Life’s lessons from Vishwanathan Anand – world’s no.1
TweetUpdated Apr 27,2008: Owing to Vijay Arumugam’s comment, i have amended the greatest designation i gave to Anand. Thanks for pointing out Vijay.
Last night we had the privilege of listening to Vishwanathan Anand – arguably amongst the greatest sportspersons from India if not the greatest. He singlehandedly put Chess on the national sporting agenda. Unfortunately, in a cricket crazy nation his accomplishments are often overlooked.
He spoke about his life’s lessons. The words may not be accurate but i have tried to capture the essence. Please read this as if he is speaking:
“I learnt chess at the age of 6 from my mom. And within a few months after that i went to a tournament and promptly lost the 3 games i played. I had a lot of enthusiasm which is an easy thing to do for a 6 year old. Then i went again and again and even won an award for perseverance. I started winning slowly, became the subjunior champ, junior champ, got the IM title and then the Grandmaster title with the requisite 3 norms.
I was in 10th grade in 1987 when i became GM. I was extremely happy. Felt on top. I was staying in the top hotels, playing in top tournaments etc. But suddenly, life was feeling empty because it seemed like there was nothing left to do.
Then i decided to try for the world championship and that gave me something to look forward to. I was also beginning to get used to the trash-talk and other psychological tactics my competitors were using. People used to say i had “great talent” which is an euphemism for saying i am not a champ yet. That told me that people were afraid of me and that i have truly arrived.
I achieved the world champion title in 2000, somewhere on the way beat both Karpov and Kasparov. Again i felt the same emptiness. I was getting into some sort of a routine and then i had a disastrous tournament in 2002 that forced me to rethink everything. I changed a lot of things, tried new openings, dumped my permanent coach etc. Kept at it and finally couple of years later i again won big in a tournament in Mexico.
What i learnt is this – i should not have waited for a disaster to change myself, adapt myself. We have to keep changing all the time proactively.
Last year i again made the goal to try for the world champ. This time an open tournament. I prepared hard but i was a bit detached. I was going to give it my best and try to win and not become too attached. I managed to win.
In sum, my lessons are – be enthusiastic/passionate, do things you love doing, be perseverant, don’t get into a rut, keep challenging yourself and keep adapting.
Hope that helps a bit. ”
Then he took a few questions:
1. Who is the toughest player you encountered?
Kasparov. These days this Carlson boy is a big challenge.
2. Why were the Russians so dominant?
Soviet Union was the only country that played professional chess. It was them versus all the other amateurs from the different countries. They had the system and the seniors trained the juniors. Untill Bobby Fischer came no one could challenge the Soviets.
3. What about India and Indians? What holds us back?
Indians are very creative. But when it comes to getting something done as a group we don’t do it consistently. Our public leadership is seriously lacking. With so many people in poverty we have to do something seriously. We have a long way to go.
With that his session ended. It was amazing how well he simplified and
presented the learnings.
Thanks for sharing this Sukumar…i think that Vishwanathan Anand should be placed first in Indian Sports, because he is the one took Indian sports to international level after hockey. But sad that Cricket “monster” overshadowed all other sports in India and his achievements, hockey is now almost out of pitcture. I too love Cricket but major issue with that is lacking of international recogination.
Excellent Sukumar. I think that is what differentiates champions from players, leaders from #2s and real men from boys.
In our profession I amazed to see often entry programmers bring so much passion/ creative thinking into the work, where as developers of 5-8 years need to be driven to reach some goals. They should read this post and rethink of their career goals.
Thanks Subba. Yeah, cricket is not an international sport. That may be okay. but our monomania (or as you said Cricket Monster) and inability to recognize other sports is what bothers me.
Thanks Vamsi. You are right, you can see the burnout/or getting into a rut syndrome affecting people in our industry. I wrote an article sometime about the S Curve phenomenon.
http://itotd.com/articles/318/the-s-curve/
Essentially skills follow a S curve and when you hit the top of it, you feel you are in a rut. It is only those people that recognize that they have hit the top and make course corrections, start on the next S curve, truly succeed. Vishy Anand is a great example of this.
I read the S-curve article earlier Sukumar. I think you referred in one of your earlier pots. Brilliant. If we see MGR/ NTR (these days Chiranjeevi) when they find that they reached top in their respective fields, went into politics applied their people/leadership skills and came to power in short time. Same is the case with David Ogilvy ( I happen to know more about him..I think he is a genius). He tried so many odd jobs before starting off his Advertising career and reached top.
Thanks for this great writeup on Anand’s speech. My son plays a lot of chess and he would be thrilled to read about him.
