For most part of the post-match interaction, Viswanathan Anand was less of Anand. He was visibly, and understandably, frazzled, on occasions nuzzled and fidgeted, frequently ran his fingers through his lips and stroked his chin. The tone of his voice, usually so studied and decorous, betrayed an uncharacteristic intolerance. If he had attempted to put on a brave face after losing, he miserably failed at that.
Then popped up the innocuous question, carefully worded and smartly directed at Magnus Carlsen, “Nigel Short tweeted that this was the end of an era. Do you think so?” Carlsen, realising the loaded undertone of the question, played it warily. “It’s not for me to tell you,” he let a half-grin.
But the same question would have echoed down the corridors of chess fraternity as well. Is it the end of Anand’s era? Categorically, if Magnus Carlsen claims the World Championship, which he is just a draw adrift of, this might well be. Not yet 23 and with an insidious impetus by his side, Carlsen’s era has begun. On the other hand, Anand, 43, would have to dig deep to resurge. “If he loses the match, he has to go back and play the qualifiers of the World Championship. He will have to play a lot of players, whom he has never played against, for in the last few years he has been mainly preparing for the World Championship final. So it all depends on whether he is motivated enough to come back,” opined GM RB Ramesh.
This is not a knee-jerk hypothesis. For he has reached that stage of the career when the word “retirement” is just a loss away from being hurled at you, when the once youthful drive that drove him to five world championship titles and countless other silverwares is a tad amiss. Then you begin to correlate your dipping performances with climbing age, and then get into the habit of obsessed introspection.
Whereas in most sports the retirement time-bomb ticks off in the form of slowing reflexes and creaking limbs, in chess it is more about a lack of urge. “If he keeps himself physically fit and motivated, he can play for a decade. It’s about whether you have the hunger. There are cases of players being actively involved even after they are in their 70s like Viktor Kochnoi. But I don’t think Anand will play that long,” reckoned WGM Susan Polgar.
There might also be the call of spending more time with the family. “He has spent almost his entire youth playing chess and preparing for tournaments. So he can’t faulted if he feels he needs to spend more time with his family, now that he is a father and all and has achieved everything in chess,” she reflected.
Last year, soon after he attached his fifth WCC crown, a triumphant Anand was beset with the retirement question. “In fact, quite the opposite. As long as I enjoy, I don’t see any reason to retire,” he had laughed off.