A Long Interview With Viswanathan Anand

ChessVibes interviews the champ on the match. Part one is here; part two here.

"Kasparov...wanted me to lose" - Anand

Most of this Frontline interview with world champion Viswanathan Anand repeats familiar ground, but this interchange offers something new:

Your take on Kasparov's remarks?

Of course, some people, like Kasparov, really wanted me to lose. He was even clearly trying to cause it. He was trying to come there, see if he could get under my skin and somehow negatively impact my play. For me, it was especially important not to give him that satisfaction.

I found Kasparov's timing extremely surprising. He came during the sixth round. He was so clearly trying to stir something up about my play. I felt his sympathies were obvious.

It's an interesting reaction from Anand to remarks from Garry Kasparov that were implicitly complimentary: it's because of Anand's usual high level that Kasparov found Anand's play in the first half of the match to (ostensibly) reveal a lack of motivation and subpar play. Maybe the current champion simply used Kasparov's remarks as "bulletin board" material, the same way a strong, widely praised sports team might take an article claiming their next opponent is a slight favorite and then cultivate a defiant attitude of us against the world on the grounds that "no one believed in us". It's a bit silly, but maybe it works.

Still, in this case I think Anand would be better served taking the high road. In the big picture, Kasparov has done more for chess than Anand has, but Anand has displayed as much resilience over the long haul as his great predecessor and infinitely more class. (Kasparov's fighting spirit was incredible in the first half of his career, but went AWOL in the Deeper Blue, Kramnik and X3D matches. Anand's trajectory was the opposite: he looked psychologically vulnerable against Kamsky in their first Candidates' match, against Kasparov in 1995 once things started going wrong and against Karpov in Lausanne, but in many events since then, notably his world championship matches against Topalov and Gelfand, he has shown a great deal of toughness.)

Anand should just laugh Kasparov off in such a way as to suggest that Kasparov was a really great player whose relevance - in the distant past - was tremendous. If he wants to throw in a dig, he could note that a player who quit chess because he didn't have a rematch handed to him on a silver platter shouldn't question the motivation levels of those who are still in the ring slugging it out. (Yes, Anand is too classy to say that, but is it a fair point?)

HT: Brian Karen

Gelfand on the Match, Part 2

Here is part two of ChessVibes' interview with Boris Gelfand. One of the most interesting aspects is his report that Garry Kasparov offered to work as his trainer before and second during the match, an offer which Gelfand refused. Here's Gelfand:

I was really shocked. He had just been helping Vishy in the previous match, I knew he was working with Hikaru [Nakamura], so obviously I said no. For me it was unthinkable to receive help from somebody who has access to secrets of my colleagues.

You would never have the guarantee that certain information might become accessible to others...

No, not only this, it's my personal point of view. I think it's unthinkable. Only two years have passed when you helped one player, and now you help against him. I would feel very bad [-] it's against my convictions to use this.

It isn't mentioned by the interviewer, either in the interview or in an editorial note, but there's a history behind this. After losing in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik, Kasparov accused Gelfand of helping Kramnik, and the basis of the criticism was precisely that Gelfand had worked with Kasparov not too terribly long before that. Both Kramnik and Gelfand protested that this was not the case, but I'd be very surprised if Gelfand didn't have that incident in mind in his reply.

Piling On, Or Just An Observation?

A tweet from 2700chess:

Four decisive games today! During WCC match Anand - Gelfand we saw only 3 decisive games including tie-breaks.

Ouch.

Short on Anand

The match polemics and post mortems continue. This time it's Nigel Short weighing in, stating that world champion Viswanathan Anand has become "cautious", "conservative", mentally old and so on. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, when you read the piece, but it isn't a paean of praise to the chess Anand is playing these days.

(HT: Brian Karen)

Gelfand On The Match, Part 1

Here's part 1 of a ChessVibes interview with Boris Gelfand. Topics include his preparation, the specific games and the timing of the draws agreements.

Anand Interviews

Thanks to "MK", who writes via the contact link:

Here are some links with videos of some coverage in Indian TV channels.  Feel free to share on your site if you find them interesting

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/viswanathan-anand-reveals-how-he-beat-a-complicated-opponent/234675

Discussion about Anand starts at the below link at 4:57

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/left-right-centre/viswanathan-anand-hits-back-at-his-critics/234498

Thanks!

Anand-Gelfand, The Aftermath

Here's a nice summary article over on ChessVibes, with among other things, video clips of both Anand's and Gelfand's homecomings and a compilation of various Tweets on the match. Here's a funny exchange:

Levon Aronian
Congrats to World Champion Anand! Great comeback in the later stage of the match! Gelfand deserves a praise for his creative & dynamic play!

Mig Greengard
@LevAronian What, did they play another match? ; )

Levon Aronian
@chessninja How come the less a person knows about a subject, the more he treats it with disrespect.

I'm with Aronian on this one. To put the match in restaurant parlance, the problem wasn't with the food, which was generally tasty, but with the size of the portions. If Mig had complained about that, then my sympathies would be on his side.

Regan on Draws and IPRs in the Anand-Gelfand Match

(And more.) The blog's favorite computer scientist with an IM title, Ken Regan, offers some reflections on draws in relation to the world championship match and in comparison with computer chess, in this recent blog post. As usual with his work - when it's accessible to laypeople (and in this case, it is), it's worth your time.

Game 15 of Anand-Gelfand: The Correct Game Score

For some reason the relay conked out, and at least as of several minutes ago I couldn't find the correct score on the official site or anywhere else. For those watching on ICC, their relayer gave an absurdly wrong reconstruction of the end of the game. So here, based on watching the actual board from the video stream, is the correct game score:

Gelfand,Boris (2727) - Anand,Viswanathan (2791) [D12]

WCh 2012 Moscow RUS (15), 30.05.2012

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.0-0 Bd6 10.h3 0-0 11.Qc2 Qe7 12.Rd1 Rac8 13.c5 Bb8 14.f4 Ne8 15.b4 g5 16.Rb1 f5 17.b5 gxf4 18.exf4 Nef6 19.bxc6 bxc6 20.Ba6 Rc7 21.Be3 Ne4 22.Rb2 g5 23.Rdb1 gxf4 24.Bxf4 e5 25.Bxe5 Nxe5 26.Rxb8 Ng6 27.Nxe4 fxe4 28.Qf2 Qg7 29.Kh2 Rcf7 30.Qg3 Nf4 31.R8b3 Qxg3+ 32.Rxg3+ Kh7 33.Rd1 Ne6 34.Be2 Rf2 35.Bg4 Nf4 36.Rb1 Rf7 37.Rb8 Rxa2 38.Rc8 e3 39.Rxe3 Rxg2+ 40.Kh1 Rd2 41.Rxc6 Ne6 42.Rf3 Rxf3 43.Bxf3 Nxd4 44.Rc7+ Kh6 45.Bxd5 Rc2 46.Be4 Rc3 47.Kh2 Kg5 48.Rd7 Nf3+ 49.Bxf3 Rxf3 50.Rxa7 Rc3 51.Rc7 Kf5 52.c6 Ke6 53.h4 Kd6 54.Rc8 Ra3 55.Kg2 Re3 56.Kh2 Ra3 57.Kg2 Re3 58.h5 Re5 59.h6 Rh5 60.Rh8 Kxc6 61.Rh7 Kd6 62.Kg3 Ke6 63.Kg4 Rh1 ½-½