15 November 2013, 05:25 PM IST
Can't get over the fact that I met Garry Kasparov for 40 minutes during the World Championship chess match between Anand and Carlsen here in Chennai.
Of course, he is not perfect. But what a personality! A rebel who speaks his mind without bothering about the consequences.
In a world where modesty and diplomacy is more acceptable, he comes out as breath of fresh air.
His tongue is razor sharp, and the brain sharper.
If Anand's longevity and dynamism is mind bloggling, some of Kasparov's feats are truly out of this world. Can't be bettered.
1. He won his first Fide rating tournament despite being an unrated player! (Players play such tournaments to attain a rating, not to win the title).
2. He won his maiden Closed GM tournament before turning a GM (Others play such tournaments to attain a GM norm)
3. When he made it to the Fide rating list for the first time, his rating was 2555!
4. And he is the only player to have won the World title in his first cycle (qualification matches, candidates and title clash in the same cycle)
5. Despite losing to Vladimir Kramnik in the World title match of 2000, he maintained his top ranking till the time of his retirement in 2005.
Kasparov, who is contesting for Fide presidency next year, said chess should not depend on charity of rich people and government sponsorship to raise money. "The game needs corporate sponsorship," he says with amazing conviction.
The ongoing World Championship match is sponsored by Tamil Nadu government to the tune of Rs 29 crore.
When argued that not getting corporate sponsorship has been an age-old, accepted problem with chess due its lack of spectator appeal, Kasparov thundered: "That in essence is my complaint. That's my fight with Fide bureaucracy demanding a change in approach. When chess is at the nexus of certain key areas in modern development like education, technology and social networks, we can't afford to miss this moment. We have to come up with a product which can attract the corporate sponsorship."
The conversation with Kasparov ended on a high note for me when he said: "It's good that I came to know something new from this conversation (!!!)."
He was referring to his game with black pieces against Topalov 1995 after I pointed out fascinating point about that game. The creator himself somehow didn't see that in the end position (when Topalov resigned) Kasparov's queen had NOT left his original place (d8) for the entire match. On the other hand, Topalov's queen had travelled and was ambushed by Kasparov to its original square (d1).
Have a look here:http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070780
Topalov was a strong player at that time, having already beaten Kasparov earlier.
To beat an upcoming player without moving his queen with black pieces needs some doing.
Kasparov and strength go hand in hand.
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