Soon after their engagement, Viswanathan Anand went over to Aruna’s house one day, took out a chess board and proceeded to teach his soon-to-be wife the nuances of the 64 squares. Aruna didn’t quite move into the ethereal strata of Elo ratings, but the passion surely rubbed off. “Later, some of my relatives would challenge me to games, win, and say ‘Ah, I’ve beaten Anand’s wife’,” laughs Aruna.

It’s a question of perspective. A perspective that matured through the career of the two-time world champion, possibly the best sportsperson India has ever produced. Remember his match of wits versus Garry Kasparov atop New York’s World Trade Center in 1995? Anand lost that, and the 9/11 tragedy removed the brilliant edifice forever, but memories of those moves remain. That’s the perspective.

Anand had been an “amazing” GM then, experts would say, somewhat green for the rough and tumble of a hugely egoistic Kasparov, but definitely not a pushover. Graduating to becoming India’s first Grandmaster in 1987, he held his patience, measured his strides and remained focused. The fruits have come, twice over.

It’s been a while for Anand, there are greenhorns today challenging his supremacy, and things are coming full circle, so to say. “You know, John Nunn (English mathematician, Grandmaster, and once among the world’s top ten, senior in age to Anand) once told me ‘you need to beat these prodigies more than once in the early stages, that’s how they remember you, or they get onto you’,” says Anand. “I took that advice seriously and I have tried to not let the kids off too easily.” But they keep coming back, more of them, each smarter than the previous one. One day, knows Anand, one day.

... contd.