Legendary Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch, my sister Judit, and of course the reigning World Champion Vishy Anand in Budapest at the Aquaprofit Press Conference (held at the world famous Hotel Gellert in Budapest)
As part of the press conference, there was an official and ceremonial “signing of contract” between the Aquaprofit (Tamas Nadasi) and Anand.
Anand has joined Aquaprofit’s chess team (the current Hungarian National Team Champion) a year ago, although he has not played yet a single game for the team. On the other hand, the renewed contract specifies that he will actually play at least one game representing Aquaprofit in the next season. Now, Aquaprofit can take pride of having 8 national top players on their roster, including Anand.
Anand when asked how he motivates himself now that he is already WC, he said “I just want to play good chess and enjoy the game, then the results and everything else will fall into place”.
Portisch congratulated Anand, and expressed his special pleasure and satisfaction to finally see a non-Soviet WC. He mentioned that he fought all his life against the Soviets, often needing to deal with “internal games”. This is similar to the stories Bobby Fischer used to tell me.
Portisch also revealed a semi-secret that in the next Chess Olympiad, he may be the Team Captain for the Hungarian National team.
Judit was asked about how hard it is to combine motherhood with top level competitive chess. Her response was: “I keep training and now that my kids are older (3 and 5 year old), I plan a comeback!”
On a funny note, one of the journalists asked Vishy how do Hungarians checkmate in 2 in Blitz with K on e5, R on h1 versus a Black King on e7? Both Portisch and Anand were puzzled and could not come up wit the solution. The answer is: Play convincingly Rh1-h8 and shout CHECK real loud. After Ke8, Ke6 checkmate! …. Hungarian humor 🙂
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
This is a great occasion for Hungarian Chess!
Susan, you look radiant as ever!
Three Legends in one picture!
Priceless!
Enjoy your visit to your homeland!
“Portisch congratulated Anand, and expressed his special pleasure and satisfaction to finally see a non-Soviet WC.” Strange! Does Portisch consider Topalov a Soviet WC? Or if not does he support the Soviet idea that Topalov was a FIDE WC and the real one was always Kramnik:)
Awesome news. I’m really looking forward to following Judit’s comeback.
The Hotel Gellert is on the Buda side right along the Danube—which matches my recollection of where I stayed when I played in the August 1978 Tungsram tournament. Indeed I remembered the name of the bridge right there: the Szabadság (Freedom) Bridge. Gellért is the name of the hill rising up from the river at that point, and up or behind the hill is (or was) an area of German speakers. The river views are stunning, especially before sunset when the sun hits only the tops of the buildings across the river.
Is there a way to get an autogram from Anand? 😛 If he is still in Budapest, maybe i can visit him sometime. 🙂
Replying to post No.2: Topalov is Bulgarian and speaks Russian which is the dominant language in Bulgaria, and it was part of the old Soviet regime and is still influenced by the legacy of the old system. So yes broadly speaking, Topalov is a soviet.
Hmmm… Hungarian humor is as good as traditional Hungarian desserts, I see. The outsider can’t appreciate either.
Would be nice if Judith got the last the last spot in London
Reply to “Replying to post No.2”: Following your logic GM Portisch is also a Soviet GM. He knows Russian and Hungary was also part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Additionally in Bulgaria they speak as much as I know Bulgarian:)
Can I encourage GM Judit to wait until her children are older before she makes her “comeback” to the chess tournament circuit. After all, kids and motherhood are more important than something she may possibly achieve (later) in life (in chess).