Ramesh adds fuel to Anand’s retirement debate
Rohit Bhardwaj | TNN | May 8, 2016, 09.35 PM IST
MUMBAI: For the first time since 2008, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who put India on the global chess map, won’t be challenging reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Anand bowed out of contention to win the World Candidates Championship, settling for third place behind Russia’s Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana of Italy, and the five-time World Champion’s fall from the pinnacle of world chess have been attributed to various reasons from complacency to disappointing end game. His choice of appointing GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly during the Fide World Championship match three years back, where he lost to Carlsen, was also questioned.
But GM RB Ramesh, who commentated during the World Championship tie in Chennai, believes it’s probably to do with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee’s age catching up with him.
“In appointing seconds, I think we need to trust Anand’s judgment more than anyone else as he has played 6-7 World Championship matches. As much as I know him, he is a professional and he is not going to take any emotional decision in this regard. But the reason behind his defeat was not this but probably his age. You need lot of concentration, stamina and sit for hours while practising and contemplating moves. One can’t fight nature,” Ramesh told TOI while conducting a week-long workshop at the ILead chess academy on Sunday.
“We have to accept that Carlsen is the best player in the world and Anand is ageing so there are a lot of factors against him. Maybe he’s losing some of his strength due to age. At that level they can’t afford to be complacent, so that factor is ruled out. He is not dominating even in rapids where he used to be king. With a younger age it is easy to take a risk and it pays too but with age it doesn’t come easy,” the 2007 Commonwealth champion explained.
The 2002 British champion urged the Indian fans to stop expecting Anand to keep winning every time, saying: “We need to appreciate what Anand has done for Indian chess. A game which he brought to limelight with his exploits. It’s not fair to expect everything from one individual. It’s also the duty of the following generation to take things forward from where Anand has left.”
Meanwhile, Ramesh felt that Andhra lad Pentala Harikrishna (with an ELO rating of 2763, just seven points short of Anand) has the required skills to challenge Carlsen for the world title after Anand.
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