day tri-series in Australia – 7%
India’s cricket team beating Australia 2-0 in the test series at home -3%
India’s football team winning the AFC Challenge Cup -3%,

In an obvious testimony to the fact that the few people who do visit this website take more than a passing interest in different sports other than cricket, the voters of the latest Commonfan Poll have decided, that no cricketing moment was good enough to the most important one in what has a been a great year for Indian sports. And that in spite of the fact there were three major achievements for cricket in 2008. So did the presence of 3 nominations divide the cricket vote, ensuring that some other sport slipped through? not quite. Even the combined cricket vote couldn’t have been enough. And there are two reasons for that.

One is that the cricket moments weren’t just good enough- even by the sports’ own standards. We did win the tri-series for the first time in Australia but is that even in the top five of India’s greatest one-day performances. Is it bigger than the two appearances in the World Cup finals or the win in the World Championship of Cricket in 1985? Our voters don’t think so.

We beat Australia in t

More fireworks and more champagne but not monumental enough

he home test series but does that even qualify as one of our greatest wins against Australia, forget it being in the all time test victory list. This Australian side wasn’t one of their better ones and hence the win didn’t taste as good as say the comeback victory in 2001 or the triumph in Adelaide in 2003

Coming to the IPL, it did make a huge impression in 2008. But this wasn’t about the Twenty-20 format of the game, which was already quite popular. Rather it was about the first full blown and ICC endorsed International cricket League. As things stand today the league form of the game is still a poor cousin of international cricket. Some years from today, if this format really explodes, and the ICC has to find a window in the IPL calendar to accommodate international matches, like they have to do in football, than yes – we will definitely look back on 2008 as a far more significant moment in the history of cricket and Indian sport. Till that happens, cricket will play second or rather third fiddle to what were the most significant moments for Indian sport in 2008.

Now we come to the second reason – India’s performance at the Olympics and Vishwanathan Anand’s win against Vladimir Kramnik are right up there because they are watershed events – something which the cricket moments were not.

Anand’s win is a monumental landmark in the annals of Chess. He became only the second non-Russian to win it in the classical format after Bobby Fischer. But Fischer’s win is remembered more because an American beat the Russians at their own game at the height of the cold war hostilities. In purely chess terms, Anand beat a far tougher opponent in Kramnik, the only man to beat Garry Kasparov in the classical format. And we all know that Kasparov is the greatest chess player of all time. Fischer beat Boris Spassky who is definitely not remembered as one of the great champions and refused to play Anatoly Karpov for reasons unknown. The win also secured Anand’s legacy. He is now a complete champion and ready to take his place alongside the celebrated masters of the sport.

And now for the most significant moment – India’s feat at the Olympics -Is there even a debate about its position as number one. Enough has been written and said about its significance and long lasting impact and I will not go into repeating it. I will just say that for the first time in my living memory, we Indians were enjoying the closing ceremony of the Olympics and feeling a part of the celebrations. And that, as the voters have already decided, was significant enough.

First my heartiest congratulations to Vishy. I have waited for 13 years for this moment and now Iam thrilled to bits. For those who have read the Hindu epic ‘The Mahabharata’, I feel exactly like Draupadi would have felt after Bhima killed Dushasana and she washed her hair with the slain man’s blood to fulfil her vow. Just for the record, I have no intention of further damaging my precious little hair with Kramnik’s blood. I just share the same feeling of redemption

As for Vishy, he would have done the Count of Monte Cristo proud. I am sure he’s carried the pain of that crushing defeat to Kasparov in his heart all along and waited for a chance to avenge it. Now the revenge has been completed in the most emphatic manner.

This was Mount Everest for Anand

This is easily the biggest win of Anand’s life. Please make no mistake – the World titles won in the round-robin and knock-out formats just don’t compare. None of the super GM tournament wins can match this. This was chess the good old-fashioned way. Any chess aficionado will vouch for this. This win will also shut up all the critics (mostly Russian) who thought Anand was a little shaky in the classical format. He just crushed the guy, who everybody thought was the master at this format.

