Ability to Bounce Back!!

Get ready Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand-2.0 is coming to challenge you!!

Anand showed great character, preparation and temperament to win the candidates championship; which is a double round robin tournament where the winner will take a chance to challenge Magnus for world champion title. Vishy Anand was accurate in his calculations and throughout the tournament he showed that hunger and passion towards chess.

It is not a simple yet another tournament win for him. After his loss to Magnus last year in world championship and his bad show in many tournaments thereafter, many believed that his career is over. He was fighting against his age where his opponent in last world championship was 19 years younger to him. Even Vishy showed that demotivation and appeared as rusted.

This win make totally different sense if we look at his character and his determination.

After his loss to Magnus, someone asked him, what you think. Anand said, “In the 9^th game of World Cup in Chennai, I realized I am going to lose my world title. Life is a bitch, sometimes what all you have to do is put a ctrl-x on life and start all over again”.

And he has exactly done that.

It is termed as a greatest comeback ever. But talk about that character, that faith, that confidence, that brave front, that ability to bounce back, that belief that I can do it, that positive approach. Let’s talk about how he went about it. Let’s talk about that sheer determination to do it one-more-time all over again.

Anand went ahead with this very meticulously. He took a break, did lots of soul searching, confidence building and did a wonderful preparation with his team. These were evident in his games of Candidates Tournament. He was bang-on and was never was in a bad position in the tournament. He built a great defense in the final game just that even computers couldn’t suggest a break-through.

This is a true champion, a great determination, fantastic practice and then great execution. Irrespective of what happens in the re-match of world cup with Magnus, a true champion is already been made. This story will be a great deal of inspiration to younger sports stars, to corporate life, or common people like you and me.

What I learnt? In our life, almost on every day we encounter situations like this, where we need to put a ctrl-x and start all over again. But, do we do that? Sometimes we feel at the bottom of the confidence level, can we step back and start all over again? Can we have that great determination and temperament to do-it-all-over-again? One-more-time?

Thanks Vishy, for inspiring many lives by your character.