Anand Looks to Break Norse Code
By R Srinivasa Raghavan Published: 16th June 2015 06:00 AM
CHENNAI:Viswanathan Anand has had a good 2015 so far. The Indian won the Classical section of the Zurich Chess Challenge and finished second in the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. He is also back in the 2800-club again and ranked world No 3 behind Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
Anand will be looking to continue in the same vein of form, when he opens his campaign on Tuesday in the Norway Chess in Stavanger, Norway, which is the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Two more legs will take place later this year.
It will be of one of the strongest tournaments with eight of the top 10 players competing. Former World champion Vladimir Kramnik and world No 9 Wesley So opted out of the Tour. Before the main tournament there will be a blitz event on Monday to determine the pairings of the nine-round battle.
Anand will be competing in Norway Chess for the second time after 2013, where he finished joint fifth with Levon Aronian. In his last tournament in Shamkir, Anand played some inspired chess in recent times. Injecting new ideas in the openings and taking risks when it was deemed necessary resulted in three impressive victories over So, Michael Adams and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Importantly, he has remained undefeated in last 14 games. Considering his form,
Anand will be one of the contenders for top placings even though every round will be tough when one takes into account the strength of the field.
“Very tough field minus Kramnik and So. Anand seems very motivated to do well in such events. There is no World Championship match in the horizon for Anand now. He will go all out to enjoy and play his brand of chess. Just wish Anand will play chess as he likes it and be happy. Carlsen will be determined as the tournament is happening in his country. (It will be) Interesting to see how he handles the pressure. (Hikaru) Nakamura, Caruana, Aronian and Anand will be looking to bridge the gap on Carlsen,” said India coach R B Ramesh when queried about Anand’s chances.
Former National champion Ponnuswamy Konguvel pointed out consistency makes Anand a frontrunner in any tournament. “Magnus is definitely the favourite but Anand has proved to be the most consistent player over time and can prove popular opinion wrong.” Carlsen has been on fire in 2015. The Norwegian has made it three out of three, winning in Wijk aan Zee, Baden-Baden and Shamkir.
But an interesting piece of statistic being Carlsen is yet to win this event. The world No 1 ended second on both the occasions in 2013 and 2014. He will be determined to win the tournament on home soil even though it’s not going to be easy. If he gets a good start, Carlsen will be hard to stop.
Caruana is one player who has shown Carlsen is beatable, when he struck a purple patch last year. Winning jointly the FIDE GP at Khanty Mansiysk with Dmitry Jakovenko and Nakamura and qualifying for the 2016 Candidates should spur him to do better in Norway.
After struggling in his first three tournaments this year, Caruana has regained his form, which is a positive sign.Nakamura, who is the ninth player to reach 2800, has put no foot wrong in 2015. He has won all four tournaments (Gibraltar, Zurich, USA C’ship and Khanty Mansiysk) he has competed. On current form, Nakamura will be a strong challenger for the title.
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