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Friday, July 13, 2012

Anand Believes He Would Win Next Chess World Title As Well

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,
 

World chess champion Viswanathan Anand said on Thursday he believed he would win the next world chess title as well. "I hope it's me. After me, me... what can I say... I am not trying not to think of who is coming next. Because, I am not interested," the chess wizard said when asked who would be the next world champion.

Anand said that he does not believe in numbers when asked if he was looking to emulate Russian legend Garry Kasparov's feat of six titles.

"I only think one championship ahead. I don't think about numbers. This time I was only playing against (Boris) Gelfand, I was not thinking about the fifth (title) or something."

Anand said that he opted out of India's team for the chess Olympiad in Turkey, scheduled from August 27-December 10, as he did not enjoy the format.

"I had issues with the format. It's already been several times that I've done this. I want to concentrate on some other tournaments."

Terming his world championship fight against Gelfand the toughest of all, Anand said, "When I played against Gelfand, I already played two matches. In a way, I had exposed my cards. Gelfand is much too good and sophisticated a player to miss that kind of materials. He simply had some open cards from me to prepare himself effectively.

"I expected him to be difficult and that's how it turned out. He was able to prepare himself well, having got a few open cards from me. He conducted himself exceedingly well. We were trying every game without making any harakiri. Last four games were pretty intense."

Terming 21-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen as one of the fine upcoming talents, Anand said: "He is an amazing talent. He is one you see once or twice in a century. We drew a couple of times in our last meeting."

Famous for his rapid mastery, he said: "It is a help. But when you are playing world championship, tension is a much big factor than your form in the rapid chess."

About his team of seconds that included Kolkata's GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, he said: "We worked extremely hard like every time. But lot of cards were exposed. That's why, it's becoming easier for the opponents. That's the reality we will have to deal with it more and more."

Asked about being together for long, he said: "There are some disadvantages as well. It's the same people, there's limited pool of ideas. But these things, you don't evaluate too much."

On his one-year-old and three months son Akhil, he said, "At some point, I will leave him near a chessboard and see if he's interested or not. I will try to introduce him to lot of things and see which one catches his fancy."

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

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