[1]His brilliance across the 64 squares has often left people mesmerised. If there were any doubt about Viswanathan Anand’s dominance on the world stage, the 40-year-old dispelled them by defeating Veselin Topalov 6.5-5.5 on his home turf in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, Anand woke up to the feeling of stillness: being a world champion was something he cherished, a feat he achieved after two gruelling weeks of chess.
Anand’s journey to Sofia was in itself a challenge with the volcanic ash cloud in Europe casting a huge shadow on his title defence. The world body refused to postpone the event even though several European airports being shutdown. Anand, along with wife Aruna and his team, travelled 40 hours by bus from Frankfurt to Sofia.
Recounting the experience, Anand told this newspaper, “The month leading up to the event has been testing. Getting to Sofia was an uphill task, and the fight for postponing the event was tough.” Anand’s sterling efforts paid off with another world title in the kitty, and following the triumph they had a celebratory dinner. “We went out for dinner with the team. Anand’s team has worked very hard and played a pivotal role in his success. After many days we all enjoyed a meal, without having to worry about the next day’s game,” said Aruna.
Excerpts
On ‘black magic’ doing the trick: It was one of the toughest matches I have played. Over the last 4-5 years we have been polishing off the other’s black, with white. I guess I just needed to fine-tune my strategies with the black, which I did at the right moment.
On Veselin Topalov: He is an intense fighter. He takes a lot of risks and forces you to take them too. In the process, both start making mistakes. Even if a match is heading for draw, he does something unusual and rattles you. He kind of surprised us with his preparations and we had to rework our strategies as the championship progressed.
On his initial slump: Well, I try not to think about the points and matches. My focus remains on the chess board. All I look forward to is a high quality game and I guess all the 12 matches in this championship were just that.
On playing the final match for victory: The match could have gone either way. Earlier, I had a bad patch and then I picked up pace. I’m happy that I emerged the winner. I always knew it would be a close contest and it turned out like that.
On his thoughts when he scented victory: Half an hour before the match ended, he played a fxe4 move and I broke through with a diagonal bishop. That gave me a good opening and I was like, God! I’m actually close to winning. From then on there were a lot of places where I could have gone wrong, but I just held my game together.
On his thoughts for the future: I’m not thinking about any game at the moment. My only thoughts are on resting now. I need to recover, since this championship has taken a lot out of me and left me completely drained. I’m also looking forward to returning home.
On waking up as a world champion again: I feel very happy and relieved to know that the title remains with me.
Box:
I was tense: Aruna
She’s the woman who has stood rock-solid alongside Anand through thick and thin. From keeping his home going to being his travel companion, Aruna has played many roles over the years, and on Wednesday, she admitted she was tense watching Anand play the last match.
“The match was like an anti-climax because it is rare to win with a black and it was a close match. My emotions were very mixed and in the end the whole team was elated to see him emerge triumphant,” said Aruna.
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