Mind Games

When Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen lean over the chessboard at Chennai's Hyatt Regency on Nov. 9 for Game 1 of the World Chess Championship, it will mark the coming together of the sport's first superstar with its first sex symbol. It will be arguably the most closely watched contest since the 1972 Cold War confrontation in Reykjavík, Iceland, between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky.

Anand, 43, the reigning champ, may be the only chess player in the world who risks being mobbed in the street, at least in...

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