Speed King

As domineering as Spanish tennis players on clay. As irritating as Sri Lankans on dead tracks.

It8217;s tough to pinpoint just what makes Anand so good at rapid chess but two months ago, at a promotional event in New Delhi, he offered an insight into why he8217;s called the 8216;8216;Lightning Kid8217;8217;.

There he was, with 20 people ranged in a semi-circle and each with three or four others helpers. Anand would make a move on one board, go on to the next player, and down the line; and before the first player could think of the next move, he8217;d be back after completing the circle. 8216;8216;You are allowed to pass and move only when I come to you,8217;8217; he said. Most kept up the pace for five moves, before being forced to say 8216;pass8217; when Anand turned up to make his 120th move of the night.

After he8217;d beaten 35 opponents and drawn with two who would later say they8217;d had the best day of their life, he was asked if he could figure out whether anybody had moved a piece here or there behind his back. Trying hard not to suggest that anybody would have cheated, he said, 8216;8216;Umm8230;a board or two had pieces moved8230; It could have been accidental but I never felt the need to unnecessarily embarrass them.8217;8217;

His photographic memory might be one explanation for his chess success, Grischuk8217;s observation of 8216;8216;serious training and practice8217;8217; another. But Grischuk, too, doubtless trained hard. And Polgar and Kramnik were equally serious about Mainz.

In truth, Anand enjoys an innate advantage since his early childhood: he played on a chessboard that was not his, one that would be taken away from him if he lost. 8216;8216;We had a system, something that could be called the chess equivalent of gully cricket, where 15-20 of us kids would have one board. We would play five-minute games with winner-to-stay rules,8217;8217; he explained. Then added, with just a hint of a smirk on his face, 8216;8216;Invariably, I would have 14 of them ganging up against me, trying to get me off the board.8217;8217;

So, is it merely a continuation of gully chess, combined with the strict work ethic that makes him unmatchable at scheming and plotting faster than a movie villain does?

Dibyendu Barua, one of the group of players who had named Anand the 8216;Lightning Kid8217;, once wrote that his game was always characterised by courage, by boldness. 8216;8216;He would take just a few seconds to assess the position and respond to moves. One might have thought, at the time, that he was so young, but after all these years, that ability to play accurately at high

speed is still a characteristic of his game. In fact, he is easily the most accomplished blitz player in the international chess arena.8217;8217;

Blitz is not, of course, his only strong suit: He has improved his all-round game over the years and spends a little more time these days on tricky positions. The resulting balance makes him an even more finished player, a serious contender for the World crown.

And, it might help if FIDE woke up and recognised rapid chess as an art form. It would help if the rapid games were rated. 8216;8216;Most of the major games are rapid, and the rapid games must be rated8217;8217;, said Anand. 8220;It8217;s something like the one-day game in Tests. They are both loved, and they both co-exist.8221;

Recognising rapid chess will not take away any of the seven-hour game8217;s charm, because, as recent happenings in cricket have shown, neither one-day cricket nor Twenty20 has been able to take anything away from Tests.

And for Anand too, flexibility from rapid games to longer ones beckons, as he braces himself up for the World Championships in San Luis in September.