Anand and Carlsen play mind games before world clash
Posted on » Friday, November 08, 2013
CHENNAI, India: Indian chess wizard Viswanathan Anand was a picture of confidence as he promised an attacking game against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the much-awaited World Championship match starting tomorrow.
Anand, the undisputed world champion since 2007, faces a strong challenge from the 22-year-old in one of the most eagerly awaited World Chess Championship matches in recent history.
Asked how well he has prepared for the event, Anand said, “I worked as I always did. Couple of months of training and I think I am ready to attack. We will see how it goes but I think I am ready to play.
“I am really excited to play in my home city. I am looking forward to the match starting and getting on to that,” he said after the inauguration of the event by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
In terms of hype, the match between five-time champion Anand and world number one Carlsen is comparable to the historic clash between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky way back in 1972.
The two players sought to play a bit of mind games in their first press conferences ahead of the match, with Carlsen refusing to disclose the names of his seconds after Anand said Indian Grandmasters K Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda, Hungarian Peter Leko and Poland’s Radoslav Wojtaszek would assist him in the November 9 to 28 event.
“I appreciate Mr Anand’s openness about his team but I will say I am not going to return the favour,” Carlsen said.
“I am happy today. It is good to be here. Everything is good so far and I am looking forward to the match starting,” said the current world number one Carlsen who won the right to contest against Anand after winning the Candidates Tournament earlier this year.
Asked about his response on Carlsen refusing to name his seconds, Anand said, “Since he cannot believe the whole truth about it and either of us, it does not really matter. I mean, I can answer a question honestly but you will never know whether it was the whole truth or not. The same goes for him. So, it does not really matter too much.”
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When a scribe asked a question to Carslen in Norwegian, the FIDE media officer requested him to translate it into English before answering in English, but the Norwegian refused.
“I really do not know if this question should be really translated into English but I will have to reply,” Carlsen said before replying in Norwegian.
Anand was also not to be left behind as he answered a question in Tamil a couple of minutes later.
Anand said that he was not perturbed by suggestions that he would begin as the underdog in the match.
In all, 12 games will be played in the World Championship match under classical system in which both players will get 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 and the 15 minutes for the remaining game with an increment of 30 seconds per move effective from the 61st move.
The first to score 6.5 points will win the match and the remaining games will not be played should it happen before the 12th game. The winner will take home 60 per cent of the prize fund.
In case of a tied score after 12 games, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner. However, if the tiebreak stage is reached the winner will get 55 per cent of the total prize at stake.
Source: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com
Magnus Carlsen spoke Norwegian, not French as the article says.
Carlsen’s second – Borislav Ivanov.