143 Is Viswanathan Anand's Lucky Number
Sort:
Wow!
Mysteries and more mysteries of the universe
OMG!!!
143 is the magical number for Vishy Anand. Kinda.
Basically, if you didn't know already.
Anand played against Ilya Smirin in 1994 in New York. Anand played his first three moves, and then when it was his turn. He froze. Like his system crashed. His robot-like mind crashed and experienced a fatal error. It was the fourth move. In a blitz game. You have to be fast. Anand was probably thinking fifty moves ahead. When he finally fixed the engine in his brain, he went for d6.
...
He waited nearly 2 minutes...
just to move a pawn.
Maurice Ashley was all up in the booth like WAKE UP ANAND YOU'RE PLAYING BLITZ
Anand surely made Ashley's head fry in anger while Anand himself was counting sheep.
Ever since then, that game is only known for that move and how long it took.
1:43 must be the first thing that pops up in your head when he plays Smirin again.
If you look closely, a lot of 143's pop up sometimes.
Think about the year Fischer was born. In 1943. 143. Fischer likes to play Ruy Lopez a lot sometimes. So does Anand. When Kasparov played DeepBlue, games 2 and 4 were the first ones to have more than 43 moves. Both of the 43rd moves from Kasparov were both queen moves, which were both in the 5 row. 143 divided by 11 is 13. Paul Morphy was around 13 when he was the number one chess player of the world. Anand once drawn against Fernando Braga in 13 moves in a Chess Olympiad game in 1986 in Dubai. The game ended in a queen capture. Remember, Kasparov's 43rd move against DeepBlue in game 2 was a queen capture. It was round 11 when Anand played Braga. And 11 x 13 is 143. Anand's peak rating happened in 2011. Anand's birthday was in December 11th. Anand was born in Mayiladuthurai, India. The coordinates of the town is 11.10°N 79.65°E. The total area of the town is 11.27 km2. Don't forget about 13. Anand lost to Magnus Carlsen in the 2013 WCC. Anand is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother. Anand defended his title in the 2012 WCC against Boris Gelfand. Boris was 43. Anand was also 43 when the 2012 year ended. Tons and tons of 11s, 13s, and 43s keep appearing throughout the days and months. At least Anand walked away with the win, I guess.