Anand: Can't neglect the shorter formats in chess

PUNE: Former world chess champion V Anand has backed shorter versions of the 64-square game by pointing out their virtues.

"In chess, rapid and blitz are default tiebreak options and you can never neglect them completely," said Anand who was in the city on a promotional visit for the second Maharashtra Chess League, scheduled at PYC Hindu Gymkhana from June 11 to 15.

The players' auction is on Friday.

Anand said: "Though the slower format is played in competitions, almost all the players there come through playing a lot of blitz (5 minutes per player) and rapid (25/30 mins per player). It's good for training. It is good to play more games in a day than one game a day which requires high concentration. I don't think rapid is harmful. It's more spectators friendly."

Anand will play the World rapid and blitz championships in Dubai from June 15 to 21. The MCL will also be played over rapid format.

Anand also said the club/league/franchise culture needed to be given time to get established in India and that one can't compare club loyalties and more systematic approach with Europe.

The 44-year-old refused to talk much on his World title rematch against reigning champion Magnus Carlsen not receiving a bid.

On Carlsen's mind-boggling plus-23 score (difference between wins and defeats) in classical chess since January 2013, he said: "Very impressive ... nothing much to say about that. It was impressive last year and it keeps going up. I have to find some way to match when playing against him. Going by Khanty (Candidates success), I feel optimistic and positive."

On whether older players tend to focus on 'not losing' instead of winning, Anand said: "I have no idea. I just feel that I had a difficult phase. For no particular reason, I did well in Candidates ... and now I feel optimistic again."

Anand gave glimpses of his endearing personality when he obliged the kids with a Q&A session with all seriousness.

He also managed to squeeze in a tiny 'workshop' for chess parents. He told them to "relax a bit", saying five-six hours of practice in a day in most cases was not necessary.

"Results should not stop them (children) from enjoying," he said reminding a refined quote from his father, who had said "we backed Anand because he loved the sport."

On dealing with increasing coaching expenses for the sport, Anand said: "If parents feel that coaching is valuable, then it can kind of get into an arms' race. When parents feel it could be useful even without any evidence to base it on, then it's peer pressure.

"No parent wants to handicap their kid. But I believe coaching is best in moderation. The best way of learning is still practising a lot. Without diminishing the coaches, coaching works when you have many examples to show.

"Youngsters are taking the game far too seriously and at far too early an age. They are getting too competitive ... that's the age to have fun. I would advice parents not to be too obsessive about coaching."

Sicilian Defence: Judit vs Kasparov - Touch move controversy

Funny Chess Scene (Big Bang Theory) - How Boys Behave when they Lose to Girls!

Magnus Carlsen plays NTNU

Nordic Semi takes World Chess Champ Magnus Carlsen to Norwegian University NTNU

Hello everyone, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen continues on his chess tour of the planet. Nordic Semiconductor brought its ambassador Magnus Carlsen to the Norwegian university NTNU in Trondheim and hosted a chess tournament. All students were given the chance to beat the World Champion and to get away with a reward of 100.000 NOK. Watch the video to find out if anyone managed to beat Magnus. But, we have a feeling you already know what happened!

Ubilava on Carlsen’s changing style And Vishy Anand.

Explanations for Magnus Carlsen’s shock two losses in a row in Shamkir included the World Champion’s own suggestion that he watched too much TV. In a recent interview Elizbar Ubilava instead pointed to a deliberate attempt to play complex, dynamic positions. The Georgian grandmaster also talked about Viswanathan Anand’s recent form and his prospects in a new match against Carlsen.

Elizbar Ubilava was in Shamkir to act as a second for the young Azerbaijan player Vasif Durarbayli, but in the past he’s worked with such stars as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and, for a decade, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand. His views on the strategy employed by both Carlsen and Anand are therefore well-worth our attention, and were contained in the following fragment of a recent interview with Teimour Tushiev for the Azerbaijan newspaper Echo:

Teimour Tushiev: Probably the main event of the tournament was World Champion Magnus Carlsen losing twice in a row, first to Fabiano Caruana and then to Teimour Radjabov…

Elizbar Ubilava: Yes, that was of course unexpected, but in my view it was a positive occurrence. If one chess player keeps winning it rules out any tournament intrigue. On the other hand, I noticed that Magnus was trying to play in a slightly different fashion. For example, in many previous tournaments he’s tried to play in a technical, positional style, while in Shamkir he went for complex positions. I think he set out to do that before the tournament, as a one-sided approach kills creativity. He lost to Teimour in an extremely complex King’s Indian position where Radjabov played very well…

Do you think Magnus deliberately went for the King’s Indian?

I’m absolutely sure of it. In Shamkir he went for dynamic positions where he had no advantage. It seems that by sharpening positions the World Champion is striving to improve his calculating abilities. If he doesn’t improve his calculation of variations he won’t be able to retain the Championship crown for long.

So could we say the Shamkir Tournament was a stage in his preparation for the second match against Vishy Anand?

I wouldn’t say the Vugar Gashimov Memorial was a stage in preparation, but rather it was a stage in his progress. It seems to me Magnus is striving to improve his play and his understanding of different positions. The Norwegian probably has a clear plan and wants to achieve more and become stronger. Preparation for the match itself, meanwhile, will start later.

