Anand and Judit’s interviews in Moscow

Photo courtesy of the official site

Vishy, how it happened that you are not playing in the main tournament?

This is because of the clash with my match with Kasimdzhanov. Then the match was cancelled, but too late for me to participate here. Mr. Bakh was very kind to invite me for the blitz tournament, and I was happy to come.

Have you played in a blitz tournament with such a solid lineup before?

Sure, there was a World Championship in Rishon Le Zion, and I also played in Reykjavik, which was perhaps a bit weaker. But this one is going to be a tough challenge.

Some people say the outcome of any blitz event is completely unpredictable – everything depends on whether one woke up fresh…

That’s a reasonable statement, but I think it’s true for any format. Even in classical chess you have to wake up fresh! There are always days you play well and days you play badly. But I see the point – with 15 games in one day, a lot depends on your state of mind on that day. But that’s okay, I think blitz is an interesting format.

Kasparov said once he can only play 12 blitz games at his maximum, then he gets tired. Have you ever tried finding such number for yourself?

I have to admit I haven’t analyzed this question much.

Are there any favorites for the blitz event, or the result is very random?

A little bit of both. People like Grischuk, Aronian, Carlsen seem strong to me. One can recall the results in Rishon: Grischuk, Svidler, etc. I would also sort of include myself in that. And it also depends on the qualifiers.

The full interview can be seen here.

Here is some of Judit’s interview:

Judit, have you seen the games of the Tal Memorial?

Yes, some of the games. I didn’t have enough time to check all of them.

Are there any that impressed you?

One of them was Aronian’s victory against Shirov. The endgame is spectacular and unusual. But, again, I haven’t seen all the games, so I cannot decide about the best game of the tournament.

Were there any players among the participants of the Memorial whose style you like?

Yes, of course. Aronian is an interesting player, Shirov was also very interesting to watch. Leko is more solid player. Generally I think Mamedyarov is incredibly interesting. Overall, there was a very good, well-selected and creative field.