CHESS / APPRECIATION/ANAND
Passion undiminished
When Anand won the prestigious Linares-Morelia title for the second straight year and for the third time since 1998, he proved that he indeed is one of the most dedicated students of the game. Over to Rakesh Rao.
The secret of Viswanathan Anand’s success, consistency and longevity as a champion is as uncomplicated as the man himself.
“I enjoy chess as much as I did when I started,” maintains Anand and tells parents of aspiring champions to let their children enjoy the game without really thinking too much about immediate results.
When Anand won the prestigious Linares-Morelia title for the second straight year and for the third time since 1998, the champion proved that he indeed is one of the most dedicated students of the game. “As a chess fan, I thoroughly enjoyed following the games,” was how Anand chose to describe the feeling that kept him going at Morelia and Linares.
Anand was the first winner at Linares when the format of the event was changed to double round-robin in 1998. There were seven players in the fray and the lowest rated was Russia’s cricket-loving Grandmaster Peter Svidler at 2690. At that time, the average rating of the field was the highest among all chess events.
Since then, Linares has always attracted the cream of the chess world. Though former World champion, the now-retired Garry Kasparov, remains the most successful title-winner at Linares, Anand has missed quite a few editions since he was first invited to play in 1991.
Anand’s victory in 1998 came ahead of Alexei Shirov, Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov. Anand beat Shirov, Svidler, Ivanchuk and Topalov, while his lone loss came against Kasparov.
The triumph also saw Anand complete a rare ‘double’ of winning the Hoogoven (an event that later moved to Wijk aan Zee as the Corus tournament) and the Linares titles in the same year. For the record, Anand remains the most successful player in the history of the Hoogoven/Corus tournaments, winning a record five times. In addition, since 1996, Anand has finished runner-up on five occasions.
The two premier events, held in the first quarter of the year, are the biggest classical championships in the game. These events are to chess what the Majors are to golf and the Grand Slams to tennis. The fact that Anand has won the two events eight times in all underlines his greatness.
Here is the full article.
Anand is a genius on the chess board.
The company Hoogovens (litaral: blast-furnaces) is located in IJmuiden. The first ches tournament (Hoogovens schaaktoernooi) was held in the year 1938 in Beverwijk (near IJmuiden), in 1968 relocated to Wijk aan Zee (also near IJmuiden). After a fusion with an British company in 2000 the name changes in Corus Chess tournament, also held in Wijk aan Zee. Recently the Indian firm Tata bought Corus. Maybe in the future The Tata Tournament?
John (Amsterdam)
That great 1998 Linares performance was what led Kasparov to invite Anand to play a match with Kramnik to decide which of the two would challenge him for his Title.
With the utmost foolishness, Anand turned down this offer preferring to go with Ilyumzhinov/FIDE instead, even though Ilyumzhinov/FIDE had recently screwed him over the Karpov match.
This extraordinarily bad decision has cost the chess world, and not least Anand himself, 10 years of agony since.
Double-Robin is Batman and Robin .