This “Mate in Chennai”blog ends today, December 11.12.13, on which I want to say: Happy birthday, Vishy! I hope you have a great day in London!
“I am so used to playing chess on my birthday, it would be a bit strange to blow candles on cakes”, says Anand.
Here is a picture I took at the London Chess Classic last year.
One final note at the end of this blog. During my stay in Chennai, Mr. Venkatchalam Kameswaran came to me with a big bag, and he showed me albums with clippings and pictures of Vishy’s career in his early teens. Mr. Kameswaran (1943) is a chess trainer, journalist and India’s first international arbiter. In one of the albums I found this clipping from 1981 or 1982, because in the article is is mentioned that Anand is 12 at the time. I had never seen this clipping before. I am pretty sure that this is where Vishy’s nickname “Lightning Kid” comes from! The article is written by Kameswaran.
And I found another clipping from 30 November 1982, in which the “Lightning Kid” strikes again!
I started this blog with a newspaper clipping from the Bad Sodener Zeitung in 2013, and I end the blog with a clipping from 1982….and so the circle is complete.
I would like to “thank you” to everybody who visited the blog. Thank you for your support and comments. Who knows, maybe there will be another “Mate in …..” one day!