Anand ready for Carlsen
Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Aug 10, 2014, 02.00 AM IST
Is confident World Championship match will go ahead in Sochi despite claims to the contrary from Kasparov
Speculation is rife over the dates and sponsors for the World chess championship contest between Magnus Carlsen and VishwanathanAnand but the Indian Grandmaster is confident the match will go ahead as scheduled in Sochi (Russia) in November. “We have a firm offer from Sochi,” Anand said even as former champion Gary Kasparov set the cat among pigeons saying the title match has no sponsors. Kasparov is fighting incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the FIDE president’s election and Anand thinks the former world champion’s comments are an election stunt.
“It is probably just part of the last minute campaigning rather than anything else,” Anand said. The Fide elections are scheduled for Monday in Tromso, Norway. “The only thing pending is the result of the election. At the moment everything seems set. We do have a firm offer from Sochi and the contract is there, everything is there,” Anand, a former world No 1 and five-time world champions, said.
Kasparov has stated that should he be elected as the FIDE president, he would postpone the title contest, scheduled from November 7-26. Anand said things would get clearer after the FIDE elections though he has started training for the event if it’s held in November. “Anyway, the election happens in two days, so everything is kind of hanging in the air till that. Only two days are left and a lot of things will get clear after the FIDE elections.”
Anand was satisfied with his preparation for the rematch, for which he qualified by winning the Candidates tournament earlier this year. “I am quite happy with my training. It was tough planning my training schedule with all the uncertainty. But now that things are getting clearer, my training schedule is going quite well,” he said. “I am happy that I am on a short break and I will train again a bit. I would play in Bilbau in September and then will play some Rapids (in Geneva) in October. I hope to be ready for the World Championship after playing in Bilbao and Rapids,” he said.
Anand said his approach this time would be different to the one he adopted in Chennai last November when the Norwegian world number one dethroned him, but refused to elaborate. “It goes without saying (of adopting a different approach). Well, I don’t see much sense in doing that (elaborate). I will demonstrate it at the board,” he said. “I have some ideas and I have tried to fix them, but to be honest I don’t want to discuss last time again. Things just went wrong. Let’s leave it at that,” he said.
While agreeing with Kasparov’s view that the world title match should be held biannually, Anand pointed out it’s being held annually as per the current calendar of events. “On a broader point I also think two years cycle is much better, but right now this is the official calendar. Earlier we were sticking to the two-year calendar… in 2008, 2010, 2012. I don’t know why it changed. That’s for another discussion,” he said.
Asked whether the upcoming World Championship would be his last attempt, Anand refused to look too far ahead. “You know how it works. If I win then it will not. I am not thinking too much about where this comes in my career or what it means to my career. It’s simply a second chance and I am going to try to use it the best way I can. I am not sitting and thinking where this fits in my remaining World Championship attempts or things like that,” he said.
Source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com
Of course it is. What else can he say? Ilyumzhinov is doing a good job?