CHENNAI: There is a sense of profound loss at the quaint little house in Besant Nagar’s Customs Colony where Viswanathan Anand grew up to become the best chess player in the world. Sushila Viswanathan was not just mother to the country’s most celebrated chess player, she shaped the very contours of the five-time world champion’s monumental success.

Aged 79, she passed away in her sleep on Tuesday night and is survived by her husband and three children, Anand being the youngest. While the champion himself stayed away from the media, trying to come to terms with the shock, his wife Aruna told TOI: “The demise has been sudden and the family is together in this time of bereavement.” The last rites will be performed on Thursday.

Anand made inroads in a sport dominated by Europeans, quite early in his life. The credit, to a large extent, goes to Sushila who taught Vishy his first moves on the chess board. He was all of 13 when he beat India’s first International Master Manuel Aaron at the National Team Chess Championship at IIT Mumbai in 1983.

Recalling the match Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay says: “It was a May afternoon and I was told by some players that a teen from Madras Colts was about to cause an upset. I rushed to the board to find a young boy wrapped in woolens making lightning quick moves, his mother sitting beside him. He won the game soon enough and I learnt later that he was running high fever then but insisted on playing.

Sushila ensured that Vishy would only have to think of his match, she would take care of everything else. She soon grew very popular in the chess circuit.”

Sushila was anything but a pushy parent. Watching his mother engage in her pastime of playing chess at home enkindled Vishy’s interest as a five year-old. “She was as absorbed in Vishy’s matches, success and losses as he was himself.

A loss was never met with a cold stare or admonishment, she always encouraged him to look ahead, persevere and never give up. Such an influence in his formative years helped him shape his goals and remain motivated,” adds Thipsay.

Arvind Aaron, a former chess player and Anand’s close friend termed Sushila’s role during the early years as a “difficult and challenging”. At a time when bereft of stars, chess as a sport was yet to find a footing in the country, but Sushila always encouraged his son to follow his passion.

“Those days, chess players were hardly recognized, so the plight of those accompanying them to tournaments was obviously not very encouraging,” Aaron said. That, however, never stopped her from being by Anand’s side through every match and tournament the wizard played in those formative years. “Her presence bore a positive effect on Anand and he counted on her to a great extent. I cannot recall an instance when he did well and his mom wasn’t by his side,” Aaron, who visited Anand’s house on Wednesday after hearing the news, said.

Sushila was with Anand on the day when he became a Grandmaster at the age of 18. It was in Coimbatore that he achieved the feat and the other boys ran out and bought a small present for him with the message, ‘Congratulations, Grand Master Anand!’ “That gift is one of my most prized possessions,” Sushila once said.

And her biggest gift to the world of chess was Viswanathan Anand himself!

