Viswanathan Anand spoke with refreshing candour while drawing subtle parallels between his chess career and the challenges of corporate life.
He opened up to the audience with great wit, saying for a chess player, known for planning many moves ahead on the board, he was left embarrassed on one occasion when he forgot to greet his wife on their wedding anniversary.
He recalled his passion and enthusiasm for the game from a very young age, his admiration for the late Bobby Fisher (until whom the sport was dotted with Soviets) and his early inability to become a Grand Master (GM) despite vigorous participation. He took time off, set clear goals and meanwhile completed his Class XII Board exams. Success in this regard came to him when he least expected it, true to the dictum “Focus on the process, results will happen”.
Anand spoke of the usual paradox that bedevils most winners, the relative ease of reaching the top, but the difficulty of staying there. However, his love for the game pushed him to sort out his weaknesses, while his opponents posed severe hurdles, as he grew in stature in the world of championship chess post 2000.
Of the challenges he faced, he spoke of the difference between matches and tournaments. In tournaments, you could pick your opponents, to meet the larger goal of winning the tournament; winning matches was hence tougher. This would be similar to business situations, where we create winning business portfolios, or in a simpler context, of “losing the war, winning the battle”.
He talked of his experience of building a team, with people of different cultures and backgrounds, with whom he could bounce off opinions, strategy, and logic as he prepared for a match. This again is much similar to our philosophy here, where we encourage a ‘second view’. Chess is similar to business, where the dynamics of the environment changes rapidly at times. Interestingly, he echoed another segment of our ethos; the need to be flexible. As you learn and unlearn, you realise that nothing is cast in stone in a changing situation and the penchant for learning takes precedence.
He stressed the need for emotional connect, the need to believe in yourself, and keep your spirits up in bad times, the need to visualise and reinforce the mind with stories of past victories acting as catalysts to pull yourself together in weaker moments
Anand left a feeling of great equanimity in the hall and as he signed autographs, I heard a colleague reciting excerpts from Rudyard Kipling’s, “If”: “Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch…”
FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, World Champion in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
National honours Arjuna Award for Outstanding Indian Sportsman in Chess in 1985. Padma Shri – 1987. The inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour in the year 1991–1992. Padma Bhushan – Third highest civilian award awarded by Government of India in 2000. Padma Vibhushan – Second highest civilian award awarded by Government of India in 2007. |