Of dry humour & native tongues
Nov 08, 2013 – T.N. Raghu
Age Correspondent | Chennai
Chess may be a serious sport but humour wasn’t in short supply at the joint press conference of Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, here on Thursday ahead of their 12-game World Championship match. From an official’s faux pas to repartees between the two contestants in addition to a modicum of Norwegian and Tamil made the press meet anything but mundane.
Credit must be given to Carlsen for setting the ball rolling. Not surprisingly, hometown hero Anand opened the proceedings with an elaborate answer. Anand concluded his opening remarks by saying he was looking forward to the match. It was then Carlsen’s turn. The Norwegian mimicked Anand with a deadpan expression and a quote longer only by a word: “I’m also looking forward to the match.”
Anand stumped Carlsen straightaway by revealing his team of seconds. A deathly hush descended on the media hall at Hyatt Regency after the question of seconds had been lobbed at the Norwegian. “Thanks, Anand. I appreciate your openness in revealing seconds, but I’m not returning the favour,” Carlsen said, triggering a peal of laughter in the rather small room.
A Norwegian TV reporter chose to switch to his native tongue for a question to Carlsen in the midst of English conversations.
The World No.1 swatted aside the moderator’s request for a translation before his answer and proceeded to speak in Norwegian. The onus was then on Anand to speak in Tamil. He indeed got a chance to do so after a reporter asked a question in Tamil. Anand’s Tamil isn’t known to be as good as his chess but he passed the public language test with flying colours.
Justice was done to Tamil and it was time for someone on the dais to commit a customary slip of the tongue. D.V. Sundar, Fide vice-president and former AICF secretary, suffered a moment of a Freudian slip when he said Anand was a “six-time” world champion.
The Tiger from Madras needs to beat the Mozart of Chess to earn his sixth title. Perhaps, Sundar has a hunch that the Indian master will scale the peak in his own backyard.
Source: http://www.asianage.com
Norwegian is not English or Spanish to be widely spoken. It was immature of the reporter to ask in Norwegian and immature of carlsen to sidestep a translation.. how does one know what was asked? ok Anand did answer one in Tamil. That is AFTER carlsen spoke in norwegian. Did not they have the English only rule in Russia for the WC? It would be better for magnus to keep his behavior especially and not listen to the likes of garry. Why his chef not cooking? c’mon Hyatt chennai is as good as Hyatt NYC
Technically speaking, DV Sundar was right about the 6 time World Champion remark. It all started with the first place in World Juniors ahead of Chucky.
Technically speaking, DV Sundar was right about the 6 time World Champion remark. It all started with the first place in World Juniors ahead of Chucky.
Nah its just premonition not a slip.
What is truly a sad comment about chess journalism (to the extent that it exists) is that I can’t find anywhere on the internet a translation into English of what Carlsen said in Norwegian.