We will never again beat a computer: Viswanathan

Viswanathan Anand has an image of being an introvert, so, when he took to stage at a Gurgaon event recently, the audience was surprised by his wit, outspokenness and occasional self-deprecating humour. In an hour-long interaction, the five-time World Chess Champion touched upon his early years, greatest rivals, and his life outside chess. He also answered the audience’s questions and highlighted the physical toll chess takes upon professional players – something that not many outside the sport are aware of. “Simply put, playing chess has physical consequences. My muscles feel tired. I feel tense. All the physical manifestations of exhaustion come through. Recent studies have shown that your heart rate goes up for a long time and you lose a lot of calories. Some of it is speculative, but at least, we are thinking in that direction. So yes, it is physically very demanding and it has become more so recently. The nature of the game has changed,” he said.Despite his calm demeanour, Anand admitted that he, too, loses his cool, particularly while training or after a defeat. “There have been a couple of times at press conferences where I couldn’t keep my cool and snapped,” he said. Recalling a press conference, which happened after he lost his world title to Magnus Carlsen in Chennai in 2013, Anand said, “After the match I lost in Chennai, there was a Norwegian journalist who kept needling me and at some point, I said, ‘I don’t know if you understand English.’ So, I may not make the top 10 of chess players behaving badly but I have my moments.”Anand emphasised that young players need to earn the respect of the senior pros, too, which is only possible by performing. He recalled being snubbed for an autograph by the then world champion, Anatoly Karpov , at the 23rd Chess Olympiad in 1986, where Anand was making his international debut as a 16-year-old. “I went and asked him for an autograph, and he said ‘No!’ Two years later when I became a Grandmaster , he came up and spoke to me. Maybe the first time, I did not appear on his radar,” Anand said.In 1997, when Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, it became the first computer to beat a world chess champion in a match. Since then, due to technological advancements, computers have only become smarter, and Anand feels, “We will never again beat a computer.” He adds, “Any decent laptop can beat a Grandmaster today. The best computers are performing 600-700 rating points above the best player in the world. This is a greater gap than the best player in the world and somebody who has just started the game. The problem is they never tire and are so consistent for so long. The worst part is that they can be in a loss position but there is no disappointment.”