Speedy moves help chess champion achieve milestone
Published:Oct 07, 2007
Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has become the first Asian and only the second player from outside Eastern Europe in the past 60 years to win the World Chess Championship.
Anand’s victory in Mexico City last weekend was not a surprise — since he is ranked No 1 in the world — but it was a milestone.
Chennai-born Anand, 37, will not have much time to rest on his laurels. Under the rules of the World Chess Federation he must play Russian Vla dimir Kramnik, the previous champion, early next year.
While they are facing off, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, another former champion, will play the winner of a tournament to be held later this year in Russia.
The winners of those two matches will play a final match to determine a new champion.
Anand’s strength has always been his speed and computational ability. He quickly sees deeply into positions, rarely spending much time on his moves or using anywhere near his allotted time for a game. For many years he has widely been acknowledged as the best rapid chess player in the world.
But he took a long time to win the championship. He broke into the elite in 1991 by winning a strong tournament that included Garry Kasparov, then the world champion, and former champion Anatoly Karpov.
Since then, he has won all the top tournaments at least once, but he has always struggled to win matches.
In a match, the historical format for determining a champion, two players face each other repeatedly, while in a tournament, many face one another just once or twice.
Some observers and fellow competitors have ascribed Anand’s struggles in matches to nerves.
In 1995, he lost an 18-game match Kasparov. In 1998, he won a tournament to select a challenger for Karpov for the World Chess Federation championship. They played to a tie in a six-game match, but Karpov prevailed in a playoff.
Source: The South African Times
1. “has become the first Asian.. to be world champion”
2. “best rapid player”
Tch tch both 1 and 2 are heavily politicized comments.
About 1: Not just in 2007, he did this a few years back also.
About 2: Just some Anand dislikers who want to club him off as “only a rapid player”. This unjust categoriztion has been going on for quite a while. They just do not want to recognize the fact that he has been one of the top elite players in classical chess for more than a decade.
“Chennai-born Anand, 37, will not have much time to rest on his laurels. Under the rules of the World Chess Federation he must play Russian Vla dimir Kramnik, the previous champion, early next year.
While they are facing off, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, another former champion, will play the winner of a tournament to be held later this year in Russia.
The winners of those two matches will play a final match to determine a new champion.”
May I ask what kind of a new rubbish is this?
To be a “new”(undisputed?) “champion”
Anand will have to play Drawnik first,and,when he beats him,will
play Dropalow?
anand has become champion which is good. he deserves it. although his play has become quite conservative in my opinion. with occasional flashes of imaginitive moves but mostly just plain solid chess. as if anands just waits for his opponent to blunder then capatilizes.
I have nothing against Anand, he’s a wonderful player. But I miss the zonal/inter-zonal/candidate match cycle. Winning the world title just from by winning a single tournament leaves me feeling dissapointed.
In my gut I still think the title sucession runs Fischer-Karpov-Kasparov-Kramnik, and stops there.