Viswanathan Anand deserves Bharat Ratna

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Nice guys may finish last in some fields but not in chess. Viswanathan Anand who set off a chess wave in India has conquered the world for a fifth time, an achievement few other Indian sportspersons can boast of.

What was expected to be a sprint became a marathon in the end but the winner remains unchanged: Anand.

At the highest level, chess can be a combat sport without punching and kicking. The world championship is gruelling test of one’s resolve and talent.

Anand has been there and done it but the competitive fire in his belly shows no signs of dying down.

To do it in three formats — match play, knockout, round-robin — against top-class opponents of varying strengths over 12 years can leave a lesser man on the mat.

Anand’s achievements ever since he became a GM in 1988 were enough to secure him a place in the chess pantheon.

The win at Moscow, the spiritual home of chess, has only cemented his place. He is now in the class of ‘enigmatic’ Bobby Fischer and ‘ruthless’ Garry Kasparov. The prefix can only be Mr Perfect or Mr Clean when it comes to Anand.

The champion was refreshingly candid in admitting that he was more tense than happy at edging out Boris Gelfand.

Anand’s Moscow achievement is one of the highlights of his resplendent career. The Indian hadn’t done too well in classical chess in the run-up to the world championship and the tag of ‘favourite’ heaped pressure on him.

Gelfand, 43, may not be a Kasparov in talent, but he wasn’t an easy opponent. He punched above his weight to drag the series to the wire.

Not only had the Israeli GM prepared earnestly for the title clash, he also appeared hungrier. Gelfand’s appetite was on the expected lines because the Moscow series was — for all practical purposes — his last shot at glory.

His motivation levels, many pundits believed, were higher than the defending champion.

Winning the title after being anointed favourite is tougher. Gelfand, ranked 16 rungs lower than Anand, had nothing to lose.

The Indian, on the other hand, had the burden of preserving his invincibility in a world championship title match.

After beating younger rivals such as Vladimir Kramnik and Vaselin Topalov, he couldn’t go down to Gelfand, who was longer in the tooth. It’s true that the Anand-Gelfand meeting lacked the spark of the world championships of yore.

But, it wasn’t Anand’s fault and he wasn’t in a beauty contest. In a world transformed by the internet explosion, reprising the classic contests such as Fischer vs Spassky and Kasparov vs Karpov isn’t easy.

As a professional, Anand had to do what was needed in a match situation and he has accomplished his mission in the end.

The knives were out midway through the series. Kasparov insinuated that the powers of the Indian maestro had waned.

It was as clear as daylight that some section wanted to see a new world champion. However, it was Anand who had the last laugh.

Barring Dhyan Chand and Sachin Tendulkar, no other Indian is in the league of Anand in sports now. But the chess legend has no peers as a pioneer.

Cricket was India’s No. 1 sport even before the arrival of Tendulkar. There is no doubting the class of Dhyan Chand but India won five gold medals without the wizard.

Without Anand, however, chess wouldn’t be what it is today. No Indian had such a profound impact on a sport like Anand’s path-breaking achievements have.

There have been sustained campaigns to bestow the Bharat Ratna on Tendulkar. The cricketer certainly deserves the accolade but only after Anand.