http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081031/jsp/frontpage/story_10042783.jspViswanathan Anand, the chess world champion, spoke to Bipin Shenoy, who contributes to The Telegraph articles on the game, from a Bonn hotel a day after retaining the title.
Q: Congratulations, Anand. How do you feel waking up after your hectic coronation yesterday? Has the feeling sunk in that you are now the king in all forms of the game?
Anand: Yeah. But definitely it’s different compared with yesterday. I was so relieved that it was finally over. Actually you know, the last half point takes extra effort and that was brilliant. Today, I am still exhausted. I haven’t had the time to reflect on it. Literally, we woke up very early this morning with the strange state where you cannot sleep and also can’t do anything active either.
Q: Most of the earlier world championship matches were embroiled in controversies with players trying to unnerve each other. By contrast, all your matches have been harmonious and good-natured and none of your opponents had any complaint against you. What do you say?
A: Well, I try not to look for conflicts. It doesn’t help me…and I don’t enjoy. And this time, Kramnik also behaved terribly well. There was just no problem. The match actually went quite well.
Q: There was a general feeling earlier that you were too good-natured to be the world champion. You lacked the killer instinct. Your absolute supremacy in all forms of the game has proved that champions can be courteous and yet can decimate opponents on the board.
A: I think of myself as having the killer instinct. I guess it’s one of those set theories. Even five or six years ago, how could you come to the conclusion that I lacked the killer instinct? I don’t know why it keeps cropping up.
Q: In the game of psychological warfare, you seemed to be well prepared, taking Kramnik by surprise. Even in the openings you came off as better prepared….
A: I think that comes with a bit of hindsight… It turned out that our match strategy was correct. We were able to anticipate where he would go. That was a big part of the victory, of course. Because without those two games, the match would be tight. I think he did expect me to play d4 but I didn’t get the direction correctly. Yes, in opening, he prepared for somebody else… for some other Anand (laughs). In that sense, I took him by surprise. After round 6, he pulled himself together but luckily, my lead was large by that time.
Q: Kramnik had said in a pre-match interview that you cannot win a match just because you are better prepared. Do you agree with him? How much credit will you give to homework and preparation?
A: I think in that sense I was better prepared for the match. It made a very big difference. Our workout was very exact and the match interviews helped motivate me a lot. I knew that losing early would be a drawback.
Q: Can you elaborate on your strategy and preparation for the match?
Yeah. I made the decision last year because, I guess, for a match with Kramnik it’s better to play 1.d4. It’s better to take the decision earlier rather than putting it off till very late and then start working towards it… Right or wrong, you have to stick along with that decision as you cannot back out. Having said that, it worked out very well. In fact, the problem was the whole year I was trying to prepare for d4 and playing e4 in tournaments… that was quite tough to handle.
Q: You had worked earlier with Surya Sekhar Ganguly (Grandmaster from Calcutta). What about Surya’s contribution in your preparations. What do you think of Surya as a player?
A: He is a very good player and a very good analyst. In fact, I have been working with him for many years now. One of my ideas in 2006 was found by Surya. He holds a lot of promise for the future.
Q: Did the fact that Peter Leko was your second (person on call for advice) earlier and was now working with the opponent camp deter you in your choice of openings. Was your choice of 1.d4 based on the fact that Leko is essentially a 1.e4 player?
A: No, I don’t think…. We were together for 10 years. But we have been good friends. I guess it’s quite normal that people have worked with each other. It wasn’t a big factor for me… also because of the fact I couldn’t guess it earlier that Leko would be his second… till the point of coming here. But it’s okay, you can’t do something based on that. If you have done your homework, it should not be a problem.
Q: How much credit would you give to your seconds. What was their role in your novelties in the match?
A: It’s difficult to break it down… but I guess it’s a lot. Most of the ideas all of them checked back and forth as a unit. They worked very well as a unit. Otherwise, they worked very well on their own. We got together a couple of camps, all of us. We managed to jell very well together. So much that by the time the match started, they were working on their own
AuthorTopic: ANAND IS THE WORLD CHAMPION (Read 1785 times)
March 03, 2006, 07:08:55 AM