Flexibility is vital in chess: Anand

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

Hi everyone,

Some more chess news about the World Chess Champion, We have a nice little update. Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand spent this Sunday playing a chess simul in the Indian city of Kolkata. Anand won five of the games while the rest were adjourned after close to an hour of play. “It was very tough… Most of the games were still in play… It was enterprising. Some of the players resigned unnecessarily… The level was quite high. Lot of games were good and very competitive…

“I had to spend a lot of time at some of the tables… It was expected given most of these guys are tournament-level players,” Anand said later.


But what enthralled the participants was the interactive or mentoring session with Anand. Apart from the technical details, Anand dealt with topics ranging from the mental preparation before and during a game to handling pressure.


“The chess fashion curve has become very steep… Some moves and variations becoming fashionable and then vanishing quickly…” Anand said. “It’s not always ideal to have a wide range of repertoire but you should have couple of variations ready… Flexibility is vital in chess.”


Talk also veered around defending his world championship title in Moscow against Boris Gelfand from May 11 next year and his not-so-impressive performances in the last two tournaments. “I haven’t been successful in the last few tournaments.


“I’ve been unable to steer the games to positions I’ve wanted. I’ve had difficulty imposing my style,” Anand explained.


Will he able to make it to four world titles in a row? “The opponent will be strong… There’s still a lot of time to go and I am taking a break from chess now… Once I start training, things will improve. I’ll be taking one match at a time. Training will help me do better… Hopefully after a couple of months, I’ll improve.”


Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly, another product of The Telegraph Schools’ Chess, will be in Anand’s team of seconds this time too, during the World Championships.


Anand also had a word of advice on handling pressure to the youngsters. “Try to forget about players who are stronger or higher rated… That will help you to reduce pressure on you. The pressure will all be on your opponent…


“Always make yourself comfortable to make the first move… It’s healthy to make the right move… If your best move results in your loss, then you’ve got to accept then that’s life…


“But don’t get obsessed with beating your opponent… Don’t try to force matters on yourself.” Read the full press report here.

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