JOIN USAnand honoured in style
Newly-crowned world chess champion Viswanathan Anand received a gold medal, prize money of $1.4 million (around Rs. 7.9 crores), a memento and a piece of contemporary art displaying him and challenger Boris Gelfand, for his achievement at a ceremony on Thursday.
Stating that his connection with Russia has been very deep, Anand said, “I benefitted a lot from playing chess in Russian Cultural Center in Chennai and my second Grandmaster norm was also made at the Cultural center in New Delhi.
The connection with Russia is quite deep, as I also played a lot of tournaments here while growing up.”
Anand, who won in a nail-biting finish in rapid tiebreak games, wished Gelfand good luck during the prize giving and mentioned that Gelfand always warmly greeted him before each game, ensuring that the match was played in right spirit.
Speaking about the importance of computers in today’s world of chess, Anand noted that it was not complete in itself. “Definitely computers have levelled a lot of ground but we still see that those with a structured frame of knowledge in chess make better use of computers than the others, the human interaction is also important, computer itself is not complete,” he said.
Before the final ceremony the world champion also met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had invited him for tea at his residence. Anand mentioned to Putin about learning chess in a Russian cultural center in his home town to which the President replied, “So we brought this on ourselves”!
“I really enjoyed it, the President was fully aware about the match, was very warm and friendly. For me it was an honour,” Anand said on his meeting with Putin.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Ajay Maken said that he would be happy if any sportsperson, including Anand, is conferred the Bharat Ratna but he could not make any recommendation for any particular individual.
Asked whether he feels Anand deserves to be honoured with the highest civilian award of the country for his stupendous achievement, Maken said, “As a sports minister I will be happy to see any sportsperson getting the Bharat Ratna. But I can’t vouch for any individual. “It is the Prime Minister’s prerogative.
Maken said Anand will get a cash award of Rs 10 lakh under the government scheme for winning World Championship.