Carlsen-Anand W.C.C. Chennai 2013 Revisited

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  • Carlsen-Anand W.C.C. Chennai 2013 Revisited

    Carlsen-Anand W.C.C. Chennai 2013 Revisited

    December 5, 2016

    The huge political figure that hovered over the 2013 Match was Jayalalithaa. There seemed to be ceiling-high posters with her face on them everywhere.

    I tried to find the match postings from November 2013 on ChessTalk but it appears that several threads had all been folded into one. I can’t think that they served any useful purpose and it sows confusion now when trying to look anything up.

    I wrote about the closing ceremony then:

    The Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa, and Kirsan Illuzhinov, FIDE President, are on the dais. Much music is played including the FIDE Anthem. Large baskets of flowers are given both to the Honorable Minister and to Kirsan and then taken away. Anand goes up and receives his silver medal and a silver dish, which says "Runner-Up".

    Now if you watch the youtube or official clip you will hear loud orchestral music all through this part, which was deafening. I could not hear the speakers. Could anyone?

    The gold medal was given to Magnus Carlsen, then the laurel wreath. Will he put it around his neck? Yes! Then he was presented with the silver and gold trophy and photographed with the laurel wreath and trophy with the Honorable Minister and Kirsan and some chap who was holding up the very heavy cup. Finally the music stopped. It had been like a Leslie Nielsen farce for several minutes there.

    Then, Anand was presented with a large outsize novelty cheque for 6.03 crores and the winner’s outsize novelty cheque for 9.9 crores to Magnus Carlsen. The first was worth US $964,028 and the second, US $1,582,732. More photographs.

    There were no speeches. The national anthems of Norway and India were played and the Honorable Minister shook the hands of the two combatants and left.

    Years of watching The Simpsons have left me with a less than serious attitude when watching award presentations. The silver plate with Runner-Up inscribed on it, the deafening music over which you couldn’t hear anything said, the laurel wreath, the giant novelty cheques, Illuzhinov’s wan smile, the somber look of the Honorable Minister were all deeply satisfying to me.

    Anand’s calm and Carlsen’s joy were what I would expect. And I am happy with the attention that chess has received.

    There is nothing else to say about the Match. It is all over.

    http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...ght=world+2013
    ________

    The reason to recall all this is the death of Indian actress-turned-politician Jayalalithaa at age 68.

    CHENNAI, INDIA—Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the hugely popular south Indian actress who later turned to politics and became the highest elected official in the state of Tamil Nadu, died Monday. She was 68.

    The Apollo Hospital in the southern Indian city of Chennai said Jayalalithaa died at 11:30 p.m. local time after undergoing surgery following a heart attack hours earlier.
    ________

    I thought her presence added a touch of romance to the championship and I have no problem with a former actress being flamboyant and unworldly!

    In particular one news story a few years back said this:

    In 1997, police found more than 10,000 saris and 750 pairs of shoes after raiding her home as part of a corruption investigation.

    If you have trouble sleeping at night, picture this – trying to build a walk-in closet that holds 10,000 saris of varying colours and styles. That will take your mind off your worldly woes!
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