Calcutta: Former world champion Viswanathan Anand isn’t in favour of rating his opponents. The Grandmaster believes everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and it’s hard to compare rivals. And thus he refused to rate current world champion Magnus Carlsen vis-a-vis others.
“I’ve played about 21 matches with Carlsen, including two back-to-back world championships. I’ve, in fact, played more games with others. It’s hard to compare Carlsen with others… Every match is as intense as playing against any other Grandmaster,” said Anand on Friday.
Anand, though, was seen in a different role this time — talking about fashion in the 11th edition of Blenders Pride Fashion Tour.
“There’s no point comparing greats of different generations. I’ve seen different players over a long career… I’ve seen various ups and downs. You can’t really compare them.
“For example, Vladimir Kramnik and myself are from the same era… Carlsen has a different way of thinking… He’s from the computer generation. So stylistically we are very different people.”
Anand didn’t agree that Carlsen’s facial expressions during a match were a distraction. “He has facial expressions… But whether he does it on purpose is difficult to say. Someone could do it out of tension or nervousness… But I never noticed such behaviour… Maybe I was too busy concentrating on my game.”
The 45-year-old admitted that age is catching up with him. “I understand I’m getting older. People notice that. I reluctantly talk about the age thing but I don’t want to keep on emphasising. It is what it is... You have to push yourself a bit harder.
“It’s pretty straightforward and you need to know that in chess, the top players are getting younger. Look at the top-10 players… You cannot ignore the fact that the peak age of chess is not 40 anymore, it’s below that... As long as I’m able to compete, I’m happy to try,” Anand explained.
Anand informed that Polish Grandmaster Grzegorz Gajewski will help him in his bid to regain the world title. “I will not announce my seconds now. But I’ve been travelling the whole year with Gajewski, so he’s my main second,” Anand said without divulging his full team for next year’s Candidates in Moscow from March 10.
“In chess, the nature of work becomes informal. It’s literally very spontaneous and informal. You don’t plan so much,” he said when asked whether Sasikiran and Surya Sekar Ganguly will be among his seconds.
Six players — Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, and Veselin Topalov — have already qualified, while the wildcard will go to Levon Aronian. Russian-born Dutch GM Anish Giri, who beat Anand at the Bilbao Masters last month, has the best chance to become candidate number eight for the tournament that will determine Carlsen’s opponent in the World Chess Championship.
On his preparation, Anand said: “Preparation will be here and there, but my preparation exclusively for Candidates will begin after mid-February.”
Mourning the loss of his mother Sushila earlier this year, Anand said: “Mother’s loss is something from which you cannot recover. You carry it your whole life. She was very close to my chess... She would call before and after every tournament. She followed my chess very closely.
“It’s tough… When you go back to Chennai, something is missing. There’s one number you don’t call anymore. She always used to pick up the phone first. But time helps a bit. You stop crying everyday. It’s painful, but after a while you realise you keep the good memories.”
