S. Vijay was in for a surprise when he entered the lobby of Hyatt Regency on Tuesday afternoon. The young IT professional from Bangalore has taken leave just to watch the world championship and had bought a ticket to watch the action in game three.
What he didn’t expect though, was a nice little photo exhibition inside the hotel. At Vishy Lounge, in the lobby, visitors can take a look at vintage pictures of the world champion.
Among those that will catch your eye are some black-and-white pictures of Anand as a shy teenager.
There are also photographs from Anand’s early tournaments, such as the candidates match against Alexey Dreev in Chennai in 1991. And of course, there are pictures from Anand’s various successful world championship campaigns.
Photographs of the genial genius with his wife Aruna, as well as with members of Team Anand, also dot the lounge. Magnus Carlsen, his challenger for the world title, and other top players including Judit Polgar and Peter Svidler are also featured.
“I liked those pictures,” said Vijay. “I thought the black-and-white pictures were particularly nice.”
The response to the gallery has been good so far, according to Pratiti Rajpal, marketing communications manager, Hyatt Regency.
“Spectators who have been coming to watch the world championship have been enjoying the exhibition ever since we put it up couple of days ago,” she said.
“HSBC has done all the work of collecting the pictures from Anand’s team members and from Aruna. The exhibition will be on until the championship is over,” she added.
