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Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India will defend his crown against World #1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway at Hyatt Regency, Chennai this November. An intense 12-game match under classical time controls, followed by rapid and blitz tie-breakers if necessary will decide the World Chess Champion. The championship has been labelled as ‘youth versus experience’ because of the age difference (22-year-old Carlsen against 43-year-old Anand).
Anand: The legend!
Personality: Anand has been a great ambassador of the game. His humble personality and down to earth attitude have won him many fans worldwide. In addition, his disinterest in politics and interest in astronomy have made him popular within the intellectual community. He has also been a part of the world economic forum, in 2009, to share his views on world economy. He has delivered a brilliant lecture at Accenture on Return on Analytics. Anand also represents the NGO Vidyasagar, which shows his fine character. The friendly Anand also speaks Spanish, German and French. Overall a brilliant personality!
Playing Style: The chess elite consider Anand as a practical player who doesn’t mind making weak moves to put his opponent in an uncomfortable position. He relies not only on good moves, but also the psychological weakness of his opponents. A style often compared to the style of legendary Lasker. His strength lies in unbalanced positions and to complement that has an opening repertoire which leads to such positions in the middle-game, thanks to the tireless work put in by his seconds in streamlining his opening repertoire. Note that he will be without his long-time second Nielsen this time around. He has his task cut out since he’ll up against an opponent who has an unpredictable opening repertoire which will give his seconds sleepless nights.
Career: Anand’s tournament results have been clearly disappointing during his career as a world champion. Age is not on Anand’s side as he seems to be losing his magical touch; he has been blundering more often in tournaments gifting wins to his opponents. He has been struggling to show his class in classical tournaments. He has just one classical chess tournament title since his World Championship triumph in 2008: Grenke Chess Classic 2013, which did not feature a strong field. But as they say ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’. When you take a look at his overall career, he has won numerous tournaments and five world championship titles. He is one title away from equaling Kasparov’s record of six World Championship titles!
Carlsen: The Phenomenon!
Personality: Magnus Carlsen is the poster boy of chess. He is only 22, young and outgoing, loves football, able to attract sponsors, does modeling for G-Star in his spare time, promotes chess world-wide, and has a huge fan-following on Twitter and Facebook. He featured on the Cosmopolitan magazine’s list of sexiest men in 2013. He is doing his best to get chess in the main stream media, by giving professional chess an image make-over.
Playing Style: His style has evolved rapidly during his career. He now has a very versatile style when it comes to openings. He likes to play unexplored variations and lures his opponents into positions where the room for error is minimal. Not to mention he is an energy reservoir and never gets tired, no matter how long the game lasts. His intuitive positional style is often compared to the playing style of the legendary Karpov. His recent games are often all about perfection!
Career: His performance has been phenomenal after getting tutored by the legendary Garry Kasparov in 2009. He is shattering records one at a time. He is currently the world #1 with the highest FIDE rating ever at 2872. He has been racking up top-flight classical tournament titles – A total of 15 since 2009 which is a record in itself. At the moment he is the unstoppable force in chess!
Match preview
What’s brewing in the participants’ camp is anybody’s guess. Anand may come out blazing with opening novelties only if he finds himself in those positions. The element of surprise in the opening gives Carlsen an edge. Will Anand be able to lure Carlsen into murky positions in the middle-game? Will Carlsen drag each and every game to the bare minimum and wear down his aged opponent to scrape victories? Will he be able to handle the pressure and overcome a seasoned campaigner?
The atmosphere is going to be great. I can only guess the kind of spectators we may have: The older generation rooting for Anand and the younger generation cheering for Carlsen. You never know, it may create a rift within the families who come to watch the match. To make matters even more complex the Championship is being held in Chennai where Anand grew up, so will the memories make Anand young at heart. Will we get to witness ‘The Lightning Kid’ reloaded?
