Billionaire Nikhil Kamath Banned For ‘Using Unfair Ways’ To Beat Legend Viswanathan Anand, Issues Casual Apology

Back in 2020, brothers Nikhil and Nitin Kamath created a massive stir on the Indian social media after entering Forbes’ list of 100 richest Indians at the age of 34 and 41, respectively. Nikhil, who is the Co-Founder Zerodha and True Beacon also used to be a professional chess player and has even represented the country in a few tournaments.

Kamath feels that it was the game of chess that helped him understand the market better, especially by analysing the various deviations in strategies. Therefore, it was an obvious decision to make India’s youngest billionaire become a part of a charity event for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in which he was to sit across the board from chess legend Viswanathan Anand.

Massive THANK YOU to everyone for making this event a grand success! 🏻

We are glad to share that we managed to raise more than 10 Lakhs from this event! @AkshayaPatra

Note that you can still make a difference by donating here and help us #CheckmateCovidhttps://t.co/mgOmSwr54n pic.twitter.com/fZxZAGrleR

— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) June 13, 2021

But then something remarkable happened. Kamath not only gave the grandmaster a tough competition but ended up winning against him. However, it was later revealed that the businessman had “gamed the system” and his profile was eventually banned for “using unfair means”.

So the Zerodha CEO Nikhil Kamath played a charity chess match against Visvanathan Anand for COViD relief.
Gamed the system to win.
Got his chess profile banned.
A little shameful to cheat to win against a World champ. pic.twitter.com/67GvU2j6tD

— MB (@desiboho) June 13, 2021

The banning took place two days ago and ever since, the news spread across social media like wildfire with Kamath receiving some significant backlash. It was not until Monday morning that the accused finally spoke about it on Twitter with a post that was supposed to justify what he did, followed by a casual apology, but only made matters worse for him online.

Here’s his complete ‘apology’:

It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy sir in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt. pic.twitter.com/UoazhNiAZV

— Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) June 14, 2021

“Yesterday was one of those days that I had dreamt of when I was a really young kid learning chess, to interact with Vishwanath Anand. Got the opportunity thanks to Akshaypatra and their idea of raising funds for charity conducting a bunch of chess games with Vishy. It is ridiculous that so many are thinking that I really beat Vishy in a chess game, that is almost like me waking up and winning a 100mt race with Usain Bolt,” Kamath said in a statement.

“I had help from the people analyzing the game, computers, and the graciousness of Anand sir himself to treat the game as a learning experience. This was for fun and charity. In hindsight, it was quite silly as I didn’t realise all the confusion that can get caused due to this. Apologies,” he added.

Here’s now Anand’s fans and even those who admired Kamath for everything he had achieved so far, reacted to the post: 

Corrected it. pic.twitter.com/NRSjlCwwfR

— Pankaj Gautam (@IAmPankajGautam) June 14, 2021

“Yeah I fucked up and got caught so now let’s try to paint the narrative in my way by saying that using computers in chess is obvious and everyone watching the livestream expecting an honest normal game was a dumbass” such ridiculous people we are guys🤦

— Forza Belgium (@kdbisgod) June 14, 2021

Nikhil, I’ve always looked up to you but this isn’t acceptable. Such a casual apology after what happened yesterday raises a lot of questions. Did you think that you would outsmart the world using engines and nobody would know?
1/2

— Chirag Jain (@Chiragjain122) June 14, 2021

You should have made this clear as soon as the game ended.

— Avinash OK (@avinash_ok) June 14, 2021

I mean if you’ve had exposure to chess since childhood, might as well been clear about how using stockfish or any chess engine is unethical no? Good riddance nevertheless 🙂 pic.twitter.com/GC2s7PWcSD

— Deva prasad (@dvprsd1997) June 14, 2021