Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
When others are busy before their games and in their own confines, he is spotted loitering around the lobby area with the most relaxed face one could imagine. Most players wear formals during games and he is seen in casuals. Others walk briskly towards the playing hall, avoiding eye contact with autograph-seekers and well-wishers, while he obliges everyone.
Levon Aronian is an antithesis of a modern-day chess player. Born in Armenia and representing the USA, he is a two-time winner of the FIDE World Cup. He is the quintessential aberration, who can be seen lying down on a couch in the cafeteria of the venue in Goa, without apparently a care for what the onlookers may think. He is his own man all the time.
“I think it’s the experience, which makes me calmer,” Aronian told RevSportz on the sidelines of the ongoing World Cup in Goa. “I’ve been playing chess for more than 30 years. There were moments when I was not calm enough, but now I think I’m calmer than before. There is a particular dress code that I adhere to, but I like to dress in a more relaxed manner. I like colours, so I like to wear colourful things. I don’t like to look intense all the time.”
Aronian thinks he is at home in Goa and in India. Not because the way he dresses or goes about things. He is fond of things Indian like Hindustani classical music, particularly the sitar, sarod and violin. He can take names like Alauddin Khan and Nikhil Banerjee, which even many Indians would find difficult to remember. He is also a fan of Satyajit Ray films.
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“I have many interests in art,” he said. “There will be music, cinema, paintings, photography. I have many hobbies in my life. I cannot say I excel in anything, but the big part of my day is listening to music. I would say I spend maybe four or five hours a day listening to music. It depends on the mood, but I have a liking to a lot of different genres, including Hindustani classical music. I like classics of Alauddin Khan. There is one great musician from West Bengal, Nikhil Banerjee, that I’m a big fan of.”
What drives him into these things? “I’m a very curious person, so I just started looking and getting more information,” said Aronian. “Yeah, I found things that I liked. Just on the internet. You research, and research, and then you get it.” One doesn’t usually come across chess players from another continent who are interested in these things. But Aronian is cut from another cloth. He doesn’t have to pretend to be different because he is.
“You understand what you like the most,” he added. “I’m kind of relaxed. I normally do things I like to do, and I don’t pay attention to anything else. I don’t pay attention to the crowd, mostly. I have a kind of a philosophy. I don’t hurt anybody with my actions. That’s what I try to adhere to. I don’t have any aspirations (in the ongoing World Cup). I am just here, enjoying myself, trying to play the best that I can. I don’t have any plans or desires.”
The only player to have won the World Cup in the knockout format twice, Aronian is already in the fifth round or pre-quarterfinals. Of course he is a force to reckon with. More important, there is something that goes beneath and beyond sports sometimes. He lives that principle. An odd man under the circumstances? Possibly. One worth bumping into too!
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