Has Vishwanathan Anand lost his steam?
By Rajarshi Majumdar | 06:41 PM Tuesday, 20 December 2016
Anand does not even have a spot in the Candidates 2017 to challenge the current chess champion- Magnus Carlsen.
The former world champion Vishwanathan Anand drew his last game at the London Chess Classic and ended up finishing fourth in the tournament. As a result, he will not qualify directly in the next edition of the London Chess Classic. Anand does not even have a spot in the Candidates 2017 to challenge the current chess champion- Magnus Carlsen.
Honestly, Anand never really looked like he was going to win the London Chess Classic. He was outwitted quite often. Things are not looking nice for Anand and one would be forced to believe that the former world champion has lost his steam to take on the best and overpower him.
We all remember the World Championship match between the Norwegian Carlsen and Anand in 2013. The match got over two days before its scheduled time. Anand was routed in front of his home crowd in Chennai by Carlsen.
In 2014 Anand emerged victorious in Candidates 2014 and quite rightfully challenged Carlsen. In the month of April, Anand got lucky against Carlsen as he made a huge blunder and avenged his humiliating defeat.
After this, Anand was really poor in Grenke Classic in 2015. He finished seventh out of the eight players in the tournament. At the Tradewise Gibraltar Festival, Anand was even worse as he lost 22 Elo points. He was eventually dislodged by Harikrishna Pentala from the India number one spot on live rating list. This happened for the first time in 30 years.
Anand’s form has been on the decline ever since then. But it is unlikely that he is going to give up on his career so soon. The 47-year-old wonder man from Chennai might just find his way through the Candidates 2017. The Indian fans can only hope that Vishy bounces back real soon and win Candidates 2017 and then challenge Carlsen and beat him too in 2018.
Source: http://newsable.asianetnews.tv
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