Why Croatia has a chessboard on its coat of arms, & more | #207
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Hello friends,
2024 has been a watershed moment for India in chess. The country where the sport is said to have originated had its largest contingent ever at the Challengers Tournament with 3 men and 2 women taking part. The spotlight belonged to D Gukesh who won the tournament thereby earning a shot at the World Championship Title later this year. This week, another child prodigy Praggnandha defeated the great Magnus Carlsen for the first time in classical chess and we increased our grandmaster tally to 85.Â
So this week let’s move our pawn to e4 and open the newsletter on some stories about chess.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Near Needamangalam in Tiruvarur district, the ancient temple of Lord Shiva at Thirupoovanur is intricately linked to the game of chess. The temple's deity, known as Sathuranga Vallabhanathar, signifies Shiva's expertise in chess, with "Sathurangam '' being the Tamil term for the game. According to legend, Lord Shiva, disguised as an old man, won the right to marry the local king's daughter, Rajarajeswari (an incarnation of Goddess Parvathi), by defeating her in chess. The king had promised his daughter's hand to anyone who could best her in the game, but no one succeeded until Shiva, answering the king's desperate prayers, triumphed over the chess prodigy and revealed his true form. And that's how the god of destruction became the ultimate grandmaster!
Will you be my Checkmate? There is a nice story about one King Drzislav. He waged a fierce war against Venetian Doge (Nothing to do with a crypto coin, but Venetian leaders were called Doge) Peter Orseolo II. Drzislav fell into enemy captivity and was thrown into a dungeon. Peter learnt that he shared a passion for chess with Drzislav and wanted to humiliate Drzislav even more. He made an offer that if Drzislav beat Peter in chess thrice, he would be free to go. Drzislav went on to win three games and won his freedom. He then incorporated the chessboard pattern into his coat of arms to commemorate this triumph and that is why Croatia has a chess board in its coat of arms and all Croatian teams, irrespective of their sport, wear a chess jersey.Â
It’s a newsletter about Chess and we have to end it with a story about Viswanathan Anand, a truly badass one. In 2010, Anand, the defending world Chess champion, faced Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who had the home advantage with the World Championship being held in Sofia. Anand planned to arrive in Sofia a week early, but his flight from Frankfurt was cancelled due to the eruption of the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. His request to postpone the championship was denied. With trains overbooked and flights grounded, reaching Sofia on time seemed impossible. Eventually, Anand hired a bus for his team and embarked on a gruelling 1750 km journey. The trip was so long that they watched Dr. House, followed by Lord of the Rings and its extended edition. Exhausted upon arrival, the organisers granted a one-day postponement, but Anand lost the first game. Re-evaluating his strategy, he won the second game and went on to hold off Topalov, ultimately winning his 4th World Championship 6.5 to 5.5. Vishwanathan was definitely Anand after this win.
Thala for a reason!
From IWTK, with love 💌
Mastermind India was a superb TV program. KE Priyamvada was the first winner in the new millennium. She absolutely aced the finals to score the highest number of points ever.Â
IWTK founder Sai Ganesh is asking his favorite question this year.Â
Only In India 🇮🇳
There are good ways to handle a breakup. This is not one of them - a refund on a birthday gift with 18% GST included.Â
<3 IWTK
Disappointing to see an otherwise great newsletter feature a social media post that was clearly a paid marketing post.
The CA post on X was evidently a paid post for some Amazon MiniTV series. Please don't feature such posts and give them authenticity. Loved everything else as usual.