Why Viswanathan Anand’s wife made him do 50 push-ups. Watch

Chess ace Viswanathan Anand's wife and manager Aruna Anand recently revealed that she made him do 50 push-ups once after he lost two games due to "silly mistakes". Speaking to CNBCTV18 at an event in Chennai, Aruna Anand shared the story and highlighted the importance of being physically fit even when it comes to playing mental sports like chess.

"Anand was playing a tournament in Argentina, and he was winning," Aruna Anand told the television channel. "He was in contention and then he went and lost two games. Both were due to what we call silly mistakes and I was really angry at him. I mean everything is going good and then he goes and spoils my life like this.

"So, I said, if you want dinner tonight, (give me) 50 push-ups now! And the poor man did it... Between wanting to live with me again, coming back home and staying at someplace in Argentina," Aruna Anand said.

Highlighting the importance of physical training, she said, "Physical training is a very big game changer because everybody thinks chess is a mental game, but it's becoming a physical game because access to training and information is a level-playing field. Everybody has computers, everybody trains but then everything is happening at the board."

Aruna Anand also spoke about how being a female manager raised eyebrows back in the day. "When I started managing Viswanathan Anand's career he was already the top player and was about to play the World championship cycle. So for me, it was always that I was the wrong gender, the wrong size, and the wrong demographics. Because normally you would have very big men seated in a hotel bar discussing the contract. And I wouldn't tick in any of those boxes," she said.