After a lean few years and a painful defeat against Magnus Carlsen few were predicting great things from former World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the Candidates. Instead the 44-year-old led from start to finish, winning with the same ease with which he first won the undisputed World Championship in a similar tournament back in Mexico in 2007. We’ve gathered together some of the first reactions to his victory, including the views of fellow grandmasters, his wife Aruna and Vishy himself.
1. Russian grandmaster and journalist Dmitry Kryakvin compared the upcoming Carlsen-Anand rematch to the sixth World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik’s successful rematch against the young Mikhail Tal when he was pushing fifty:
As part of my job I often work with some chess periodicals and archives and the situation with Vishy winning somehow reminds me of the situation before the Tal-Botvinnik rematch. If you open up the periodicals of those years you can read a lot of uncomplimentary words about the “Patriarch”. What’s he doing at such an age? And above all, why? But we all know now how things ended up. Besides, Anand, in contrast to Mikhail the Sixth, earned the right for a rematch with Carlsen absolutely fairly and who knows how the rematch will end if the Norwegian rests on his laurels.
2. Abhijeet Gupta:
This match will definitely be different, that is for sure. I cannot remember the last time Anand won a top tournament in such a dominating fashion. And another thing to remember is that he has already seen the worst. It cannot get any worse than what happened last time. So he’ll be even more motivated.
3. Vishy's Wife, Aruna:
That was a very difficult period. It was the lowest point of Anand's career. I have never seen Anand suffer so much. The entire family suffered seeing him suffer so much.
It was not like he talked a lot about the match. He got used to the fact that the title was lost towards the end of the match itself but, of course, he was very disappointed with the result as well as his overall performance.
He was actually well prepared for the Carlsen match but could not get good positions on the board. In Khanty, there was no such thing.
4. Vishy Anand:
How do you feel after a convincing win, in a format that was gruelling and had some of the best players in the world?
It was a sense of relief. I played a lot more freely. I was wanting to play freely in the last couple of years. Somehow it was not happening. All I wanted was to play good chess and have a practical attitude towards the tournament. Very happy and satisfied to have won it.
Many players did not give you a chance, with even our RB Ramesh stating that the scar of the World Championship loss would take a long time to heal. Were you hurt by all this?
I did not pay attention to what people thought about me. I always take opinion from people who I really count upon. The loss in Chennai was painful. I was not the same player that I really was. People will talk about the loss for years to come. But I kind of moved on and did not think about it coming into the Candidates Tournament.
What was the secret behind silencing the critics? Was it will power, pride?
I am not the kind of person who goes about silencing the critics. I just wanted to play good chess. Touch wood.
Do you cherish this win more as it has come at a time when critics doubted your ability to bounce back?
I think the win is similar to the win in Mexico in the World Championship in 2007. I think my style of play here was similar to that one. It is an important win in the sense that it came at a time when people had practically written me off.
How does it feel to take on Carlsen again?
I am not thinking about Carlsen right now. I want to savour the moment and enjoy the win.
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