MUMBAI:It has been a season of nostalgia for Viswanathan Anand. Having returned to the top of his game by winning the World Rapid Chess Championship, the 49-year-old now is looking forward to make a comeback at the Chess Olympiad that will be held in Batumi, Georgia in September.
“In the last two Olympiads we’ve done spectacularly well, both Tromso (2014) and Baku (2016). So I hope my participation will improve on that,” Anand, the brand ambassador of Fincare Small Finance Bank, said on Tuesday. India’s best show at the biennial event has been a bronze medal showing in Tromso in 2016.
“We had already had one camp together (in New Delhi in March) and know each other,” said the five-time world champion. “I have met some of my teammates. How can you prepare for the Olympiad? You are not sure who your opponent is going to be and which country you will be playing against. A lot of the work will be done there. Our last few performances are almost as good as you can get given the fact that there are so many strong, roughly balanced teams.”
Anand will be playing the Chess Olympiad for the first time since 2006. He has been the trailblazer in Indian chess for more than three decades now, and is still at the top of the heap with a world ranking of 11.
“I am proud to have played part, as a catalyst and convinced a lot of people to try out chess,” he said. “I was the first Grand Master in 1988 and now we have 52. We have (R) Praggnanandhaa, who has achieved it at the age of 12. The growth has been solid and consistent. I hope the Olympiad will a demonstration of that.”
Despite a career bedecked with titles and five World Chess Championships, Anand had suffered a slump, from his high standards for the past few years. Once the best rapid chess player in the world, Anand wrested back the title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by winning the World Championships in December last year. En route, he defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen. “It’s more of a personal validation,” Anand said, recalling the title win with a smile.
“Every once in a while you need a good result to feel good about playing rapid chess. That’s what it’s all about. A lot of people would come to me and say ‘congrats World Champion.’ My first reaction would be to say, ‘Ex-World Champion,’ then remember, that no, it’s current. So that’s a wonderful feeling.”
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