Chess platform bans Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath for cheating in charity match against Vishwanathan Anand

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of India’s stockbroking platform Zerodha and India’s youngest billionaire, landed himself in a soup after "beating" five-time chess world champion Vishwanathan Anand in an online charity stream for Covid-19 only to have his account suspended by the organiser, Chess.com, for violating its fair play policy.

The charity stream was organised to raise funds for Covid relief and had Anand simultaneously play against celebrities like Aamir Khan, Arijit Singh and Riteish Deshmukh, among others. Kamath was the only participant to hand the former world champion a "defeat" in the exhibition event.

However, many chess fans were unconvinced with the victory and claimed the businessman had used unfair means to beat Anand in the match. Hours after the match concluded, Chess.com seemingly added fuel to the fire by blocking Kamath’s account on the site for breaching its fair play policy.

As the online uproar over the game grew, Kamath put up a post on Twitter accepting that he had had help from people analysing the game and from computers, but suggested that Anand himself had been in the know. He jokingly compared his feat to winning a 100-metre race against Usain Bolt and said the confusion was unintentional.

While Kamath’s tweet was solace for some, many twitter users were unconvinced by the young entrepreneur’s clarification. One user said the “casual apology” did not bury all the questions that the fraudulent game had raised.

Anand too responded to the controversy saying, "Yesterday was a celebrity simul for people to raise money It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game. I just played the position on the board and expected the same from everyone".