In many people’s impression, players should always be linked with such adjectives of sedate, calm and even lazy, and in the front of chessboard, they have their spirit highly concentrated for several hours, and this is not the thing which ordinary people can do.

　　However, during China (Nanjing) International Chess Super Grand Prix, the reporters have experienced the active side of masters of these international chess masters. On September 29, that is, shortly after the second round competition, several players started another round of contest at table tennis table in the hotel.

　　Players participating in this competition all live on the second floor of Mingfa Pearl Spring Hotel, and on the first floor of this building are laid snooker room, table tennis room and gymnasium, but in the vast majority of cases, when the reporters pass there, there are no persons in these rooms. However, shortly after the end of the game the day before yesterday, the reporters heard the ping ping pong pong ball sound from table tennis room, and took a look, and it was really surprised, the persons who played ping pong are no Chinese, on the contrary appeared the figures of the masters Carlson and Topalov, etc..

　　International chess masters and table tennis players, the gap between the two persons is a bit big, and what’s more, international chess masters are from abroad. I believe that in the vast majority of Chinese people's mind, only in China, table tennis will have a huge base, and basically foreigners do not like the sport because they always lose to Chinese in the race. However, these international chess masters say "No" to such idea in their practical action. The persons who played ping pong that day are Topalov's assistant Sdilwagen and Australian chess player Rogers known as "Chess King Correspondent" in addition to Carlson, Topalov and Leko. According to the report, they brought their own table tennis bats, and it is clear that this time they came well prepared, and has long been well positioned to play a few games of table tennis, and especially Rogers even just arrived in Nanjing, and said that he hopes to play table tennis with Chinese.

　　Leko becomes "public enemy"

　　In the Pingpong room of the hotel, there is only one table-tennis table, so at the very beginning, the chess players formed doubles combination, but obviously, one is that the double had no privity, and the other is that the players are used to single playing, therefore, the situation was very confused once.

　　As a result, we quickly abandoned the doubles match instead of singles match, and any person who win can continue to stay on the stage to accept the challenge of other people. The first persons are Carlson who had two game winning in a row and Sdilwagen, and although Carlson is always a bit shy when in front of us, at table-tennis table, his style is very similar to that at the chessboard , and his play method is very aggressive, and often liked to take the initiative to start a smash attack, but obviously, his control over a small silver ball is far from his control on those pieces on the chessboard, and had to pay 3-5 mistakes cost in exchange for a crowd exciting applaud. So, facing a sound defensive "chopper" Sdilwagen, Although Carlson looked very lively, eventually he lost his score.

　　The next challenge was Leko, and Hungary handsome elder brother with glasses seemed to practice in ping pong before.  Facing robust Sdilwagen defensive, Leko played a more robust, and his ability to control the ball is completely over his competitor, so he beat his opponent repeatedly shaking the head. Seeing his assistant was forced down, Topalov in a green T-shirt strongly demanded to attack strike. And the smart guy also made up a few practice balls to adapt to Leko’s playing method, but this did not seem useful, and  at an official game, Leko’s tricky back ball made Topalov have no strength to fight back.

　　Leko who won two ping pong games suddenly becomed a " public enemy ", and everyone brought Leko off as the goal. However, in these persons, the strength of Leko is undoubtedly the strongest, and afterwards, he continuously beat Carlson and Rogers and became a well-deserved " number one". Interestingly, Leko did not win in this Super Grand Prix, and we do not know whether the victory on ping pong will get back the feeling of winning chess !

Source: Modern Daily News