Young challenger not in awe of champ Viswanathan Anand

Srikar Varadaraj, the Bangalore chess player who held Viswanathan Anand to a draw during a simultaneous game on Tuesday, said the experience was “fun” and that he wasn’t overawed.

Srikar was the only player among 40 to achieve a draw during the simultaneous game against the World Chess Champion at Hyderabad during the International Congress of Mathematicians (see pic). Srikar is also a maths and physics enthusiast and presented a paper at the conference.

The young player, who grew up in the UK and US before his family shifted to Bangalore, didn’t think much about the citizenship controversy that had erupted during the conference.

“No one mentioned it during the conference,” said Srikar. “I think what happened wasn’t right.”

Talking about the game, Srikar said he had the advantage right through, but then committed a mistake and Anand managed to draw the game. “The trading of the queens was a mistake. I thought the end game would be simple, but Anand managed to hold on and achieve a draw. The game was fun.

I didn’t expect anything… I wasn’t overawed either.”

The 14-year-old, a student of National Public School, has been marked out as an excellent prospect by senior players and coaches.

Anand beat the other 39 competitors and later was quoted as saying that he was “busted by his (Srikar’s) tenacity”. Anand revealed he seemed to be in a losing position, but his young opponent had missed a line and he’d fought back for the draw.