‘I am still learning’
Posted: Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009 at 0119 hrs IST
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com
He became India’s first Grandmaster way back in 1988 at the age of 18. Now, at 39, he is perhaps India’s one genuine world champion no one can criticise. He has won the World Championships in every format, defeated every player he’s played against in world chess, been the world number one for almost two years and stubbornly remained among the top three in the world for an amazing 12 years — from 1996 to September 2008.
He’s also won every possible award— the Arjuna, the Padma Shri, the Padma Vibhushan, the Khel Ratna, the chess Oscars (five times).
Viswanathan Anand, though, considers himself still a work in progress. “I am trying several new things this year, I am still working on them, learning new things — it’s all still a work in progress,” he said on the sidelines of a function in the Capital where he simultaneously played against eight kids across six cities, shortlisted from over 7000.
Playing eight games at the same time may be kid’s play for Anand, who once played against more than 30 people simultaneously, but the soft-spoken champion is all grit when it comes to his passion. And he admits it with nonchalance.
“I am absolutely paranoid of the fact that my mind may go wandering and that affects concentration and your game. I am fanatical about it and that’s why I usually isolate myself with my chess before a major tournament, like I did before the world championship in Bonn (in 2008). It’s absolutely essential to be completely focused,” he said.
Is Anand the best ever?
I think it is difficult to put him as best ever especially because he played in Kasparov’s era. Also he was the world champion only for 3 years in more than 20 years of actively playing chess. So of course is very good, but not the best ever. He is not listed in any top 10 list. I wish he were.
Anand is the best ever. That’s it, whether you like it or not.
The problem with that “best ever” claim is that a large faction of people (possibly a majority) still consider Kramnik to be the true World Champion. He was the only one to meat Kasparov in a match. He was also forced to sacrifice his true World Championship title for a Tournament in Mexico City. This then forced him to play Anand as the challenger and not the true world champion. With so much against him most believe that Kramnik’s title was hijacked and that he is still the true World Chess Champion. Anyway, this is all moot as no one ever defeated Bobby Fischer in a match which deligitimizes the whole succession of so call World Champions after 1972. Spassky tried in 1992 but could not do it. So, never mind if Anand is the best ever when we are not really even certain if he is the World Champion or not.
he could be considered the best ever in the sense that he is the champion of all formats…classic, rapid, tournament etc
“he could be considered the best ever in the sense that he is the champion of all formats…classic, rapid, tournament etc”
A person who wins all formats – classic, rapid, etc. between 2007 and 2009 can be said as best between 2007 and 2009, not between 1900-2009. Kasparov, Fischer, Capablanca, etc. did not get that opportunity.
No one believes kramnik is the world champion real or imaginary. He was thumped in style and only managed to beat kasparov in a clearly fixed series. It was very evident kasparov was not interested in the match. Kramnik managed to eek out draws with leko and topalov. Not good enough to be world champion. That said I till consider Kasparov the greatest ever.
LOL, after winning the World Championship in Mexico and winning the World Championship in Bonn you are still not sure if he is the World Champion?? Instead of living in the past you should show a little more respect for the present champion, imho!
Totally agree with Deep Mikey. If you dont consider Anand to be the champ, then youre in a state of denial.
The champion bloodline runs Fischer-Karpov-Kasparov-Kramnik-Anand.
All the other -ovs (Khalifmanov, Ponomariov,Khasimdhzanov,Topalov) are no champions
While I don’t consider Kramnik to be still a champion, one has to admit that he really was the first and only one who had
1) to play an additional match against Topalov to get the title that he alraedy had by winning Kasparov and defending Leko
2) had to put his title down for a place in a match-tournament
3) had to play this match-tournament very close to his previous match against Topalov without having 2 or 3 years time as a champion.
On the other siude Topalov still gets free dinner still today only because he won 1 single tournament (San Louis) 4 years ago…
Nice discussion here, i’ll go with The Bobman for now but Vishy closing in fast!Bobby smashed all theses guys on the ICC anyway and they know it, Right Svidler? hehe. Yeah your right Anon we have a big void in chess becuz Bobby wasnt defeated in a match,maybe if Vishy bring in a new Level of chess then maybe we can get past this! We will see.