Vishy Anand’s Title Defense

It's just a game: that's something nobody ever feels when playing chess. Not even Viswanathan Anand, one of the nicest guys in the game:

“When you lose, you really feel a sense of self...You actually feel that you are being taken apart, rather than just your pieces.”

Anand acknowledges the other guy feels the same way too:

“I understand that if I win, I’m probably crushing my opponent’s ego”

But unlike Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov, Anand says that:

“It’s not like I do that with great satisfaction.”

You can see why Anand has the nice guy image when you realize he even finds a reason as to why Kasparov felt that chess “required the domination and demoralisation of their opponents”:

“It’s true that someone like Kasparov has this sense of history, and I’m talking world history rather than chess history. He has a sense of himself being in it, which, for me, is very hard to understand or even relate to in any way.”

But beyond not relating to that feeling, “The Lightning Kid” is just as ruthless:

“A match is really a contest of space between two people, and you can’t give the other one any quarter...you want to catch your opponent when he’s uncomfortable.”

Anand will be defending his world title against a guy half his age, Magnus Carlsen. If you're wondering what age has got anything to do in a non-physical game like chess, here's your answer from Anand:

“I recognise that [Carlsen] is going to do certain things because he’s 22 and there are certain things I can do because I’m 43.”

In any case, the training regimen has physical aspects too, what Anand describes as a “strict programme of running, swimming and gym work”. Compared to his title match with Kasparov back in 1995, Anand thinks his preparation now is far better:

“I’m sure I prepare more in one morning these days than I did in my entire camp then.”

In an era of computers where every opening and scenario is micro-analyzed, players like to (need to?) mix things up. Not be predictable. Anand calls chess preparation these days “akin to plotting an ambush in a giant forest. The terrain is too vast to comprehend in its entirety...But there are areas that you will know better than your opponent, and that is where you prepare to attack.”

I liked what Lawrence Trent, another chess player, suggested as Anand's strategy against Carlsen:

“He must make sure Magnus is out of his comfort zone...It needs to be a mess. He needs to get Magnus into a brawl.”

Brawl? Did chess just become a bar fight?! Except this Fight Club has rules!