S-Curve Phenomenon: Brilliant Article. If only the greatest Geniuses of the world had realised their S-curves and started creating newer S-curves, the world would have benefited so much. This is something to always keep in mind when people burnout especially in this fast moving world.
As i was browsing on these lines i found a couple of interesting links
Polymath: A person’s knowledge not restricted to one subject. check out this wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath , lists of geniuses who were Polymath(multi-talented).
This Genius Hall lists the greatest genius who graced the mankind in the past 4000 years: http://www.cerebrals.org/genius.htm
Sukumar
I am typing this for the 3rd time, somehow my comments were disappearing. Not sure why?I will try again.
Thanks for sharing Anand’s words. My son plays a lot of chess and he would be thrilled to read this about Anand.
S-Curve Phenomenon: Brilliant Article. If only the greatest Geniuses of mankind have realised this and moved to make more S-curves the world would have benefitted more. This is a great lesson we always need to have in our mind especially in this fast moving world.
Also, browsing on these lines, i found some interesting links i thought i would share:
Hall of Genius, this site lists the genius who lived in the past 4000years
http://www.cerebrals.org/genius.htm
Since you had mentioned about geniuses like Benjamin Franklin who were multi talented, i remembered reading about Polymath.
Polymath: A person of great or varied learning; one acquainted with various subjects of study.
Check out the list of Polymath geniuses at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
Sukumar
I am typing this for the 3rd time, somehow my comments were disappearing. Not sure why?
Thanks for sharing Anand’s words. My son plays a lot of chess and he would be thrilled to read this about Anand.
S-Curve Phenomenon: Brilliant Article. If only the greatest Geniuses of mankind have realised this and moved to make more S-curves the world would have benefitted more. This is something we always need to have in our mind especially in this fast moving world.
Also, browsing on these lines, i found some interesting links i thought i would share:
Hall of Genius, this site lists the genius who lived in the past 4000years
http://www.cerebrals.org/genius.htm
Since you had mentioned about geniuses like Benjamin Franklin who were multi talented, i remembered reading about Polymath
Polymath: A person of great or varied learning; one acquainted with various subjects of study.Check out the list of Polymath geniuses at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
Thanks Vamsi. You are right, MGR/NTR are great examples.
Sujatha,
thanks. Yeah, i knew about your son’s chess. i am sure Anand’s words will serve as an inspiration for him. whenever you include more than 2 links in a comment, it goes to the spam folder.
Thanks for the additional links. I didn’t know the word Polymath, thanks for the find. The list of geniuses is also excellent.
Thanks again.
Sukumar,
Thanks for sharing the post. It was so good to read about the lessons Vishwanathan Anand learned from his life.
/*In sum, my lessons are – be enthusiastic/passionate, do things you love doing, be perseverant, don’t get into a rut, keep challenging yourself and keep adapting.*/ This sums it up all.
Thanks Saraswathi. I was impressed as well. He seems to have a knack for simplifying complex things.
Viswanathan Anand is definitely one of the best sportspersons India has ever produced, no doubts about that. He has been rated number 1 in chess; he has won world championships; he has put the Indian Chess on the global map as the trend-setter; he has also been an inspiration for lots of youngsters to take up the game and to become very adept at that. Does that make him the greatest Indian sportsperson of all time? Lots of people would say so, but I don’t exactly agree with them, for a couple of reasons. In my view, his world championship win, though it can’t be diluted, came during the post-Kasparov era. It’s not that Anand didn’t have chances to win the world championship during the Kasparov era; he had, and sadly, he did crack under the immense pressure of Kasparov in NYC. Of course, there is no shame in losing to arguably the greatest chess player of all time in Kasparov. He also failed during the Sanghi Nagar world championship in 1995 (or was it 1997?), when he had the opportunity to win in a field that included Anatoly Karpov. At the end of the day, if you want to be rated as the best, you should be able to beat the best – be it Kasparov, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Shane Warne or anyone else – in their own game, especially if you had an opportunity to play against them during their era. Unfortunatly, Vishy couldn’t achieve that, and he has got to live with that stigma for the rest of his life. But he has, with age, improved himself and has become as good as, if not that better than, Kramnik.
For the reasons mentioned above, I’d like to put Dhyan Chand ahead of him for being the greatest Indian sportsperson of all time. Dhyan was the Alpha and Omega of hockey and he was someone truly special. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Vishy Anand shouldn’t rated alongside that great wizard of Indian, nay world hockey.
