“I learned a lot
from him, but it is now my turn to teach him. So, it’s safe to say that I have
surpassed him now””
“Age was partly a
factor, but regardless of everything else, he just won to a better player”
These were the words
used by the recently crowned world chess champion, the 23 year old Magnus
Carlson in the post-match interviews when asked about the person he beat to win
the title, the 44 year old Vishwanathan Anand in the prestigious tournament
played at Chennai in November 2013. Ouch.. The full interview is here.
This interview
which was published by Times of India used the headline “My turn to teach Anand
now”. This is very easy to write off as sensationalism which comes naturally to
the TOI journalists, but it is not. Carlsen was not asked whether he can teach
Anand anything, he was simply asked what he has learned from his previous
associations from Anand. No malice. So the headline is justified if anything.
From what we know about TOI, they are not below posting a headline which reads
“One-time wonder chess champion insults all-time great Anand”. Thankfully, the
journalist wasn’t really the TOI mould.
So what if Carlsen
is indeed a worthwhile winner and not a one-time wonder. What if Carslen truly
surpassed Anand a couple of years back and the only reason he did not win the
championship the previous year was because he choose to boycott the tournament.
What if he is the highest ranked chess player ever? Does that give him the
right to make such bold statements without regard to an accomplished legend? Doesn’t
he know that you can only be successful in the long-run if you are ground to
earth and humble like Anand? Does he understand what hardships Anand had to
undergo to become a five time world champion? And yet see how humble Anand is? Why such disrespect for such a classy
person? Why such inferior view on Indians?
Indeed, as can be
anticipated, in the comments section of the above article - true, righteous
Indians took the new champion to task and laid the lessons of humility, sobriety
and what not. The comments ranged from ideas like “This guy must be suffering
from Mad cow disease” to government-high-school-teacher advises like “You are
young and new to all this kind of attention so first slip-up is understandable
but when you are representing your country on a world stage , you need to be
humble, that is my only criticism”. This was the major trend. But this one wins
the prize “Anand deserves this for giving up the NATION”
No, this is
exactly the fucked up shit that made me develop a complete disregard for, even
become obnoxious to these kind of people. I’ll tell you what kind these people
are. The one’s commenting. And probably majority of the regular people in our
Indian society– whether old or young. In fact I can understand the old
generation, they are idiots. What I can’t stand is that even the people born in
80’s and 90’s tend to be the same. As if education in India was a complete
waste. Oh wait! It still is.
Firstly, people commenting
don’t know shit about chess or the happenings in the game. They don’t care
about looking up to learn about what they are about to comment on. All they
know is that Anand is an Indian chess player who has been defeated by someone
who said something about him. No, they don’t know if Anand is still an Indian
citizen (he isn’t). And they know the least of all about Magnus Carlsen, except
that he said something about an Indian. Yet they decide to take to leave their
mark by making a self-righteous comment showing how ignorant and out dated they
are.
Fact is, Magnus Carlsen
is all that he is made out to be and more. He was a teen-prodigy and now an
acknowledged chess genius. Anand of today is not the chess player that Carlsen is,
to put it mildly. Carlsen has a lot to teach Anand if you look at it from his
perspective. Even if you take the comments on their face value without knowing
that Carlsen actually showed respect to Anand in the first instance, it should
not offend you in any way. He is speaking his opinions at worst and it turns
out that they are not far off from truth. Even if he made those comments in a more
in-the-face kind of way, they should still be accepted on their own merits. But
we Indians choose to be in the blind nationalistic spirit where there is
nothing to be nationalistic about. Funnily, Anand accepted that he lost to a
better player without dodging questions. Something to do with not living in
India I wonder!
Even worse, some
people think Anand somehow betrayed India by leaving for Spain or by not
representing India. Yes, we stand for freedom, but first you must prove
yourself a slave to our stereotypes.
Talking of
stereotypes, Anand is again praised for his humility, which Carlsen doesn’t
show, to the utter discomfort of us Indians. As if that is the prerequisite to deserve
anything. We Indians are so stuck with our misleading notions of good and bad
that we are afraid of thinking them through. We are so afraid of questioning
whether humility is really required that we don’t even consider merit if it isn’t
accompanied by humility. A winner is only truly a winner if he comes out and
says “Na, I am not that good”. It so goes with every other notion that we are
taught from childhood. We are afraid of questioning them so we take them as
granted and defend them without doubting and we never tolerate anyone who dares
question them. Debunking humility, it implies that a person is not better than
others, even if he is.
I know these
stereotypes and superstitions exist the world over, but I speak mainly about
the Indian context because this is where I am, I know so much about it now, I’ve
spent my whole life escaping these lies.
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