Chess Players and their Sporting Twins (part 2)

Hello everyone and welcome back to your favorite series on the internet. A couple days ago I saw a blog post detailing Chess tournaments and their sporting twins, And I was thinking whether the same can be done with Chess Players and their sporting twins. As we already know, Chess is probably the most famous mental sport out there, and unlike your humble game of checkers or backgammon, this game actually requires a certain level of deep understanding and strategy coupled along with theory. This is why we see so many people taking up the game and carving out their destiny. In this blog post we will be looking at Chess Players and their sporting twins.

This will be the final post of this mini-series, and after this more and more content will come. I advise my readers to keep their eyes peeled, as I will release more and more blog content. Cant wait for what is in store!

Table Of Contents

1. Chess and Boxing

2. Chess and Badminton

3. Chess and Squash

4. Bonus

Our Boxing Player: Muhammad Ali

There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to choose Ali as our sporting twin for this chess player. Allow me to list a couple of these reasons

1- Ali defied common American norms for Black athletes in the 1960's, just like Joe louis and Jack Johnson before him

2- Ali had an unconventional style of Boxing, wearing opponents out and tiring them around the ring

3- Ali also faced severe backlash from his country, which is exactly what happened with our chess player too at his height

4- He also acted strangely before fights to plant a seed of doubt in opponent's mind, just like against Sonny Liston in 1964.

5- For the biggest match, just like our chess player, he was underdog and the dominant player was heavily favored, exactly like our chess player.

Our Chess Player: Bobby Fischer

You know it was coming.

Born in Chicago to polish immigrants, Bobby Fischer, just like Ali, showed aptitude at his sporting field from a very young age, most notable playing the game of the century against Donald Byrne when he was only 13 years old. later on, he played against Boris Spassky for the world championship, which was one of the most infamous matches of history. Being two games down, in which he made an absolutely horrendous blunder, he planted a seed of doubt in Spassky's mind and went on to win the whole championship. Later on, he started living a reclusive lifestyle and got outlawed by his own country and disappeared from chess. He made  a comeback in 1992 against Boris Spassky again, in which he still won!

Our Badminton Player: Lin Dan

Lin Dan, born on October 14, 1983, in Longyan, China, is often considered one of the best badminton players ever. Picking up the Badminton racket at an early age, he quickly rose up to prominence in the Badminton world, and dominated the world championships, being a five time world championship champions. he got Gold medals both times in the olympics in 2008 in Beijing, and 2012 in London. He also spent over 400 weeks as the world's number one ranked Badminton player. his unprecedented rivalry with Lee Chong Wei also paved the way for a number of tantalizing clashes. One of the things that stands about this player was that he had a lot of longevity, grinding out long sessions and using his strategic briliance.

Our Chess player: Vladimir Kramnik

Although most people might consider him a crackpot by now, he is quite right about his claims of cheating. There are just too many online cheaters now. Yes, he might get a little over the top, but he is still quite right about a cheating epidemic.

Vladimir Kramnik was born in Tupase, Russia and quickly rose to fame in the chess world. He famously upsetted Garry Kasparov in 2000, and become the world champion for 7 years. He also had a famed rivalry against Vishy Anand, and he also stayed in the FIDE top 10 for over a 100 weeks.

Our Squash player: Jahangir Khan

Jahangir Khan, born on December 10, 1963, in Karachi, Pakistan, but originally from Peshawar, Pakistan is often hailed as one of the greatest squash players in history. He started playing squash at a young age, and carried the name of the Khan Squash Dynasty. Known for his fierce competitiveness, Jahangir dominated the sport throughout the 1980s. He famously went on a record 555-match winning streak, and also won the world championships 6 times, won countless gold medals in the Asian games and even got inducted into the hall of fame for the sport.

Our Chess Player: Mikhail Botivinnik

Mikhail Botvinnik, born on August 17, 1911, in Kuokkala, Soviet SFSR (now finland) was a pioneering figure in chess, known as the "Patriarch of Soviet Chess." Essentially he started the time of soviet dominance that was to succeed him. He won the world championship 3 times, won the soviet championship multiple times, and made numerous contributions to opening theory, the most notable of which being the Botvinnik-Carls defense and the Botvinnik system.

Bonus

Most of you do not know, but I also from time to time play at the FIDE online arena. And I would like to say that the level of competitiveness is quite high there. A 1300 for instance, would be equal to a 1800 player in Chess.com. Here is a game I played against an Arena Candidate Master from The Philippines.

Thank you for tuning in today, and tune in next time for more content!