Karmakar v. Anand

In the interest of full disclosure, I admire V. Anand, and not because he is a TamBrahm just as I am. I like Anand for the same reason I admire Prakash Padukone – for being the trailblazers they are. Please do listen to one more confession: I would not recognize chess even if it hit me in the face.

The Karmakar that appears in the title is the name of a person, who may or may not be a chess player, may or may not be a Grand Master, may or may not be a sports writer, a sports enthusiast. But he is definitely a trenchant critic of success, particularly of Anand. Hence, he is fair game for me.

Anand has won the World Championship in chess, as per the rules prevailing. He did not go behind the back of anyone to garner this prize. But, reading Amit Karmakar [1], it would seem that Anand had just escaped from Tihar Jail, so many faults/crimes are placed at his feet.

He may have won the World Championship but he did not do it too impressively. His Elo rating “will” (note the definitive, said gleefully) be going down despite his winning the title, “probably (my emphasis) the only one World champion” who had this ignominy visited upon him (Why could Karmakar not have confirmed this before opening whichever of his holes he had opened?).

Anand’s additional fault was Gelfand (another inmate of Tihar Jail) qualified to be the challenger for the title. The latter had won only eight games in the “World championship cycle starting with World cup in 2009 over 42 games! … majority of them against below 2750 players.” Karmakar does not tell you whence the legitimacy of the 2750 Elo threshold. It just happened to be a convenient number to hang his argument on.

Karmakar mentions the classic Karpov v. Kasparov contest that went 48 games without a decision, leading to a revolution in the format. My problem with Karmakar bringing in this match into the argument is this: Karpov was leading 5-0, yet the match had to be abandoned at 48 games because he could not score one more victory. I will say Karpov choked, but for Karmakar this proved Kasparov’s “unprecedented resilience”. And, I suspect that had this happened to Anand against anyone, it would definitely be trumpeted by Karmakar as “ANAND CHOKED!” One scale, of appreciation, for Kasparov and another one, of derision, for Anand. Such a balanced position!

True I am speculating in the sentence above. I did that only to show that Karmakar is in no position to point a finger at me. He says, had Gelfand been victorious, the next championship, between Gelfand and Carlsen/Aronian (the current World No. 1 and 2) “would have been either one-sided or boring.” This is a purer and more severe speculation than mine!

As an aside, Karmakar implies that no one-sided match would be boring. I have watched many one-sided tennis matches (Becker and Edberg at Wimbledon 1989 that Becker won, as one stand-out example) and one most enjoyable lopsided match – McEnroe v. Connors, 1984 Wimbledon. “The match is not boring to watch because McEnroe is so brilliant and Connors keeps trying very hard,” says the blog The Classic Match and I am not arguing. By the way, the previous year McEnroe beat a hapless New Zealandian Chris Lewis carrying a three digit (or close to) ranking!

Back to Karmakar bashing: “Anand may not be viewed as undisputed champion.” Why not? (As far as I know there is only one global federation). Because world No. 1 Carlsen withdrew from the cycle (Oh, what a crime! – but you would not hear Karmakar claim so!) and world no. 2 lost his way in the Candidates matches (in a tiebreak).

OK, let us see. Who won the 1973 French Open tennis? Bjorn Borg. But, Karmakar would say, put an asterisk on that, because Connors was banned from that tournament. Borg got an easy opponent, Manuel Orantes, yet it took him 5 sets to win. Remember, Connors owned the other three majors that year! So, obviously, via Karmakar’s logic Borg’s victory is tainted. Do you agree?

This is only to show that in sports, as much as in life, you play the cards as dealt. You do not change the cards in the middle of the deal. Did Anand shy away from Carlsen and Aronian? I have not heard so, but with his contacts it is possible that Karmakar has!

One last dig, again from tennis. “… he [Kasparov] and Karpov played epic title matches but continued to win super tournaments during that phase.” Anand has failed to do so, not having won “a single Super GM event in two years.” It would have been better had Karmakar mentioned how many tournaments Anand entered during those two years. It may be quite a few numbers, but I would have liked to know. I have my reasons.

People talk about Pete Sampras and Roger Federer dominating the major (the so-called Grand Slam) tournaments in their glory days. But not many talk about their relative absence from the regular tour grind. McEnroe won 77 singles titles and Sampras, 64. McEnroe won 7 major titles and Sampras, 14. How do you compare these? Ask Karmakar. He would not recognize different strokes for different folks at different times. Karpov and Kasparov played to their strengths and Anand is doing likewise. There is nothing to choose between.

I am slightly tempted to take one more shot, beyond the earlier claimed last, at Karmakar, because to me it is truly interesting. He says, “There are draws and defensive tactics in football and tennis too. But in their case, at least one is trying to attack.” I do not know in which universe Karmakar plays tennis. There is no drawn match in tennis! More significantly, when Lendl and Wilander played, no one, including the players themselves, was clued into who was attacking!

One can argue that Anand got away easily this time (if indeed he has). But, it has to be acknowledged that he came out trumps. He IS the world champion, whether Amit Karmakar agrees or not. Whatever his beef against Anand is, Karmakar lowered himself to the depths by not congratulating the winner. I truly pity him.

Raghuram Ekambaram

References

1.    Anand slowly losing grip over undisputed world title, Amit Karmakar, May 31, 2012 (http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tie-Breaker/entry/anand-slowly-losing-grip-over-undisputed-world-title)