Thanks Vijay. That is a persuasive argument about Anand. I was not aware of these details. Which is why i didn’t categorically state that he is the greatest. However, your nominating Dhyan Chand does not pass muster for me either. When Dhyan Chand played hockey it was not a popular sport like it is today with so many countries playing. So can we conclude that Dhyan Chand did not face tough competition and hence he can’t be the greatest? Another problem i see is that Dhyan Chand did not put hockey on the national agenda. Hockey was already a national sport (it is still is the official national sport), whereas Anand has that distinction. There was not any professional chess worth its name in India before Anand. Not many sportspersons across the world can claim that. While i agree with you that he may not have won in the toughest field in his sport, he did win the world championship which is not easy anyway even without Kasparov playing.
In any case, since you have raised a very valid question, i am amending my post.
Sukumar – Totally cool speech by Anand.
I have a related question. How is it that some people never get bored with life? I’m not talking about people who keep reinventing themselves to stay motivated in life.
I’m talking about those that lead a fairly common-place life & still manage to retain the zest for living. Isn’t that the norm? I know you’ll say that that’s not really a life well-spent. But ignorance really seems to be bliss. It certainly takes less effort.
Sukumar,
I’ve many a time heard these same doubts raised by many people about Dhyan Chand’s greatness vis-à-vis the level of competition and the popularity of the game during his time et al. That would be an interesting debate, if we were to pit Dhyan Chand against Hasan Sardar (Pakistan), Khalid Mahmood (Pakistan), Paul Litjens (Netherlands), Ric Charlesworth (Australia) and Shahbaz Ahmed (Pakistan), for the title of the greatest hockey player of all time, and even there, I’m pretty sure most pundits would like to place Dhyan as the first among equals, if not more. Some of these valid questions are more akin to questioning Bradman’s unique position in cricket against the likes of Sobers and Richards in terms of the quality of the opposition and playing conditions. I would really love to write a long piece on this, by comparing Dhyan with the other hockey stalwarts, but that would easily derail this Viswanathan Anand thread, and to be honest, I don’t want to be accused of that. Hence I’d try to embrace brevity on this topic.
Coming back to the question of, the greatest Indian sportsperson of all time, let’s talk about the possible contenders here. I’d like the have the following list of people for that coveted honor: Dhyan Chand, Ramanathan Krishnan, Bachendri Pal, Milkha Singh, Wilson Jones, Sriram Singh, Sunil Gavaskar, Prakash Padukone, Michael Ferreira, Kapil Dev, P.T. Usha, Mohammed Shahid, Geet Sethi, Sachin Tendulkar, Viswanathan Anand and Anju George.
We need to assess the pros and cons for each of these athletes before coming up with the final winner. Plus, the important factor of how big an influence that person or his or her sporting success imparted on the general populace, and the string of successors that influence helped to produce, has to be considered as well.
We’ve got the three great Billiards players in Jones, Ferreira and Sethi. Out of these three, Jones was the trendsetter; Ferreira was the one, who took it to the next level, whilst Geet Sethi was easily the best of the three. Unfortunately, Billiards isn’t a common man’s sport as yet, and it’s still largely confined to the elite clubs and the upper middle-class clientele, and therefore, and one could deduct a few brownie points from the charts of Sethi and Ferreira in the grand scheme of things.
Ramanathan Krishnan is easily the greatest tennis player produced by India. No Indian has ever since managed to reach the levels that he managed to reach in the Grand Slam tournaments, nor does it look like the case in the near future, with Sania Mirza’s game being unable to go to the next level. Ramanathan has to be rated very highly, for the fact that tennis is played in almost all the countries of the world.
Out of the three cricketers, one would have to choose between Sunil and Sachin, as Kapil Dev’s achievements were confined more to the less important limited one-day cricket format, and not to the tougher test match format. I’d go for Sachin ahead of Sunny, though Sunny was a slightly better match winner than Sachin. Though Cricket is a passion in India, it’s still not a worldwide sport, cutting across the continents like football, golf or tennis or athletics and that’s one factor that would go against Sachin in the final annals.
Milkha Singh and Sriram Singh are easily the two of the best athletes produced by India, followed by P. T. Usha. It was a shame that Milkha and Sriram couldn’t win medals at the Olympics, though Sriram’s magic run at Montreal in 1976 and that of Milkha’s at Rome in 1960 are part of the Indian sporting folklore. Usha had all the talent and potential to be the best Indian athlete ever, but she wasn’t offered the best of facilities, nor did she possess the mental toughness to convert her success to the international level from the Asian level. Anju George has done something remarkable for an Indian athlete at the world level, but she has got a long way to go before being classified as an all-time great Indian athlete ahead of the likes of Sriram and Milkha.
Mohammed Shahid is easily the most delightful hockey player that we’ve produced in the last 25 years or so. But even Shahid wouldn’t like himself to be compared with the incomparable Dhyan, for hockey supremacy.
Bachendri Pal is an interesting candidate for this coveted honor, though one could question the classification of her achievement as a sport or not.
