Here are some quotes from Anand after winning the Morelia/Linares super tournament:
Games: I think my second win against Carlsen was the most beautiful I played. Perhaps the most important was to save the half, well really point, against Leko in Morelia. First because Peter is a tough opponent and to beat Leko with black is going to help you in a tournament. Also it was the seventh game and I would have had five days to think about losing had it not gone well. So it was important not to lose that one and it gave me a good state of mind for the second half.
About my tough games, I got a half point from the second game with Svidler, I won against Morozevich, and both games with Ivanchuk were difficult. I fought hard for half points in many games. I think Ivanchuk was the one who pressured me the most. In both games with him I had many problems. I had problems in other games too, but the games with Ivanchuk were the ones that bothered me the most.
Magnus: I, like most, consider him a great talent. I think it’s almost impossible to believe he won’t be world champion some day. Although he still has weaknesses – like everyone, not just him – his performance here has demonstrated what we already suspected for a while now. And he might have finished in clear second. But others, like Morozevich – well two Morozevichs played in this event, one in Mexico and another here.
There are those who say you’ve always had talent to be world champion but for your pleasant and peaceful character you haven’t made it.
Well, I have done it. – Yes, but, for example the match with Kasparov. – No, I did it. I won the championship in Delhi. – Well okay, they say you are too nice a person… – Well, I don’t think that needs a reply! – (Another speaker interjects: “It’s better to be a good person than world champion.”)
You can read the full interview on ChessNinja.com courtesy of Mig Greengard.
Anand is King!
Anand is god!
He’s a great guy, but neither the Delhi tournament, nor any of the other Lottery Knockouts were World Championship. Hope he wins the real title some day, though.
These were World Championships, whether you like it or not. It is just a matter of words and contracts.
Naahhhh…. those were not world championships…
No-one accepts that!
I mean: yes, Kasim, Khalifman, Ponomariov,… are all GREAT players! no doubt!! But this knockout tournament is not a real world championship!
Kasparov was a real World Champ, and after him it is Kramnik. And next maybe Anand, who knows….
Can someone tell me if Tigran Petrossian is alive?
World Champion:
TIGRAN VARTANOVICH PETROSIAN
(born Jun-17-1929, died Aug-13-1984) Georgia (citizen of Armenia)
There is another GM with this name but is of no relation to the World Champion.
They were FIDE World Championship, like Paris 1924, The Hague 1928, and Euwe-Bogoljubow match in 1929, but World Champions without any doubts were Capablanka and Alekhine, in 1948-1993 and from 2006 FIDE and Absolute Classical World Championships are the same competitions, in other years (FIDE was established in 1924, and World Championship was established (unquestionable) in 1886 and questionable even in 1866 (Steinitz – Andersen match), but it was different. Another story – FIDE Women Championships, only FIDE recognized players are Women Champions, so the greatest ever female chessplayer (Judith) never was Women World Champion, and Susan was only once.
I hope that next year Anand could beat Kramnik in match, it has to be the peak of his outstanding career.
PETROSIAN, was born in Georgia and was living in Moscow, where he established an outstanding chess club, now Petrosian Chess Club, but he never was citizen of Armenia, although he was an Armenian.
“These were World Championships, whether you like it or not. It is just a matter of words and contracts.”
These weren’t world championships whether you like it or not. As you say, it’s just a matter of words and contracts. But if nobody accepts it, words and contracts aren’t worth much.
Do you consider Yuri Shulman to be world champion? He once won a world championship swiss in Kansas. Whether you like it or not, that’s what the organizers of the tournament called it.
“but neither the Delhi tournament, nor any of the other Lottery Knockouts were World Championship”.
They were actually the more difficult World Championships. Kraniks title is the fictiosly engineered ones (just politics got hi there: he did not have to qualify for the champinships).
Anand never has been a Classical Chess World Champion as Topalov neither. Kramnik follows an old tradition and has defended it excellent. I’m a fan of Anand as well as Kramnik and what I believe is that Anand never has won a match against a Chess World Champion. Yeah, he was the FIDE world Champion but that’s no glory compared to a real Match wich I think he has everything to win it. If he plays it against Kramnik I’ll be very happy to bouch for him as well as Kramnik and if he wins, then he’ll be the 15th. Chess World Champion.
I think the fact that people have to be reminded that Anand once won a “world championship” speaks for itself.
He is a great player, and probably deserves a better fate than to be one of a line of forgettable pretenders raised to the throne by FIDE, but that is, in effect, what his so-called “champion’s crown” amounts to.
No one in their right mind — or, in some cases, wrong mind — would ever think of Anand in the same sentence as Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik or Fischer.
If you didnt qualify for the WC Title Match .. but then somehow got to play in the match ( at the expense of the real challenger ) then won the match. Are you then legally the WC??
Kramnik isnt a WC.
No matter if you didn’t qualify for a match, but if for any reason you get to play a match for the World Crown against the current World Champion, AND you win… of course!, by that right you become World Champion indeed! for the “insignificant” reason to have defeated the World Champion. So, yes! Kramnik it is a legitimate World Chess Champion and he walks tall!
Experience tells me that there is no point in debating with the ilkes of anonymous 11.34, but just in case – tell me, anonymous, if Kramnik was not the world champion after defeating Kasparov, who was?
And in reply to anonymous at 6.56, how do you find it possible to write such nonsense as ‘just politics got him there’? First of all, I think you mean market forces, but even allowing for that, it certainly wasn’t ‘just’ those; he also had to defeat the greatest player ever in a match.
Percy
>>They were actually the more difficult World Championships. >>
They were actually *less* difficult. If you look at who Anand actually played in that tournament, Shirov is the only one of the bunch that he might have had to even break a sweat against. While beating up on those no-names as well as he did is impressive, you don’t become world champion that way.
>>Kraniks title is the fictiosly engineered ones (just politics got hi there: he did not have to qualify for the champinships).>>
Yeah, Kranik [sic] is no more world champion than Alekhine ever was. LOL.
Of course nobody qualified for Delhi, they were all seeded in by rating, so thanks for admitting that wasn’t a real championship.
>>
If you didnt qualify for the WC Title Match .. but then somehow got to play in the match ( at the expense of the real challenger ) then won the match. Are you then legally the WC??
Kramnik isnt a WC.
>>
Of the first 5 champions, Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, how many of them do you consider to be world champions? From what you’re saying, none of them at all.
You’re entitled to that view, goofy as it is, but FIDE, the group you’re trying to argue has the only “legal” (huh?) title doesn’t agree with you. They consider Botvinnik to have been the 6th champion, not the 1st.
Of course even Botvinnik didn’t qualify for anything, the first champion who actually won a Candidates was Smyslov.
HI Susan
Thanks for post the interview. I love his games. He is a wonderful person.
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“Of course nobody qualified for Delhi, they were all seeded in by rating, so thanks for admitting that wasn’t a real championship.”
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Who ever said the “real championship” must’nt have admission by ratings?
How then do you choose a group of best chess players for candidates matches.
Does the WC select his challengers? Is that then the “real championship match”?
And don’t go back to the “tradition” argument, because it wasnt even consistent even then.
Just because no one disputed a WC many years ago doenst mean we all agree that was the case. However times have changed. Now if you got to be WC by a dubious route, you will also have a questionable title. Trying to justify Kramniks WC Title by mentioning Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe is rubbish.
Thanks for the information about Tigran Petrossian. I saw in ICC another Tigran Petrossian, a very high rated GM ( 3450 in ICC – nickname “Tigrano” ) and I though he was Tigran Petrossian, the champion of 63-69. Then, there is another Tigran Petrossian.