How Vishwanathan Anand Stayed On Chess Grid Despite Scheduled Power Cut In Chennai indianexpress.com

A scheduled maintenance power cut from 9AM to 5PM in Viswanathan Anand’s locality in Chennai almost derailed India’s hopes of progressing past their quarter-final tie against Armenia in the first-ever Online Chess Olympiad.

At the end of the tournament, the Indian chess team was basking in the glory of their joint victory with Russia at the Olympiad, but it was the absence of electricity at a crucial juncture that was one of their biggest worries in a format that was supposed to be the future of chess in Covid times.

On Monday, Anand revealed that India’s non-playing captain Srinath Narayanan arranged for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to provide electricity to his building despite scheduled maintenance in the Kottupuram locality in the Adyar zone. The power cut was scheduled to end around an hour into India’s tie with Armenia.