MARK RUBERY CHESS

The London newspaper the Guardian interviewed Viswinathan Anand a few years ago with particular emphasis on his meeting with the legendary Robert James Fischer.

Q: You met Fischer in 2006, a couple of years before he died. What was he like?

VA: I found him surprisingly normal. Well, at least not very tense. He seemed to be relieved to be in the company of chess players. He was calm in that sense. He was also a bit worried about people following him, so the paranoia never really went away. But I am really happy I got the chance to meet him before he died in 2008. It was weird as well because I kept having to remind myself that this was Bobby Fischer sitting in front of me!

Q: Were you tempted to whip out a pocket chessboard and challenge him to a quick blitz game?

VA: No, because he whipped out his pocket chess set first and we started to analyse some recent games I’d played.

Q: Really?

VA: Yes, I showed him some of my games from Wijk aan Zee and tried to share some interesting developments. He was sort of able to follow everything – he hadn’t lost his sharpness for chess – but his methods were a bit dated. In that sense he had fallen behind.

Q: How do you mean?

VA: Well, he had some suggestions, and he was sort of in the ballpark … but when I would tell him that the computer says white is winning here, for me that was a sign to move on – but for him it was a starting point to argue with me! [Laughs]. I found it difficult to say to him ‘No, no, no – these computers are really strong. You shouldn’t be arguing with them!”’

Q: If you could go back in time, which world champion would you have most liked to have faced at their peak?

VA: Mikhail Tal or Bobby Fischer. How would I have got on? Well, it depends whether the time machine drops me back in 1960 or 1972 or it puts Tal and Fischer in my era. It would make a big difference.

BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN