MIND THE GAP
The Anand-Carlsen title clash is a game-changer that not only pits generations but also Contrasting styles of play against each other
The timer is ticking furiously. Viswanathan Anand, 43, stares at the pieces on the chessboard while taking a sip of green tea, which is served on his left side at the beginning of every game. Sitting in a sound-proof cabin with a one-way glass panel that looks like an interrogation room from a Hollywood film, Anand is oblivious to the simmering tension in Chennai’s Hyatt Regency Ballroom. A collective groan spreads across the viewing gal- lery, ending the silent anticipation of the crowd as Magnus Carlsen walks to his chair. Anand is within 14 seconds of a much-needed victory-by-forfeit in Game 7 of the World Championship. But Carlsen, his 22-year-old challenger who is already two games ahead, still has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Going into the most anticipated world title clash in years, it had been three years since Anand had defeated the Norwegian World Number 1. The Tamil Nadu government pumped in Rs 29 crore to bag the hosting rights, seizing the 12-game match from Rus- sia to give Anand home advantage. Chess fever has gripped Chennai, which is now adorned in jet black and pearl white. Images of the two Grandmasters ( GM) compete for space with that of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on street hoardings. Pastries and cookies at restaurants resemble chess pieces. Visitors to Marina Beach are entertained over a game of caturan-kam (chess, in Tamil) where volunteers dress up as rooks and knights to jump squares. In the Hyatt lobby, enthusiasts occupy every couch or sit on the floor, spreading a board and then
replaying Anand-Carlsen moves. Around the corner, children are busy solving chess algorithms for a digitally signed Anand coffee mug or T-shirt. There is a message board filled with “Good luck, Anand” in red and blue ink. On social media, #Anandcarlsen overtook #thankyouSachin during the first week of the match—remarkable in a cricket-mad country.
Despite the air of optimism, fivetime world champion Anand is being hunted down in his own den. He lost Games 5 and 6—one of them with white pieces—to have the momentum snatched away from him. The 1990s prodigy, now 43, has met his match in a prodigy from the smartphone generation. After over a decade of dominance, the era of Anand, by all accounts, seems to be drawing to a close.
Regardless of the result, experts are foreseeing a transitional shift— away from Anand’s style of rapid openings—towards Carlsen’s style of forcing results with pawns by focussing on the middle- and end-game. Having learnt much of his chess from Internet chess clubs and Bent Larsen’s Good Move Guide— a book that offers multiple options for every move —Carlsen is an expert in positional play who remembers 10,000-plus games and opponents at any time.
Australian Grandmaster ( GM) Ian Rogers says the writing is on the wall for Anand. “It’s an end of an era—the era of dominant players like Anand, (Veselin) Topalov, (Vladimir) Kramnik. Anand came better prepared than ever, but it’s about taking your chances. You can’t fake self-belief. He’s under pressure and it can be seen,” says Rogers. “Anand was really good at openings. His swift moves dealt a blow to his opponent’s confidence. His era was a thoroughly enjoyable one. But Carlsen is about to inaugurate his own era, where he’ll force players to adopt his style of play. He’ll make them focus on middle games to defeat him.”
In the crucial Game 7, Anand once again found himself far from his rehearsed situations. Carlsen crossed his legs, reclined to the left armrest of his chair as if he was asleep, then got up to get a chocolate drink from his assigned refrigerator. The game ended in a draw after 32 moves. In Game 8, Carlsen averaged only 30 seconds for his first 22 moves while Anand took 30 minutes for his 23rd move alone. It is not the lightning-fast Anand the world knows. With every passing game, his trademark smile is receding into a frown, and his wry humour is being replaced by irritation. The first signs of throwing in the towel are visible.
“It’s clear Carlsen is forcing Anand into uncomfortable positions, making him play to his strengths,” Hungarian GM Susan Polgar says. “Anand is not in the best of form. It’s not just his mental and physical preparation, but body language, confidence, everything. It’s remarkable that at this age he’s still the world champion, and has been there for so long. But his time may be running out,” she adds.
British GM Nigel Short tweeted that the match resembles the 1921 contest between Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca, in which the elder Lasker simply gave up before the end. Capablanca, then 32, went on to take the chess world by storm over the next decade. Gary Kasparov, perhaps the greatest player ever, is in Chennai to
follow the match and praises Carlsen’s superior positional play. “He is a combination of (Anatoly) Karpov and (Bobby) Fischer. He gets his positions and never lets go of the bulldog bite. It’s exhausting for opponents,” he posted on Twitter. NEW KID ON THE BLOCK Carlsen was just 12 when he bamboozled Kasparov with a move during a chess festival. Too bored to wait for a response, he then left the board and went for a walk leaving everyone amazed. A year later, in 2004, he became the youngest GM ever. After retirement, an impressed Kar parov mentored Carlsen to achieve the highest ever Elo rating of 2,872. Anand, too, had gushed about his talent when he first came across him. He gave him the nickname ‘Maggi’ for his speed, a tag the Norwegian cherishes.
But the Carlsen story goes beyond the board. With his baby face, unkempt blonde hair and well-toned physique, he is now a brand the likes of which Anand or Kasparov could never be. He has been contracted by international fashion brand G-Star as a model and has walked the ramp for them twice, in 2011 and 2013. He runs the half-marathon, shows off his dribbling skills in football and basketball, and wields the tennis racquet in a style modelled on Rafael Nadal.
His company, Magnuschess, has raked in over $3.5 million in the last five years. It will be nearly doubled if he wins the title. He hasn’t left anything to chance. He was nestled in Oman for a month to acclimatise to the temperatures he expected to face in Chennai. He has come with his father, sister, manager, a chef and a doctor. He’s successfully hiding his seconds—or team of players who serve as his think tank—away from the prying media. His frequent “recreational” trips to Fisherman’s Cove, a beach resort on the outskirts of the city on non-game days, is seen as an alibi to meet with them.
It is not that Anand hasn’t prepared enough. He lost eight kilos in six months through six-hour gym routines, besides three months of intense mental preparation in Germany. He tried to steal the psychological advantage at the start of the match by revealing Krishnan Sasikiran, Sandipan Chanda, Peter Leko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek as his seconds, giving Carlsen something to mull over. But he hasn’t been able to translate all that on the board, mainly due to Carlsen’s unsettling emphasis on quibbling over pieces in the middle game.
If Anand doesn’t pull off a miracle in the next three games, he will have to live to fight another day. He has a guaranteed slot in the Candidates tournament, which will decide the challenger for the World Championship in 2015. Woman GM Tania Sachdev says Anand will remain one of the greats of the game even if he loses this match. “His aura will remain, particularly in India. He showed that we could conquer the world and stay at the top. He will continue to inspire generations in the country, and hopefully, we’ll have another world champion from India,” she says.
But the tone of the comment, the creeping in of the past tense, and the general lowering of expectations in Chennai suggests that the passing of the baton—from Anand to Carlsen— is finally on the cards.