So, that leaves us with the list of Ramanathan Krishnan, Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone, Sachin Tendulkar, Viswanathan Anand, Milkha Singh and Sriram Singh for the honor to dethrone Dhyan Chand from the pedestal.
Geet Sethi’s sport of Billiards might have been the least of glamorous sports among the cue sports, behind the likes of Snooker. But his domination of that sport from an Indian perspective was incredible, albeit his not-so-complete domination of Mike Russell could be held against him, when we compare him with Dhyan Chand.
Prakash Padukone’s triumph at the All-England Championship in 1980 was the badminton’s equivalent of winning the Wimbledon. Alas, badminton isn’t an equivalent of tennis for pedigree or popularity. In my view, Ramanathan Krishnan reaching the semi-finals of the Wimbledon tournaments in the 1950s was as incredible as Padukone winning the All-England championship. That, in my view, would dent Padukone’s chances of being the best India candidate ever.
Sachin Tendulkar hasn’t won enough test matches for India; he couldn’t establish himself as the best batsman of his time ahead of Brian Lara; however, he has been one factor that was able to unite the whole of India – irrespective of religion, caste, creed and economic prosperity – as one solid entity, ever since the days of Mahatma Gandhi. Plus, he’s rated highly by some of his peers and past players and he has redefined the art of batsmanship in his own unique ways.
Vishy Anand, as I’ve already mentioned did come off second best, when he dueled with the likes of Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov on the big stage. Plus, he didn’t participate in all the chess Olympiads to help boost the Indian team’s strength, as he wanted to focus more on his individual tournaments. Of course, Pete Sampras did the same for the US in Davis Cup, so has Tiger Woods been in Ryder cups with his habitual failures over there. So, I don’t want to hold that point against Anand, though it has to be highlighted as a factor, though.
Dhyan Chand, on the other hand, was easily the best hockey player of his times; not only that, he was so ahead of his contemporaries that the next best was not even close to him, a la Bradman’s domination of his era. Dhyan is also rated as the best hockey player ever by many leading Hockey historians; he was the only sporting success and pride of India during the tough times of colonial occupation, independence movement and depressing famines and world war II. Again, this could be compared to Bradman’s influence on the Aussie population during the great depression.
I wish I could write more about Dhyan. But for lack of time, I’ve got to cut it short, and let me post a couple of good articles about Dhyan, and those articles may provide lots of invaluable insights about the greatness of this great Indian sportsperson.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/tss/tss2835/stories/20050827004907400.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/tss/tss2835/stories/20050827002507200.htm
PS: Perhaps if someone is interested here, we could make a separate post on the list of some of the great Indian sportspersons, and could make a comparative study, and if that happens, I won’t mind offering my two cents over there.
Great Analysis Vijay. It is a pity this is buried in the comments. It will be great if you can do a guest post or two on this topic of greatest sportsperson of India. That will be really good. Ganesh is the only one on this blog author list, who can claim any level of success with sport. Please let me know if you want to do that.
Thanks Priya. The question you have has profound implications and i don’t know the answer. I am not sure we can say the only way to live is to continuously reinvent yourself, although as you say, if you study successful people like Anand, that is what would emerge.
In the blissful category i can see 2 kinds – 1. ones that are not aware of their potential and are not aware of what life could potentially be and hence are carrying on with their lives 2. ones that are aware of these but still continue to do what they do by taking a conscious decision. It seems to me that the first kind are the ones that may need some help, but i am not sure anyone can be forced.
This comment has forced me to think some more to come back with a better response than the above.
Thanks Sukumar for the kind words. Sure, when I find more time, I shall write a separate post on the great sportsperson of India. I know the fact that this blog isn’t the best of places for a sporting aficionado like me. But that doesn’t matter, as I enjoy the posts on history and anthropology and other stuff here.
Sukumar,
Can you please remove the repeat comments of mine? I guess the initial comments weren’t published and I happened to post them again. My bad!
Sukumar,
I don’t disagree with the fact that Anand was the first real world beater from Indian chess. But we still need to acknowledge the fact that Indian chess had some very good names like Manuel Aaron, Vasanthie Khadilkar, Ravi Kumar and Parameswaran before the success of Anand.
Vijay,
Thanks. please let me know when you are ready to do a guest post. I will also be very happy if you wrote regularly on sports which is a topic we don’t cover that well here and we are all interested in sports probably to your level. Maybe you can try one post and then based on the response decide on a course of action.
Vijay,
Thanks for pointing out. Of the names you have cited Manuel Aaron is a worthy one and Anand used to speak in laudatory terms about him even then. But unfortunately, we need to look at conducting the highest levels of professional chess namely getting GM titles. Since Anand is the first GM, and that is when the Indian Chess floodgates truly opened up.