How Anand caught the attention of the Big Red Machine?

How Anand caught the attention of Russians?
DC | S Sujatha | 20 hours 44 min ago

If there was one chess tournament that thrust Viswanathan Anand into global prominence, it was the 1990 Manila Inter Zonal, where the ‘Tiger from Madras’ qualified for the world chess championship cycle by finishing third. It was the first time that an Indian qualified for the candidates match.

Internationally, the 1990 Inter Zonal was popular for the nervous breakdown of Vassily Ivanchuk (2680), who was expected to pocket the title after holding Anand (2610) in the final round. But Boris Gelfand (2680) won his last round game and snatched the title from him.

In the early 1990s, Gelfand and Ivanchuk, the two GMs from the former Soviet Union were touted to be replacements for the mighty Karpov and Kasparov to continue the tradition of the chess superpower. As expected, the two students of the Soviet school of chess finished 1-2 in the qualifying tournament for the 1993 world chess championship cycle.

But, the most unexpected result was the qualification of India’s first GM Anand who finished in the top three despite a mediocre score to stake his claim for the world title. Anand went on to create a minor upset by defeating Alexey Dreev in the pre-quarterfinals before succumbing to Karpov in the next round.

“It was a first exposure tournament for Anand and he was not expected to qualify. But he played steady chess and won a crucial match with GM Mikhail Gurevich of the Soviet Union in the penultimate round to claim a spot in the candidates cycle,” recalled GM Pravin Thipsay, who was the only other participant from India in that tournament.

Anand and Thipsay finished first and second in the Zone 13 championship held at Qatar to qualify for the Inter Zonal tournament. “Very few Indians like IMs Manuel Aaron and D. V. Prasad had qualified for the Inter Zonals before. So it took a lot of efforts to persuade the central government to give clearance,” said Thipsay.

Thipsay (2490), who was an International Master then, had to withdraw from the tournament midway owing to stomach infection. “I scored only one point out of the first seven games and had to return to India for treatment. At that time, Anand’s score was 3.5/7 and I didn’t expect him to qualify,” he added.

However, Anand won three games continuously towards the end to make the grade and create history for Indian chess. “It was a very big break for Anand. The Russians started to respect him and Viktor Korchnoi told me in 1995 that he expected Anand to defeat Kasparov,” recollected Thipsay.

Thipsay, the first Indian to win a GM norm in 1984, said Anand’s game against Gurevich was given the best novelty award in the ensuing edition of Chess Informant, a respected magazine that chronicles the games played over a three-month period.

“Anand gained momentum before choosing a particular drawish variation in the endgame and pulled off a win,” Thipsay explained.

Source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com