It’s common knowledge that you previously worked with Vishy Anand. What does he need to do in order to even out the chances in the second match against Carlsen? 

When I worked with Vishy Anand (up to 2005), he was an absolutely stunning chess player. His understanding of chess was something else, he instantly evaluated positions and he had a phenomenally well-developed chess intuition. We constantly worked on chess, all the time improving his mastery of the game. Then he became World Champion and defended the title by beating Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand. But the years nevertheless took their toll on his play. Moreover, he began to “shut down” – he started to avoid complex positions and a direct fight. That all led to a deterioration in his chess.

In the first match against Carlsen he tried to exploit technical positions and rook endings. That was his mistake – instead of spending a lot of time on technique he needed to play complex positions. For example, in the ninth game of the match Anand got a promising position but he didn’t play for a win due to an inability to calculate variations, and then in the end he lost. In the first match Vishy definitely couldn’t display his best qualities and lost almost without a fight.

Were you surprised by his transformation in the Candidates Tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk?

Yes, and it turned out to be a surprise for him as well. Vishy himself said he simply came to Khanty-Mansiysk to play chess, and I’m sure he had no thought of actually winning the Candidates. In that tournament the players often risked in situations where you simply couldn’t afford to, and Khanty-Mansiysk was a total failure for everyone else. Anand, meanwhile, simply played chess, played the positions, and that proved to be the right strategy.  As a result Vishy played without any stumbles and confidently won the tournament with a +3 score. Such victories are of course inspiring, especially as everyone had managed to write him off before Khanty-Mansiysk. As for what to expect in the second match against Carlsen, it’s hard to say, but I definitely don’t think he’ll play worse than in the first match.

Kramnik: I don’t care about being the best

This time, I will give it a different twist : Anand

NEW DELHI: The World Chess Championship loss in Chennai had "knocked the stuffing out" of Viswanathan Anand but the five-time winner on Wednesday said that clinching the Candidates title has boosted his confidence and he would try to avenge his loss to Magnus Carlsen later this year. 

Three losses over 10 games without a win and the world Championship title was in tatters last November but Anand soon scripted a historic turnaround when he registered three victories in 14 games without a defeat en route to his Candidates victory to earn a rematch against Carlsen. 

The 44-year-old Indian said delay in addressing his errors cost him the World title and it was his decision to stay away from chess, which helped him to recover emotionally and bounce back with a bang.

"I think many errors had cropped up in my approach to play chess. I was becoming reliant on computers and there were some mistakes coming up. I was not oblivious to it but I was not able to address the problem exactly right. I didn't have time to fix anything," Anand, who was to highlight the role of chess in Business Analytics in an NIIT event, said.

"I remembered long back once after the end of an event, me and (Anatoly) Karpov were talking. He mentioned that a player who had a bad tournament will take long time to recover from bad result because he was so much in love with the game and he didn't have something else to take his mind off chess. 

"So I decided that it was more important to recover emotionally, after all, a result like this knocks the stuffing out of you. So in December and January, I was trying to avoid chess. There were some tournaments which were unavoidable but most of the time I tried to get away from chess," he said. 

After losing his World Championship title, Anand bowed out in the group stage of the London rapid and also his performance at Zurich in March was not upto the mark. 

Anand said: "May be my opponents didn't focus on me properly or probably I was playing more freely. I had one of my best results in Candidates and I'm playing in World Championship in November. 

"I got my confidence back and I am very optimistic now. I know even if I face the same mistakes, I will act now differently," added Anand, who held the World title from 2007 to 2013.

Anand said he carried a lot of his World championship preparations to the Candidates tournament. 

"I was also lucky in a way that since my approach to the match backfired, I didn't get to use lot of my preparations and they were still there which I could carry over to the Candidates," he said. 

"I had a short training camp in February. I thought it was enough and it was more important to spend time at home, play with my son and wait for the hunger to come back and when I went to Khanty (Mansiysk), the first game went brilliantly, it was my first win over (Levon) Aronian and it gave a big boost to me," added Anand, a Padma Vibhushan awardee. 

Anand says he has a fair idea where he wants to work on before he takes on Carlsen later this year. 

"I have a fair bit of idea what I want to change and what I think went wrong. So I have an idea what I want to do. So I will choose my team accordingly. But right now, I don't want to give any details," Anand said.

"Secondly, I'm waiting for the bid. The bidding procedure will finish by the end of this month. So after that we will have an idea of the venue. It is roughly scheduled for November but I just want it to be confirmed," he added. 

Asked about his upcoming tournaments, Anand said he will play a lot of rapid events this year. 

"At the moment I am scheduled to play in Corsica in May. It is an exhibition event, then there is World Rapid and Blitz Championships (June 15-21) in Dubai and then I have an event in Geneva. I might put in another tournament but it depends on my training schedule. It is all very tentative," he said. 

"It is nice to play rapid chess again. Last year, I didn't get to play any rapid event, so it is good. This year, I will compensate for last year," he added. 

Asked if it would be a revenge match, Anand said: "Ya, well I will try to take the confidence to the World Chess Championship. It is inevitable that we will remember some aspects of that match but I will try to take it as a fresh match. 

"The previous results will obviously have some influence on my thoughts but it will be a different match. I will try to change the course and he is going to anticipate. I will think about what happened and try to give it a different twist this time," he said.