A Grand Comeback
Now that he has won the Candidates tournament, will the Tiger of Madras roar in this November’s rematch against Magnus Carlsen?
Now that he has won the Candidates tournament, will the Tiger of Madras roar in this November’s rematch against Magnus Carlsen?
The year was 1989. The city was Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. This was when my sisters and I first met the young Viswanathan ‘Vishy’ Anand. Vishy and I were both around 19 then. What stood out at that time was his speed. He often used less than an hour on his clock to beat opponents who used much more time.
During the tournament, we became good friends. My sisters and I invited him to visit us in Budapest, Hungary. To our pleasant surprise, he accepted the invitation and arrived shortly after the tournament, and stayed for about a week with our family. Even at a young age, Anand was fully focused on chess. We could see his enormous talent and the bright future ahead of him. He was always eager to play blitz at any time. We played tons of games, joked around, and had a lot of fun. He had a great sense of humour.
When we did not analyse moves or play blitz, he would listen to music or meditate. Five World Championship titles later, this boy we met back then has become one of the game’s greatest champions. We continued to cross paths at various events over the years. Anand never lost that sense of humour.
I did not see this Anand in Chennai last year during the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. He seemed tense, perhaps because of the extra pressure of playing in his home town. After that devastating loss, many experts wrote him off. They said he’d lost his drive, motivation, and killer instinct on the board.
But things were very different at the Candidates tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Given that he is from my generation, it made me happy that he managed such a spectacular comeback. Not only did he play well, he played with confidence. Most importantly, he was relaxed and smiled a lot more.
TOP CANDIDATE
Anand’s convincing win against the world no. 2 Levon Aronian in Round 1 was a big confidence booster for him, and settled the fate of the pre-tournament rating favourite. Aronian sacrificed a pawn early in the game (as it is typical for the Marshall variation of the Ruy Lopez). Anand wisely
returned the pawn, transformed his material advantage to a positional one—having the pair of bishops. Then he expertly converted his strategic advantage in the endgame and won after 47 moves.
After a draw against the Bulgarian former World Champion Veselin Topalov in Round 2, his Round 3 match against Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was crucial. To win with the black pieces in a tournament of such high standard has extra importance. After an excellent opening preparation, which allowed Anand to equalise his disadvantage of playing with black, he simply outplayed his ambitious opponent and won in just 31 moves.
In Round 4, Anand drew with white against another former World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, and in Round 5 with black against the World Cup runner-up Dmitry Andreikin of Russia.
In Round 6, Anand faced the Berlin from the white side of the board against the Ukrainian-born Sergey Karjakin, who now represents Russia. Anand was pushing, but after 33 moves in a rook and bishop versus rook and knight endgame, he realised that he couldn’t improve his position and had to settle for a draw.
In Round 7, we saw yet another Berlin by Anand, this time versus the seven-time Russian champion Peter Svidler. This game was unusual. First, Anand equalised (with black pieces) with no problems. Then on move 20, Anand had the opportunity to win a pawn, but decided against it and still had a somewhat better position. Unexpectedly on move 24, Anand sacrificed his queen against just a rook and a bishop. Even though that is normally insufficient compensation for a queen, due to the ruined pawn structure of his opponent, Anand was fine and comfortably held on for a draw after 38 moves.
At the mid-point of the tournament, it was a close race as Anand shared the lead with Aronian, and Kramnik trailed only half a point behind. In the first game of the second half, Aronian as white dreamed up an unusual opening choice on the third move. It led to gain of a pawn, but also to having a very passive position for white. After only 19 moves, the two sides chose to play it safe and repeated moves and agreed to a draw. This was an important draw for Anand because it gave him a superior tie-break over Aronian due to a better head-to-head score.
Round 9 turned out to be decisive. Anand won a long 57-move fight on the white side of a Sicilian against Topalov, while his two closest rivals, Aronian and Kramnik, both surprisingly lost. Anand had a full point lead now, with just five rounds to go. He never looked back.
I felt that Round 11 was the last hope for anyone to stop Anand’s dream to be Carlsen’s challenger in November.
Anand has been working hard not just on his chess, but also on his physical fitness so that he can compete with younger rivals.
Kramnik had white pieces and was following his own game against Carlsen (from last year’s Candidates Tournament) for the first 10 moves of the game. In the 11th move, he tried a different idea to surprise Anand, who responded very well, and sacrificed a pawn four moves later for good compensation. Soon the material balance returned to the board as most pieces got traded off, resulting in a dead drawn rook-and-pawn endgame. Following that draw, Anand was controlling his own destiny.
Three more draws in Rounds 12 to 14 ensured that Anand won the tournament, and with it his shot at redemption against Carlsen and finishing the tournament undefeated. It was easy to see that Anand had been working very hard not just on his chess, but also on his physical fitness so that he could successfully compete with much younger rivals in the Siberian cold.
ANAND vs CARLSEN II
As for Carlsen, prior to his match in Chennai, he was clearly very motivated to obtain the ultimate goal of all chess players—become World Champion. It demanded a tremendous amount of sacrifices. It would be ‘human’ if after such a tense year, he lets his guard down a bit to enjoy the fruits of his hard-earned success. Carlsen played in only one major tournament so far since Chennai, the Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, where he won the classical time-control portion, but did not do as well in rapid. Vishy, on the other hand, had a rough tournament, perhaps not yet fully recovered from the trauma of losing his title.
Their first direct encounters since ‘the match’ ended in draws both in classical as well as rapid. Interestingly, with black pieces, both chose the same Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez which was played in Chennai in four out of the eleven games. However, Carlsen won in the blitz format in just 21 moves.
I believe that Carlsen will still be the favourite in the forthcoming rematch, because he is in the prime of his career, while Anand is almost two decades older. But it’s clear that a sleeping giant has risen again. Anand, consciously or subconsciously, is very motivated to show his son Akhil, and his fans in India and all around the world, a vastly improved performance when they lock horns this November. In addition, Anand understands Carlsen’s unique style much better now. This will help him prepare more efficiently.
One thing is for certain: The Tiger of Madras has roared again to prove his critics wrong. I, along with millions of other chess enthusiasts, can barely wait for Carlsen-Anand II.