25 years on: Anand-Kasparov at WTC, and a Donald Trump cameo

If New York is a chessboard, the Twin Towers were its king and queen. And so it was somewhat fitting that in 1995, one of the buildings hosted the World Chess Championship between India’s Viswanathan Anand, just 25 then, and Gary Kasparov of Russia, 32.

The towers perished in the terrorist strikes on the US on September 11, 2001. Every year on the anniversary of the attacks, many Indians remember Anand vs Kasparov up on the observation deck of the 107th floor of the South Tower. The match was inaugurated by Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The date was September 11.

Among those at the event, watching the players hunched over the board in a soundproof glass room, was chess coach Raghunandan Gokhale. The Dronacharya Award winner and former player was covering the game for the Indian media.

Kasparov won. But Anand rattled him. The first eight games were drawn, unprecedented in the history of a World Championship. Then Anand won game nine and took a lead against all expectations. Kasparov, brilliant but egoistical, grew restive. He tried to derail Anand with petulant gamesmanship like making faces and slamming the door while leaving the room between moves.

Twenty-five years on, from the vertiginous heights of his second floor home in Andheri, Mumbai, Gokhale tells Moneycontrol, “I remember there was a game during which the air-conditioning in the room failed. Coming from Chennai, it made no difference to Anand. But Kasparvov wanted play to be stopped. The rule was both players had to agree, and Anand sportingly agreed.” Anand did not reply to messages from Moneycontrol.

About 9/11, Gokhale said, “I spoke with Anand about it some years later. All of us who were there have a sense of disbelief about it. They were magnificent buildings and we were there nearly a month.”

The contest at the Twin Towers was a part of a campaign to make chess appealing to the masses. A year earlier, a Candidates Tournament was held at Trump Tower. Anand featured in it, along with Vladimir Kramnik, Oleg Romanishin, Gata Kamsky, Nigel Short, Boris Gulko, Michael Adams and Sergei Tiviakov. It is possible that Trump later said, “The event was a uuge success. It was a magnificient success. It was a successful success.”

Jokes aside, Trump did wonder aloud in the presence of chess player Pal Benko, "Don’t you think I could also be a GM (grandmaster) if I put in one or two years in chess?"

Benko said, "You need to be born again. I have never known anyone who started with chess after the age of 20 and became a grandmaster."

Back to Anand-Kasparov. Being New York, being in a gigantic building, there were some stresses and snafus. According to a front page report in the New York Times dated September 12, 1995, Anand reached half an hour before the 3 pm start, expecting to zip through a special elevator. But the guards refused and he had to take the aam janata lift. Giuliani, playing for Anand during the ceremonial opening, moved the wrong piece, much to Anand’s horror. The mistake was rectified. And the location was so great that Gulko, despite being from the player fraternity, spent a long time soaking in the view instead. After all, it was a clear day of 20-mile visibility, with nachos, burgers and pizza on offer.

Still, Gokhale feels it was a nice venue. “It was a soundproof room for the players and it was very good for the publicity of chess,” he said.

Another Indian player and a close friend of Anand’s, Ravi Abhyankar, was present at the match. A few years ago, during Anand’s felicitation in Mumbai, Abhyankar said that even though Anand lost to Kasparov in New York, he had the last word in the gamesmanship battle.

“The Russian journalists always asked questions in Russian. Kasparov, who loves his own voice, would give long answers in Russian and there was no translation. Poor Anand had to sit next to Kasparov and listen to all that he couldn't understand,” Abhyankar said.