I’m choosy about brands: Viswanathan Anand
Srinivasa Ramanujam, TNN | Jul 2, 2012, 03.02AM IST
CHENNAI: He’s back in Chennai, a city he dearly loves, and while he is still basking in the glory of winning his fifth World Chess Championship, Viswanathan Anand, the quiet and unassuming chess wizard, took time out for a chat with CT on the road ahead, Brand Anand and much more.
Things should be exciting after the World Chess Championship high…
Life’s been good. The fact that the recent Kings tournament in Romania got postponed is quite disappointing. It would have been my first major competition after the World Championship and I was looking forward to playing in it. Now, I’ll have to cool my heels a little bit before I start getting back on track and prepare for the next set of tournaments. You can’t live on the World Championship alone — the other tournaments are important as well.
Your thoughts on the ongoing Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi issue in tennis…
I’ve followed it, but it’s hard to comment about personal issues without knowing what exactly happened. The only thing is that it seems to a big mistake that all this is happening now. If it had come out in March, there would have been a lot of time to solve matters behind close doors. Here, the real mistake is that everything was left too late.
But isn’t playing for your national team greater than personal issues?
Well, the argument here is what a player wants in order to give his best and win — you have to respect that as well.
You recently signed on as the brand ambassador for a realty firm, the first south Indian company to do so. Are you looking at more endorsement deals?
I’ve been open to the idea of taking up endorsement deals as long as I feel comfortable with the brand’s value system.
But considering you’re the superstar in chess, you haven’t done a lot of ads…
I’m choosy about brands, maybe. When the right brand comes along, I’ll be more than happy to do it.
The Tamil Nadu government wants to introduce chess in schools as well…
This initiative is wonderful. If they want my help in any regard in this connection, I’d be quite happy to offer it.
Have you been following other sports as well?
Of course! I was in Spain for a couple of weeks recently and was following the Euro Cup keenly. The whole tournament has been quite exciting. I also watched a bit of tennis recently.
What about watching any of the recent films…
Not yet. I’ve a lot of catching up to do, I guess.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Anand is always right.