What’s cooking: When Viswanathan Anand served a surprise at Norway Chess

Dubai: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has won countless titles and has faced Norwegian ace Magnus Carlsen in some of the most memorable battles in chess. But it’s not a famous win on the board that stands out for the five-time world champion in Norway — it’s a surprise win in a cooking competition.

The 55-year-old has featured in eight of the tournament’s 12 editions and is expected to return to this year’s event in Stavanger (May 26 — June 6) as a commentator. The elite tournament will once again bring together the world’s best in a two-round Champions League-style format.

It was during a rest day at one of the earlier editions that Anand surprised himself — and his wife — by taking top honours in a friendly chef’s competition organised for the players.

“It would have to be the time I won the cooking... the chef’s competition. I was the most surprised of all, but my wife might top me,” Anand said with a smile during a videoconference hosted by the organisers of Norway Chess and the Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai. “These rest day activities are often lots and lots of fun, so that’s a good memory.”

Anand, who teamed up with China’s Ding Liren for the challenge, recounted how the unlikely duo managed to cook their way to victory.

“We were given some ingredients — it was to make Halibut sauce plus Hollandaise sauce, which my wife taught me — and we were supposed to cut some greens as well to go along with it,” he said.

“Ding had injured himself in a cycling accident, so he was only able to cut vegetables. And he just cut them so finely because there’s nothing else he could contribute for one hour or a bit more, so he was just very methodical. When I put the dish into the oven, I forgot to turn it on and thought I must have messed up any chances we had. But luckily it was only a few minutes, and it turned out a bit OK. My Hollandaise sauce was the winning ingredient.”

This year’s Norway Chess will once again be held in Stavanger, with the Open tournament running alongside the marquee men’s and women’s events. All three competitions will take place in the same hall and will offer equal prize money. The men’s and women’s events will follow an identical six-player double round-robin format.

UAE’s Woman Grandmaster Rouda Al Serkal will compete in the Norway Chess Open, which will feature Grandmasters from 31 countries on May 29 and 30.

The men’s field includes six of the world’s top seven: world No 1 and home favourite Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju (India), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (USA), Arjun Erigaisi (India), and Wei Yi (China).

The women’s event will see top players including Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie (China), Koneru Humpy and Vaishali (India), Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Spain) battle it out.

Turns out the Grandmaster can master more than just the chessboard — and he’s still serving up surprise moves.