Sports

Little Man's Rich Game

He earns more than any sportsman but money doesn't go to his head

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Little Man's Rich Game
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By qualifying to meet Karpov in the FIDE finals, Anand pocketed a cool $768,000 (Rs 3 crore), surpassing the $500,000 (Rs 2 crore) prize money cheque—the fattest picked up by any Indian sportsman in any discipline—Anand himself earned for the PCA matchup with Kasparov in 1995. There was a further $596,000 (Rs 2.38 crore) to be had in Switzerland last week which wasn't to be. Just desserts for one who had termed the FIDE format as a "lottery".

The "bread" brimmeth over. Chess experts estimate he netted roughly $300,000 (Rs 1.2 crore) in prize money by winning seven other tournaments last year. Add to that a minimum appearance fee of $25,000 (Rs 10 lakh) he reportedly commands and you're looking at a money-spinner who netted close to $1.5 million (Rs 6 crore) last year.

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Okay, 20 per cent of the $768,000 prize money from Switzerland goes to FIDE, but consider that Anand has been an NRI (currently based in Spain) since '89 without any of the tax hassles of desi cricketers, consider the frugality of a Brahmin (no parties, 'thair sadam, avial, kootu'), and the full extent of his career earnings over a nine-year period becomes clear.

 "He must have earned about Rs 25 crore so far," says a chess writer. "The cricketers' earnings pale in front of him; only Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi could be anywhere close to him. Yet, he never charges fees to represent India although he has played three Olympiads since turning professional full time. Nigel Short calls him mad for such patriotism."

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 Last April, Anand is reputed to have made $100,000 (Rs 40 lakh) for pitting his skills against six computers one evening at The Hague. Although Kasparov's draw is leagues above the rest, Anand reportedly commands as much appearance fee as Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik. As losing  finalist in both the FIDE and PCA cycles, his stock will go up a few more notches.

There's so much money in this seemingly staid, laidback game because of sponsors like IBM and Intel; myriad benefits to be had by being seen with chess: cheap, long-term publicity by associating themselves with an 'intellectual' game. Yet, all Anand has in spite of having it all—the brain and the brawn—is a deal with Ramco, a cement company where his father is consultant after retiring as general manager Southern Railways, and with Memory Plus, the Central Drug Research Institute's dubious pills. "Early on in his career, we tried to take him on," says the boss-man of a top Delhi image management firm. "But we found his father too interfering."

 Yet, Anand's success has given a fillip to chess in a way no sponsor can. There are 400 rated players in India already, two other GMs (Dibyendo Barua and Pravin Thipsay) and the government has classified chess as a 'Category A' sport. And young talents are in full bloom in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, West Bengal.

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