47 and going strong

Viswanathan Anand turns 47 today. As usual, in the last six or seven years, the former World champion is not at home in Chennai on his birthday as he is  participating in the London Chess Classic. The only celebration he had was a small cake-cutting session before he set out for London. 

“We like spending birthdays at home. Akhil is more interested in celebrating our birthdays. This year he told me I had to wait for a surprise party and it was a secret! My parents are always part of the celebrations. It’s always Aruna’s chocolate cake. Now Akhil has his favourite zebra cake (for Anand’s birthday),” said Aruna. Neither Anand nor Aruna is a party animal and that is why they don’t make a show of it. Otherwise, they are good hosts for chess players, both when they were in Spain or in Chennai. 

“Chess players regularly come home. We have always kept an open home both in Spain and in Chennai. We meet for a meal but almost everyone is travelling so abroad at an event it’s easier,” says Aruna. '

One would expect Anand to be relatively free now that he does not play the World championship and he spends most of his time in Chennai with Aruna and son Akhil. But the five-time World champion says he has not finished yet. He has been participating in the big events and he has had a good season till now, his Champions Showdown victory last month the latest of his triumphs. 

Forty-seven is not the age when you are fighting for a world title, though Anatoly Karpov managed to win it at 46 getting the better of Anand in Lucerne. But the Indian has other former World champions and Challengers too who played till they got into their 50s and beyond. Viktor Korchnoi, Mikhail Botwinnink, Vassily Smyslov all played without thinking about age. But Anand is not looking outside for inspiration. 

“I think I inspire myself. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy playing. I enjoy being a dad. So, I don’t think about yesterday or tomorrow. I just work on my chess,” says the former World champion. The biggest challenge for him has been to cope with the changing times and if he finds himself in the top bracket even now, it is because of his versatility. 

“Today’s chess is very different from the 90s.You need to work and adapt almost all the time,” says Anand. And he does not think about retirement yet. Chess is his passion, to an extent life and he has the fire in the belly for another campaign. “Being World champion is a very special feeling. I will take my next chance at playing for it. Chess has just changed so dramatically, that I am happy to have been able to be part of the new chess,” the Grandmaster said with determination writ large in his eyes. 

Anand does not believe that chess needs characters to push it forward. He thinks chess would be on its own and has the ability to stand the test of time. “I think world chess is in one of its healthiest phases,” he quipped when asked about whether it is being bugged by too much theory. Anand reckons the match between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen was well-contested and both of them fought a grim battle. “Karjakin played a very good match and defended tenaciously. Magnus held on bravely and outclassed him in the very end. It’s very difficult and premature to predict the next match,” he said of the next World championship. 

The former World champion is open to the idea of having an academy run professionally and offer his services if required. “Sure. Very keenly (looking forward). Think it should be run professionally to create top class players. The goals should be defined and quantified,” he explained. He is not looking to groom his son in chess because it is too early to guess where his interests are. “He is very amused by the cities I visit to play chess,” says the champion. It is a year since Anand’s mother Susheela passed away. He always thought his mother took him for a small boy until her death. She would comment on his games just like she would when she taught him the basics when he was a kid and would watch over his games. “Surely by 1984,  I was already a serious player. But till her end, she would tell me you could have thought a little more and I would grunt ! Just like when i was six,” recalls the former World champion.