Celeb accounts restored as Anand ‘moves on’

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: After accounts of billionaire entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, film producer Sajid Nadiadwala and actor Kichcha Sudeep were closed by Chess.com for violating “Fair Play Policy” in their respective simul against fivetime world champion Viswanathan Anand in a charity event, the global online chess platform on Tuesday decided to reopen the accounts “with the full cooperation of Vishy Anand”.

A statement issued by Danny Rensch, Chief Chess Officer of the website’s Fair Play Team, read: “Given the forthcoming cooperation of the players and the clarification that not all the rules were properly understood, neither Chess.com nor Anand himself see any reason to uphold the matter any further.”

The statement added that unrated games, like some of those played in Sunday’s event, are not always played within the same rules. “Anand...wants clearly expressed that he does not endorse the use of non-approved assistance in chess, he agrees fully that the games were played in good faith for the fun and good intentions of the charitable efforts, and wishes the matter by put to rest.”

Anand retweeted the statement, saying: “It’s time to move on and get closure on this.”

On Monday, a controversy erupted after it was found out that Kamath’s account had been shut down by Chess.com for suspected unfair practices during Sunday’s event.

Kamath apologised on social media and acknowledged receiving “help” from people analysing the game and computers in his simul with Anand. Nadiadwala and Sudeep, whose accounts werw closed a day later citing the same policy, have not publicly commented on the issue so far. They could not be reached for comments.

While Kamath played with a near-perfect accuracy of 98.9 against Anand, Nadiadwala had an accuracy of 79.1 and Sudeep’s was calculated at 68.6. The three were part of a group of nine celebrities, including cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal and actor Aamir Khan, to play 30-minute simul games with Anand in the charity event called Checkmate Covid that was organised by Chess.com India with NGO Akshaya Patra Foundation. Kamath was the only one to “beat” Anand, who resigned with seconds left on the clock. It sparked outrage on social media.

“It definitely upset people like us all the more, because everyone has so much respect and love for Anand,” Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, who in 2002 became the youngest Fide-rated player in the country at the age of eight, said. “I think it was a huge part of the reason why there was so much public anger on this—that they treated Vishy like this, apart from chess.”

It also brought to the fore the perils of playing competitive chess online, which has become the norm now as the world grapples with a pandemic.

“As soon as chess moved online, one of the biggest problems has been online cheating, which anyone with a rudimentary understanding of computers can do,” said Narayanan, who was vice-captain of the Indian team that won gold in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad last year. “We see as a threat to the existence of the sport itself.”

Narayanan said cases of online cheating can often run into thousands per day on any particular platform, and there have been instances of kids “as young as eight” resorting to it.

“Unfair play sets a very wrong precedent,” Narayanan said.