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