‘Outrageous’: Viswanathan Anand’s Wife on Kamath’s ‘Apology’ Tweet

Responding to Kamath’s tweet, Aruna said, “He (Kamath) has taken a lie and used another lie to cover that.”

Struggling for consistency, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said he is becoming “my own worst enemy”.

(Photo: IANS)

An exhibition chess match during a COVID-19 fundraiser between World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath on Sunday, 13 June, became part of a controversy after the latter admitted to taking ‘help’ in defeating Anand.

After the match, Kamath’s Chess.com account was banned on grounds of violating the Fair-Play policy.

The business tycoon took to Twitter to respond to cheating allegations and admitted, “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 100mt race with Usain Bolt.”

Anand’s manager and wife Aruna said Kamath had spoken to them before sharing the text of what he was going to tweet.

She said, “Anand didn’t insinuate anything but said he will go by what the algorithm (used by the fair play team at Chess.com) says. He told Kamath, 'please do not personally involve me in whatever you want to say. Whatever you do in your personal capacity to clear the situation is your call, but do not use my name in your personal tweets’,” The Indian Express quoted.

However, instead of respecting Anand’s request to leave his name out, Kamath wrote in his ‘apology’ tweet, “I had help from the people analysing the game, computers, and the graciousness of Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience.”

Responding to Kamath’s tweet, Aruna said: “It (tweet) basically alleges that Anand was helping him and it is the most outrageous thing I have heard in Anand’s career. He (Kamath) has taken a lie and used another lie to cover that. If he was helped by computers and friends, so be it. That is on his conscience. But he can’t drag Anand’s name and say Anand helped him,” The Indian Express reported.

What Vishwanathan Anand Said

Anand had quote-tweeted Kamath's statement, adding that he just played the position on the board and expected the same from everyone.

Viswanathan wrote, “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.”

(With inputs from The Indian Express)