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File photo of Viswanathan Anand© Twitter
Viswanathan Anand is not only a legend of Indian sports but also seems to have a great sense of humour. On Friday, the man, who has been instrumental in making chess attractive to many Indian children, posted an interesting plea on social media outlet X: “At the airport! My kidnappers, let me go. @alexandrabotez @ itsandreabotez,” he wrote. At first glance, such a position would create tension. The comment also went viral on social media. However, Viswanathan Anand quickly started an X thread to allay the fears of fans of him.
Alexandra Botez and Andrea Botez are chess players and also create content on social media. Viswanathan Anand’s post was a joke and involved a chess move.
“Alexandra Botez told me that I had to solve a chess position to win my freedom. Andrea asked what Black should play in this position. I told her Rd5 and they let me go,” Anand later added in an X thread.
“Further explanation: Since this is a race, Black should play Kd5, which slows down the white king’s march to the queen’s side. And a faster hostage release!” he added more.
Viswanathan is a five-time world champion. Anand also became India’s first grandmaster in 1988 and has the eighth highest FIDE ranking of all time. Last year he said that this is a golden era for Indian chess. Anand was quoted as saying that he was surprised by the fact that most of the current batch possess an Elo rating of over 2,700, especially those under the age of 20, calling it “special”.
“I’m launching the title early, but they’re a golden generation. They’re all in the 2,700+ group (Elo rating). And they’re all under 20 years old. That just doesn’t happen; it’s really something special.
“And what this means, and the reason I call them the golden generation, is that they are going to spend the next ten years at the top. With different career paths, of course, but they are going to spend the next ten years being rivals , colleagues, friends and all that.” On Friday, he posted an interesting line on X.
Recently, the chess legend stole the show at Lollapalooza 2024 by singing enthusiastically among the crowd during iconic singer Sting’s performance on stage. He delivered classic lines from The Police’s hit song, “Roxanne,” and a video capturing Mr. Viswanathan’s moment of joy went viral, sparking widespread applause across the Internet.
Viswanathan took to social media platform . and I can say that I know most of their songs and also Sting’s solo albums. They have been a constant on my playlist over the years.”
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