Anand: I Want to be Number One Again
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 11:22AM It's a bit funny to see the World Champion expressing such a wish, but it's good, too. Actually, there's a little ambiguity here. Is this a new wish, or is this a non-news item merely consisting of an Indian media outlet quoting Anand expressing something he has felt since the moment he lost the #1 spot on the rating list?
About the content of the piece, we see him say that he realizes he must play more - a plus for chess fans, whether he succeeds in regaining the top spot or not. Unfortunately, while he's going to pay in Norway next month (classical chess or rapid?), he'll then be out of commission until December. That's a problem with being World Champion, I guess: if any of us want to play in a tournament, we can (life permitting) hop in a car, drive around 200 miles (at worst!) and play as soon as next weekend. For Anand, there's having an event with suitable opposition, getting the appearance fee worked out, etc., so even if he wanted to play constantly, like Ivanchuk, it wouldn't be so easy to work out, at least not if he wants to restrict his opposition to the good ol' boy network.
Anyway, I hope he succeeds in his ambitions to play a lot - it would be great for the game.
HT: Brian Karen
Reader Comments (4)
The article does mention China - and doesn't that tournament usually happen in Oct, right before the Tal tournament in Nov? Which would mean Norway next month, followed by Oct and then Dec...
I don't know about "usually" - if the event in question is Nanjing, it debuted in 2008 - December of 2008. But last year it ran from September to October, and according to Wikipedia (look up "Pearl Spring chess tournament") it runs from October 17-29 this year. So perhaps the reporter got it wrong ("and in December he will travel to China..."), or maybe there's a different Chinese tournament Anand is referring to?
Apparently the Norway event is rapid, as Magnus writes: "My next chess event is the Rapid tournament in Kristiansund in Norway at the end of August." [http://www.arcticsec.no/index.php?button=blog&main_image=35]
As both China and Spain are mentioned, it could also be the Grand Slam final - formerly Bilbao, now Shanghai-Bilbao with the Olympiad in between. Only Carlsen (3*) and Topalov qualified so far, so there is room for wildcards and the world champion would be a logical one. Dates would be Sep 3-12 and Oct 6-14. There must be something wrong with "December" in the article, which mentions China, Spain and London all in one month ... .