New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi believes that among all Indian politicians, he is the best player of chess, a sport that, he said, has many parallels with politics such as the need for mental clarity.
A short video clip released by the Congress across social media platforms Wednesday captured the Wayanad MP’s thoughts on chess and politics in snippets of conversation shot on the campaign trail.
The video, in which Rahul can be heard saying that he started playing chess when he was seven, was uploaded with the caption, “In chess as in politics, every move your opponent makes can be used to your advantage.”
What draws him to chess is the fact that “once you get slightly better at it, the opponent’s pieces actually operate almost like your own”, Rahul said, naming former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who retired from regular competitive chess in 2005, as his favourite player.
“He (Kasparov) puts a lot of psychological pressure. He’s a non-linear thinker,” Rahul said, going on to weigh in on the “similarities” between chess and politics.
Strategy, patience & foresight! ♟️
Just like in chess, Shri @RahulGandhi stays ahead of the game, always thinking several moves ahead! pic.twitter.com/5TMujizPw7
— Congress (@INCIndia) May 1, 2024
“Make sure that you are controlling the centre, and you can apply pressure on the centre from the sides in different ways. But if you don’t understand the centre and you don’t have a view on the centre, you cannot make that properly. In the same way, if you don’t have a clear idea of what you’re trying to do in politics, you don’t understand the centre,” he said.
Asked who plays chess the best among Indian politicians, “Me,” he responded, with a smile.
In 2018, soon after the Congress’s assembly poll victories in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Congress leader was seen playing chess with differently-abled children at the Institute for Children with Special Abilities (ICSA) in Shimla.
A four-time parliamentarian, Rahul entered the Lok Sabha in 2004 after winning the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He retained the seat in 2009 and 2014, before losing it to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 general election.
However, Rahul won from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency, the other seat he had contested from, and retained his Lok Sabha membership. He resigned from the post of Congress president though, with the party suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the BJP for the second time in a row.
This time, Rahul is once again contesting from Wayanad. Suspense remains on whether he will also contest from Amethi, or another Gandhi family pocket borough, Rae Bareli.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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