Physical fitness very important for chess players: Vishy Anand

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

Here's a short interview with World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. This interview is very important as it talks about physical fitness being vital for a chess player - something that 12th Women's World Chess Champion Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk too endorses.

Chess players too need to maintain a good level of physical fitness because sitting on a chair for six to seven hours with a few walkabouts in the playing halls does cause fatigue and is detrimental to chances of winning the match.

“You have to be able to concentrate and though concentration is a mental thing you need stamina too. In chess, a small mistake can cost you the game. If you are tired then you make errors in calculations,” says reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

“If you don’t have the energy, if you have a weak body, your mind is also weak. Only a strong body has a strong mind.”

Anand says the chess world woke up to the concept of physical fitness a couple of decades back. “I started getting real about my fitness around 1994. By 1998-99, I was seriously following a routine and now fitness has become part of my training. That’s the first thing.”

Though he does not play other sports to build his fitness, Anand goes to a gym regularly, cycles at home and goes swimming too. He also goes for long walks, which help him divert attention from chess and are a good exercise too.

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