Life lessons from chess ft. Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand explains how chess has evolved into a serious career option for the next generation.  🎥: CRED

Transcript

00:00The prospect of a professional chess career had suddenly become real.

00:08Chess players always carry around a magnetic chess set.

00:11Good chess players think about chess a lot.

00:13When I was young, we used to play with five minutes.

00:32And I would almost always finish my game within two or three minutes.

00:36I would have an extra two minutes to spare because I was so good at playing fast.

00:40Eventually, somebody decided to think of a good nickname for the newspaper and came up with Lightning Kid.

00:46The nicer lesson this taught me is about time management.

00:58It was a very big step because I was Asia's first world junior champion and India's first grandmaster.

01:03The prospect of a professional chess career had suddenly become real.

01:08Anyway, I was going in this train.

01:09The elderly gentleman next to me struck up a conversation.

01:13He said, young man, what do you do?

01:16I said, well, I'm a chess player.

01:17He thought for a bit and said, yes, but what do you do?

01:20I said, no, I'm a professional chess player. I make a living from chess.

01:24Then finally, he said, you know, young man, if you don't mind my giving you some advice.

01:28Sports is a very unpredictable, risky career.

01:31If you are Vishwanathan Anand, you can make a living from chess, but otherwise it will be quite a ride.

01:38What this tells me, though, is the assumption that some careers were stable.

01:42Chess is unpredictable, but of course, engineering and doctor is very stable.

01:46Any career can be upstate.

01:48But I think this was just a heartwarming story.

01:51And in some way, it's the ultimate compliment, isn't it?

01:54I had a big slump from June, July 2001, which lasted till April 2002.

02:06And I went to Prague with the lowest expectations.

02:10I thought it would be nice to play one or two decent games just to feel how I used to feel.

02:15And with this attitude, I won that tournament.

02:19Then on the last day, there was a proposal to discuss a reunification of the world title at that point.

02:25I was angry that I was not taken into consideration.

02:30And I don't like getting angry.

02:32And a lot of times in the past, when there are situations when I had to fight for my rights or make a stand,

02:36I would rationalize and try to be nice and friendly.

02:40This time, without being rude to anyone, Arun and I looked at each other and said,

02:45Well, if this is my thing in the negotiations, I'm not going to go.

02:49So there will often come moments when you have to stand up for yourself.

02:53There's no need to express your anger directly with a raised tone or harsh words.

02:57Sometimes you've lost the argument just by doing that.

02:59You can just do it by being firm.