Bengaluru, May 12: His brilliance on the chess board has often left people captivated and mesmerised. If there was any doubt regarding Viswanathan Anand’s dominance in the world scenario, the 40-year-old dispelled it by defeating Veselin Topalov 6.5-5.5 on his home turf in Sofia, Bulgaria on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, Anand woke up to the feeling of stillness: being a world champion was something he cherished, a feat he achieved after two gruelling weeks of chess.
Anand’s journey to Sofia by itself was a challenge with the volcanic ash in Europe casting a huge shadow on his title defence. With the world body refusing to postpone the event despite a shutdown in several European airports, Anand, along with wife Aruna and his team, travelled 40 hours by bus from Frankfurt to Sofia.
Recounting the experience, Anand told this newspaper, “The month leading up to the event has been testing. Getting to Sofia was an uphill task with the volcanic ash, and the fight for postponing the event was tough.”
The sterling efforts have paid off with another world title in Anand’s kitty, and following the triumph they had a celebratory dinner.
“Anand’s team has worked very hard and played a pivotal role in his success. After many days we all enjoyed a meal, without having to worry about the next day’s game,” said Aruna.
Excerpts from an interview with the ‘Tiger of Madras’:
On the ‘black magic’, having won the game with black: It was on of the toughest matches I have played. Over the last 4-5 years we have been polishing off the other’s black, with white. I guess I just needed to fine-tune my strategies with the black, which I did at the right moment.
On his challenger, Veselin Topalov: He is an intense fighter. He takes a lot of risks and forces you to take them too. In the process, both start making mistakes. Even if a match is heading for draw, he does something unusual and rattles you. He kind of surprised us with his preparations and we had to rework our strategies as the championship progressed.
On his initial slump in form: Well, I try not to think about the points and matches. My focus remains on the chess boards. All I look forward for is a high quality game and I guess all the 12 matches in this championship were just that.
On playing the final match for victory: The match could have gone either ways. Earlier, I had a bad patch and then I picked up pace. I’m happy that I emerged the winner. I always knew it would be a close contest and it turned out that way.
On his thoughts when he scented victory: Half an hour before the match ended, he played a fxe4 move and I broke through with a diagonal bishop. That gave me a good opening and I was like, God! I’m actually close to winning. From then on there were a lot of places where I could have gone wrong, but I just held my game together.
On his thoughts for the future: I’m not thinking about any game at the moment. My only thoughts are on resting now. I need to recover, since this championship has taken a lot out of me and left me completely drained. I’m also looking forward to retuning to India next week.
On waking up as a world champion again: I feel very happy and relieved to know that the title remains intact.
Anand triumphs in tough test
source www.deccanchronicle.com/sports/anand-triumphs-tough-test-218
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