An online charity chess event featuring former world champion Viswanathan Anand and several other celebrities has run into controversy after Zerodha Nikhil Kamath admitted to using ‘unfair means’ in order to beat the Indian legend. Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, which is a stock brokerage company and True Beacon, an asset management company, tweeted a statement on Twitter and admitted that he took help from chess analysts and computers during the event on Sunday.
Responding to Kamath's tweet, Vishwanathan Anand said that he expected everyone to play the same way he did — just playing the position on the board. "Yesterday was a celebrity simul for people to raise money. It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game.I just played the position on the board and expected the same from everyone,” Anand tweeted.
The chess event, held for charity, was streamed online and piqued interest when Vishwanathan Anand resigned from the match when Nikhil had minutes to spare. The chess world was quite stunned, but later it was revealed on social media that Kamath’s account on Chess.com had now been blocked which meant Nikhil had possibly used an online platform to predict Anand’s moves.
Kamath apologised for his misdemeanour and said he had help from people analysing the game and computers. "... . It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt. I had help from the people analyzing the game, computers and the graciousness of Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience. This was for fun and charity. In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn't realise all the confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies," Kamath tweeted.
The event, Checkmate Covid, was organised by Chess.com India (chess.com is a global online chess community) with NGO Akshaya Patra Foundation. It saw various celebrities including Indian cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal and actor Aamir Khan among others taking on Anand in simultaneous games on Sunday evening to raise money for families affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy sir in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt. pic.twitter.com/UoazhNiAZV
— Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) June 14, 2021
Yesterday was a celebrity simul for people to raise money It was a fun experience upholding the ethics of the game.I just played the position onthe board and expected the same from everyone . pic.twitter.com/ISJcguA8jQ
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) June 14, 2021
@vishy64theking in my head, it was just a fun game we amateurs were playing against the greatest chess champ from India to raise funds for charity. But still gives no excuse for what I did. It was wrong and I sincerely apologize.
— Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) June 14, 2021
Can't believe that @KicchaSudeep also did this, all 3 accounts are banned. https://t.co/W1I6yEo51i pic.twitter.com/q5Oy4PC1Xi
— P V P kumar (@PVPkumar1) June 14, 2021
On behalf of organizing team @itherocky and the hosts @TaniaSachdev @ReheSamay wish to clarify that we were completely unaware that non ethical practices were resorted to during the event, and assure that we are duty bound to uphold the ethics in the game of chess.
— Prachura (@Prachura1) June 14, 2021
"It is really unfortunate. He (Nikhil Kamath) is a big celebrity. He should not have done that. This is really bad. For the noble cause, we are helping people and such things shouldn't happen," he told PTI. "He is not a regular player nor our member and we don't have jurisdiction," Chauhan said when asked if any action was possible against Kamath.
In fact, many people pointed out that the other celebrities, other than Chahal, cheated during the event. Accounts of Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep and producer Sajid Nadiadwala were also blocked on Chess.com for violating fair play rules.
Samay Raina, comedian and chess streamer, was the co-host of the event, and he also took to Twitter to lament the fact that the celebrity guests took help to game the matches. Chess.com said more than Rs 10 lakh was raised from the event and thanked the participants for making it a success.
Kudos to @chesscom fairplay team for banning all the cheaters who played against @vishy64theking. I know for a fact that very few brands would take a stand like this against such big names. Respect
— Samay Raina (@ReheSamay) June 14, 2021
With PTI inputs