Anand-Carlsen: Tale Of The Tape

Can Magnus Carlsen do a Viswanathan Anand?
Thursday, Oct 31, 2013, 8:03 IST | Place: Chennai | Agency: DNA
Valsala Menon

If the Norwegian wizard wins in Chennai next month, he will inspire a generation of chess players in his country.

Apart from being gifted chess players, Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen have something else in common. The game may have been invented in India some 1,500 years ago, but the country got its first Grandmaster only in 1988. Similarly Norway had a strong chess culture, but did not have players who could pose a challenge to world champions.

Prior to Carlsen, Simen Agdestein was Norway’s most famous chess player. In fact the 46-year-old, who won seven national championships and even made eight appearances for the Norway football team, competed with Anand during the latter’s world junior title run in 1987.

Agdestein did not make it all that big in chess. For the record, his brother Espen happens to be Carlsen’s manager.

In a way, Bobby Fischer, Anand and Carlsen did what their countrymen couldn’t. When Fischer won the world title in 1972, he had brought an end to the Soviet hegemony in chess. Almost 30 years later, Anand did the same by putting Asia on the chess map. And if Carlsen succeeds in dethroning Anand, the Norwegian will become western Europe’s first world chess champion in 75 years. Dutchman Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the world champion from 1935 to 1937.

In that sense Euwe, Fischer and Anand took on Russia. But it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Carlsen is up against India. Nay, an Indian, who has been the undisputed world champion since 2007.

Like Anand and Fischer, Carlsen is not quite a superstar in Norway. Each of these gentleman has, of course, greatly influenced the younger generation. Football is the top game in Norway, the equivalent of cricket in India. And for geographic reasons, skiing is a more popular sport in the Scandinavian country.

This year, Carlsen was awarded the title of the sportsman of the year by Norway’s leading newspapers. “Everybody recognises him (in Norway). He is not mobbed because the people are normally very polite. So they don’t run up to him. He can walk around (in peace). But definitely, everybody knows who he is,” Carlsen’s manager says.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com