After Ratan Naval Tata’s demise on Wednesday night, many Indian chess stars posted heartwarming tributes to the industrialist who was the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. The Tata Group has a long association with the sport of chess, backing the annual Tata Steel Chess tournament in Kolkata and the event in Tata Steel Masters event in the Dutch village of Wijk aan Zee, which is among the blue-riband events on the circuit.
For some players like five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, the loss was slightly more personal. Ratan Tata and Anand received their Padma Vibhushan Awards, the country’s second-highest civilian honour, at the same ceremony.
The one observation Anand made about Ratan Tata from their meetings was that “he was as kind as he looks.”
It is with profound sadness that we bid farewell to a giant of industry and philanthropy. We received our Padma Vibhushan together, and I was truly touched by his humility and genteel nature. The chess fraternity owes much to the traditions that are so closely associated with the…
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) October 10, 2024
“I have met him a couple of times. Strangely enough, in 2010, I bumped into him in Zurich Airport and he was very nice. His secretary came over and asked me if I could join him and we spoke a little bit. It was a lot of what I was doing, where I was coming from and he told me where he was coming from. He was also at the Padma Vibhushan Awards. He was a very nice person. He knew that Tata Steel was sponsoring this big chess event called Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee and things like that,” Anand told The Indian Express on the sidelines of the Global Chess League on Thursday. “You only have to read about what the investing and startup community is saying about him. All of them said he helped them so much.”
Anand also posted an emotional message on social media, writing: “It is with profound sadness that we bid farewell to a giant of industry and philanthropy… I was truly touched by his humility and genteel nature. The chess fraternity owes much to the traditions that are so closely associated with the Tata Group. Tata Steel Chess in Holland is an event that made us chess players particularly proud, especially when the Tatas took over Corus. Later they starting a new tradition with Tata Steel Chess India. The chess world and I offer our deepest condolences to Ratan Tata, a human being who touched all our lives and always stood for the good of society.”
The Global Chess League game between the American Gambits and the upGrad Mumba Masters started on a sombre note with a moment of silence observed at the Friend’s House in London in memory of Ratan Tata.