As far as chess goes, Anand has now completed the full collection of achievements and titles. He has now won and done everything there is to win and do in the game of chess. He has won all the tournaments in all the formats. Has won titles in classical, blindfold, rapid and blitz. Beaten man and machine. Has achieved an ELO rating of 2800. There is no peak left unconquered.

He is as complete as Roger Federer would be when he wins the French Open. Or Sachin Tendulkar would be after he gets a triple hundred, wins the Cricket World Cup and gets a test series win in Australia. He is as complete as Zinedine Zidane who’s won the World Cup, the European Cup, the Champions League, League titles and also the title of the World Player of the Year.

India's Best

In the annals of Indian sport, Vishwanathan Anand now shares space only with Dhyan Chand. They are the only two guys who ran out of challenges very early in their lifetime.

Anand is well and truly a ‘complete’ champion now

Vishwanathan Anand was the single reason I started following chess regularly. I had followed the last World Championship match between Kasparov and Karpov but that was a one off. I followed his every move as he took one giant step after another. There were setbacks on the way – like when he lost to Karpov the first time he played in the World championship cycle or his shocking defeat to Gata Kamsky from a near unbeatable position in the next year’s cycle. But Vishy always came back strongly to overcome these obstacles – ones that had proved his undoing the last time. And that was what made us even bigger fans. Nothing seemed to be beyond him – he always had another level. He was a genius who would win everything.

This match gave me a moment of joy and then years of anguish

The biggest thing in that everything was the World Championship. In 1995, that seemed to be becoming a reality as Anand took on Garry Kasparov in the Intel World Championship Final played on the top floor of the World Trade Centre. That Garry Kasparov was the strongest player of all time was an added bonus. This way a victory for Anand would also legitimize his claim as the best player in the world. After 8 draws, Vishy Anand won the ninth game. And we all went bonkers with excitement – surely Anand was on his way to a famous victory.

What happened next is the most painful memory for any Anand fan. Garry Kasparov inflicted four crushing defeats in the next five games to secure a convincing victory. It was a gut wrenching blow and our dreams were left in tatters. We had celebrated too soon.

This bitter experience made the desire for a World Championship even stronger. Avenging this defeat was now part of my psyche – one of the things that I had to see in my lifetime. And it had to come at the expense of Kasparov – Nothing less would do. And we were fairly confident that revenge was not too far away – we knew that Anand had suffered big defeats previously but had always come roaring back.

Sadly, that revenge never came.

Not because Anand could not beat Kasparov or could not reach the final again.

It never came because we never had another World Championship in the good old style – 20 games of heavy –duty chess in the classical format – a true test of a player’s ability – similar to the way test cricket is the real test of a cricketer’s ability.

Garry Kasparov played only one more classical series in his playing life before he took up the cause of his native Azerbaijan fulltime – other than the ones he played against machines. This one was against Vladimir Kramnik – considered by many to be his true heir apparent. Kramnik’s winning this duel solidified his claim even more.

And then the format of the World Championship also changed. We no longer had those 20 game encounters.

Even the World Trade Centre was no more

The desire for revenge stayed strong for some time and then slowly got lost in my subconscious somewhere. It was pointless without the adversary and the setting.

Without any chance of the desire being fulfilled even my interest in the game waned.

Anand went on to become the unified world champion and I also cheered. But it wasn’t the same and I wasn’t crying ‘Redemption! Redemption! ‘Like I had once aspired to do

This match has taken a long time coming

But now the desire is back – it’s back because Vishy Anand takes on Vladimir Kramnik in a 12 match encounter in the classical format. Now we have the perfect setting and the almost perfect opponent – after all Kramnik is the only person to have beaten Kasparov in a classical match-up. A victory will also settle the debate about who is the true successor of Kasparov as the best player in the world. I am madly rooting for Anand like I once did long back. Thirteen years on I am a Chess fan again.