Indian billionaire Nikhil Kamath, admitted to cheating in a shock victory over five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, saying it was for ‘fun and charity.’
Nikhil Kamath, the founder of an online brokerage firm, took on Anand during an online charity event on Sunday and won a 30 minute rapid game, causing quite a stir. The next day, he admitted to using ‘computers’ and the assistance of ‘people analyzing the game’ to gain an advantage.
‘It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I beat Vishy sir in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100 mt race with Usain Bolt,’ Kamath tweeted. ‘In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn’t realize all the confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies.’
During the event, Anand, widely regarded as the greatest player India has ever produced, played— and defeated— many celebrity guests, including cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan.
‘Yesterday was a celebrity simul for people to raise money. It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game,’ he wrote on Twitter. ‘I just played the position (on the) board and expected the same from everyone.’
India’s chess federation saw the incident as violating the spirit of the game. ‘We don’t expect anybody to get help from computers, at the national and state level we are following the protocols,’ the federation’s secretary Bharat Chauhan told local media. ‘He (Kamath) was doing it for charity, he shouldn’t have done. This is bad,’ he added.
Anand won his first world title aged 30 and enjoyed great rivalries with the likes of Russian champions Gary Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Soviet-born Israeli Boris Gelfand.
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