Chess life tournament

Viswanathan Anand has the unmistakable look of a professor. He delivered a lecture at Parvatibai Chowgule College in Margao on Wednesday clad in a formal sky blue shirt and dark blue trousers and, before he began his address, took a sip of water to bring back images of Tom Hanks' professor Robert Langdon in the film Da Vinci Code.

An extract of his interview,

"I was once travelling by train to Kerala after I turned professional and an elderly gentleman asked me what I did. I told him that I make my living playing chess. He advised me that sports is not a rewarding career," Anand recalled.

"Though he did not know my name, he said 'You can't make good money unless you are Viswanathan Anand," and broke into a laugh.

Anand said even after being a public figure, he still experiences funny incidents in everyday life.

"I was going through the security check at an airport recently. There was this guy looking at me again and again. Once I cleared formalities, he approached me and said 'Your last movie was great. I really liked it.' I kept quiet and told my wife about the incident. She said to me 'Why didn't you ask him the name of the movie? Maybe then, I would have known whether you were a hero or villain!'"

Anand admitted that as a young boy he was a bit naive and had mysterious theories in his mind. "Before I went to Russia, I had read about the KGB and secret devices used by them. So when I first went to a hotel, I actually checked the room for hidden cameras and all that stuff," he confessed.

"As I grew up and realized how the world works, I thought the KGB had better things to do than placing devices in my hotel room," the chess wizard said to a gush of light laughter from his audience.