By ANDY SOLTIS
Posted: 2:46 am
November 9, 2008

GRANDMASTERS are the Monday morning quarterbacks of chess, and many of them are weighing in on Vishy Anand’s surprisingly easy victory over Vladimir Kramnik in the world championship match.

“Vishy fully surpassed his opponent in opening preparation,” former champion Garry Kasparov said. “Anand forced Vladimir to play sharp positions” – and out of his “conservative” style.

Another GM, Adrian Mikhalchishin, said Kramnik was let down by his seconds, particularly in their failure to anticipate Anand’s openings. “The team is guilty,” he told Sports Express.

Mikhalchishin, a celebrated trainer, said a good second checks out everything about his player, even his biorhythyms.

Biorhythyms? Yes, the 28-day cycles that are supposed to reveal your inner strengths and weaknesses.

It turns out that Kramnik reached an intellectual low point on Oct. 18 and the emotional nadir four days later. Guess what? He lost on Oct. 17, 20 and 21.

Anand’s emotional and intellectual peaks coincided on Oct. 29, the day he won the match.

And what was Anand’s explanation? He said a major factor was maximizing his concentration – by letting his wife manage key match details.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/

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