Billionaire apologises after beating Viswanathan Anand in chess game

Nikhil
Kamath, co-founder of financial services firm Zerodha, on Monday admitted to
using unfair means to defeat five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in a recent
charity chess game. 

“Yesterday was
one of those days that I had dreamt of when I was a really young kid learning
chess, to interact with Vishwanath Anand. Got the opportunity thanks to Akshypatra
and their idea of raising funds for charity conducting a bunch of chess games
with Vishy,” the 33-year-old, who is one of India’s youngest billionaires, said in a statement he posted on
Twitter.  

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“It is
ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy in a chess game,
that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt. I
had help from the people analyzing the game, computers and the graciousness of
Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience. This was for fun
and charity. In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn’t realise all the
confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies…”

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Anand also
took to Twitter to speak on 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.”

Bollywood
celebrities like Aamir Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh were among those who played against
Anand as part of the COVID-19 relief fundraiser event organised by non-profit
Akshaya Patra Foundation. Kamath was the only opponent who beat the chess grandmaster.