Anand On The Candidates
"Our" India correspondent, Jaideep Unudurti, has interviewed ex-champ and newly minted challenger Viswanathan Anand yet again - and has kindly informed us of it as well. In it Anand discusses the high and low points of the recent Candidates' tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk, exulting in his wins and expressing his dismay about the missed wins against Dmitry Andreikin in round 12 and the tension of the battle with Sergey Karjakin in round 13.
A place where I might tentatively disagree with Anand is with his self-assessment regarding his pragmatism. He noted that Magnus Carlsen referred to him as "pragmatic", but Anand states that his only decision of that kind came at the end of the last Andreikin game, when he went for a repetition instead of a complicated but winning variation. But I would add to this his avoiding 20...Rxf2 against Peter Svidler in round 7. There are some complications, but they are well within Anand's capacity to navigate. If Anand's orientation was a bit less on the safe and pragmatic side I suspect he would have pushed himself to work through the lines to the end; I've seen him calculate far more complex lines when the situation dictated it.
But enough conjecture: have a look at the interview, and let's wait to see if Anand plays increasingly bold and confident chess as the year goes on.
Reader Comments (2)
Well, I am happy that Anand made people like me* look like idiots. It's a fine result, and a career highlight even for one as illustrious as Anand's.
* I gave Anand no chance in the Candidates' tournament. I believe I stated it publicly in the comments here somewhere.
[DM: No need to brag: everyone got it wrong!]
I would like to see Anand wins another major tournament before I count myself out as a naysayer.
Here's Anand's after spoiling one game for the anthology books against Andreikin, opting for the quick draw instead of working thru the complications after reaching time control:
“I decided not to tempt fate. I was already very tired; the game had already taken quite some energy,” Anand said. “I didn't see anything terribly clear.”
Will he adopt a different strategy against Carlsen instead of playing hope chess? Play it safe, hope to score first and wait for Carlsen to overreach. This win clearly helps his confidence but there are still issues to work on before the rematch