Click to play videoNew Delhi: Viswanathan Anand has had a phenomenal 2008 and his biggest moment of the year came when he retained the world championship title.
In the past one year, Anand has done a lot of things from cooking noodles, launching academies, giving lectures on the web or attending "ring" or rather the felicitation ceremony.
"He is very playful, he is very nice. The first thing he said was will bhabhi allow me to put the ring. I expected him to be more distant but immediately he cut the cake and fed me one piece. He is a very warm guy and I like him," Anand said about the felicitation ceremony where Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni presented the world champion chess ace a diamond ring, worth Rs 5 lakh.
But that's not all. Anand has also read the biography of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
"I read a biography of Mayawati recently and also read a book on numbers from one to nine. It is a nice book. It was done just to take my mind off chess a bit," said Anand/
So now, that he has proved himself as a world beater in Chess, does he believe, the time is right to raise the bar and try the revolutionary new sport "chess boxing" that is taking the world by storm.
"One of my main recommendations for playing chess is that you don't get injured. So somehow chess boxing doesn't sound like a very good idea. So I am not going to try it. Even if I make a draw, it is probably because I won at chess," he joked.
Clearly, the man with the Midas touch has had an incredible year and after all the hard work is enjoying his life to the fullest as well.
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