What’s the story?
In his latest conversation with the media, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand opened up about his performance at the Leuven leg of the Grand Chess Tour held recently, coming face-to-face with Garry Kasparov again and most strikingly, about how he is inspired by the Swiss tennis champ, Roger Federer.
Seeing himself come from the same place as Federer, he sees a lot of hope in the 35-year-old for himself as well. “I try to learn from him. People like Federer tell you that you can still hang in there,” said Anand in an interview with ESPN.
Also read: "No point playing chess like this," Viswanathan Anand hints at retirement
The context
The Leuven edition of the Grand Chess Tour was held in the first week of July. Anand had finished in eighth place out of the 10 players that participated in the event. Almost immediately, reports emerged alleging that the chess champ was to announce retirement.
Anand chose to speak to the media clarifying his stance on his retirement amongst other things.
The heart of the matter
This is not the first time such reports have surfaced. Anand, who wasn’t satisfied with his performance despite winning the third game, stated that his response towards the same was misconstrued to assume that he was retiring. The former World Champion is not planning to retire anytime soon and has taught himself to laughs it off when such predictions are made, although it does bother him that he has to constantly clarify after the reports go viral.
His statement that was misconstrued after his game at the Grand Chess Tour was, “there's no point playing like this” and is now leading Anand to wonder if and why everyone wants him to retire.
On a different note, Anand watches tennis extensively and is rooting for Federer to triumph his 19th Slam, someone who he resonates with a lot. The ESPN article also states that he feels he could draw a mini-victory from it as well. He goes on to say that they’re both similar in terms of having the same brick-walls – age and younger opponents. He feels that they both are driven by their respective experience to have the potential for one more ‘big win’.
What’s next?
He is now preparing for the Chess World Cup, which is slated to be held in Georgia in September. With inconsistencies in his performance of late, Anand acknowledges that he is not in his best form currently. He believes that the reigning champion, Magnus Carlsen is in a similar place.
Anand is also to play his old-time rival and world champ, Garry Kasparov in two blitz and one rapid game in August at the St. Louis Tournament. Kasparov is making a comeback after 12 years of having quit the game.
Author’s take
Despite the roller coaster ride that Anand has had, he has a lot of upcoming events in store and the potential to pick up and perform in the same. Age equals to experience for the kinds of Anand and Federer and invariably turns out to be their best advantage.
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