On top of the world
No praise can be too high for a sportsman who has consistently defied the vicissitudes of time, slaying inner and external dragons and felling opponents who are the pick of the world’s challengers with the regularity of a Swiss watch. Viswanathan Anand, the brainiest Indian, is once more the toast of the nation, having won his fifth world chess title, fourth in a row in a reign that began in 2000 and is continuous since 2007. Anand is also the first to win the world championship in three different formats — knockout, match tournament and match.
At his level of play on the strategic, alternating black-and-white 64 squares, motivation is not the only quality difficult to prop up. Ranged against him were baiters like former champion Garry Kasparov, a Russian rebel who joined the psychological battle to try dethrone the Indian.
In speed chess, Anand has no equal. Israel’s Boris Gelfand is small beer when compared to what Anand faced when he had to drive 3,000 km drive to Sofia in 2010 to beat the volcanic ash over Europe, and the Russian-dominated chess establishment refused a postponement.
The 42-year-old’s levels of creativity might be lower; yet he is competent enough to beat the best Russia or Israel can send. In two years, the dirty tricks department might throw up more challenges: young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen might deign to join the qualifiers to become the challenger. Carlsen may represent the last frontier for the Indian who downed Russia’s chess monopoly.
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