Anand to play in Chess Olympiad after 12 years

Anand has not represented India in the Olympiad in the previous five editions and the last time he played for India was in 2006 in Turin. He had also played in the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Calvia.

It is understood that Anand’s decision to play for India again is because he is not free from his Classical World Championship preparations, which used to take up his time during the last 10 years. Though Aruna, Anand’s wife and manager, said talks were on between the All India Chess Federation and Anand on his participation, AICF officials confirmed he has agreed to play for India again. The other reason for his willingness to play in the event is because in the last two editions the country did well finishing in the top bracket.

Anand himself was not thinking too much about the Olympiad which would be held in the second half of the year. On the sidelines of a felicitation function held in the city for his World Rapid Championship win in Riyadh last week, Anand said he was feeling young again after winning a World title, though it came in the rapid format.

The five-time World Champion in Classical Format said he was not prepared to go to Riyadh initially because he had not done too well in the previous two World Rapid and Blitz Championships. “But Aruna was the motivating force for my change of decision. The other reason is that Saudi Arabia was organizing a big chess tournament for the first time. I wanted to see how they do it. Otherwise, Riyadh was not on my travel map,” he said.

The “Tiger of Madras”, as he is called in Europe, said he was lucky to win the title in Riyadh as Russian Alexander Grischuk played a big part in his title win. “First, I beat Grischuk on the second day of the competition and on the third day, I was still not sure of the title as Magnus Carlsen had a better score. Grischuk beat Carlsen and that gave me the breakthrough,” said Anand.

Anand mentioned Tamil Nadu youngsters R Praggnanandhaa, Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and Iniyan for their performances and felt he was not alone on the international circuit in the last few years. “For a long time, I felt lonely in international tournaments but now I see many of them alongside,” the Chennai Grandmaster said.

“These titles are nostalgic memories for me. It was a very nice end to 2017 and all the action happened in a span of just six days. My performances at Riyadh have changed a not so special year into a magical one,” signed off the former World Champion.