Even the greatest have to survive tough situations like lesser mortals before they scale peaks.
Garry Kasparov, easily the greatest chess player of all time, recalled that surviving his first World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov after being down 0-5 and then returning to win his maiden title was his “greatest accomplishment”, as four legends of different sports captured the essence of their journey in a media interaction organised by Royal Stag here on Saturday.
“It was survival against a powerful opponent,” said Kasparov, about that crown in 1985.
He was quick to dismiss the power of computers. Kasparov said that the combinations on a chess board were phenomenally high and that it was a misconception that “machines are perfect”.
London the best
Mo Farah, one of the greatest athletes ever with four Olympic gold medals in London and Rio, stressed that the medals he won in London were closest to being the perfect moments for him.
“It was a home crowd, 75,000 people at the stadium, and the whole nation was behind you,” said Mo Farah, who won the 10,000m and 5,000m double in the two Olympics and the intervening World Championship as well.
Mo Farah said that there was no motivation to win anything further on the track and that was how he started focusing on road events. He has been running marathons successfully in London and more recently Chicago, cutting down time, this year.
“If things go well, I will run the marathon in the Tokyo Olympics,” said Mo Farah, dismissing any suggestion that he would be tempted to return to the track for the Olympics.
Ric Charlesworth put the 1976 Olympics in which Australia won silver as the best moment for him as a player, and the 1986 World Cup triumph as another high point.
Centre of attention
Cricketer A.B. de Villiers was the centre of attention and fielded more questions than the others.
The South African ace — an IPL regular and who treats Bengaluru as his home away from home — said that he felt being in the ‘zone’ when he broke the record for the fastest century in One Day Internationals, at the Wanderers in 2015.
“It is still a bit of a blur for me,” he said.
de Villiers said that he had a great time playing with Virat Kohli, as both had “similar mind sets”.
