He has rediscovered his wizardry in the game of 64 squares by winning the Candidates tournament and Viswanathan Anand is now “working on quite a few ideas” to counter the threat of numero uno player Magnus Carlsen in his quest to regain the World Championship title later this year.
“My thought are already starting to form. I have got quite a few ideas about what I am going to do. Over the next few months or so I will try to crystallise my thoughts, make some plans. Though April I am taking a break,” Anand said on Wednesday.
Five-time world champion Anand lost the crown to Carlsen November last, paving the way for a revenge match with the Norwegian. He had earned the right to play Carlsen after he won the 2014 FIDE Candidates Chess tournament after settling for a draw with Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the 13th and penultimate round last Saturday. “I know for sure that I would be playing Carlsen but I am not going to make my plans openly. I do not think I should be discussing about it now,” Anand said when asked if he would bring about changes to his game this time around.
About the upcoming big match, he added: “Well, the match is very important. It is not what you plan that you get. As I have said I have my ideas and I am not going to discuss about it. Everything is looking positive. So, I will not tell you what my strategies will be.”
The 44-year-old from Chennai said such wins (Candidates tournament in Khanty Mansiysk) are very important and helps in changing one’s outlook. “In this case I would say the situation hasn’t changed entirely. In fact one good result has changed everything already. You simply needed such a victory at some point of time. With such wins your outlook changes suddenly. I think the emotions are all positive. You need a good result,” he said.
Anand had earlier said that five best games that he plays would put the rival player in trouble, and when asked if had adopted that against Carlsen in the last world championship match, he responded in the negative.
“I did not challenge him at that level. I would have played somewhere here and there. I had tried this method against (levon) Aronian and succeeded. I think this kind of matches last month was nice. Basically I do not say that I do that in a whole tournament but it is rare that one attempts such manoeuvre.”
Asked about the match against Vaselin Topolov and Gary Kasparov’s comments after his win, he said, “The match against Toplov was very crucial because I checked the point differences and I had planned my game very perfectly. As for Kasparov, I thought he is trying to be nice.”
Anand conceded to an extent that he was not at his aggressive best against Carlsen last year. “I think it’s partly true when you do a post-game analysis. I’m not comfortable with that. I would like to draw my own conclusions about the match and decide how I’m going to pan that I would love to get. Generally you’ve your plans and the opponent has his and what advantages you get in a match is what matters.”
He said after game nine in the Candidates tournament, he was sure of a win. “I would say that after game three I was pretty convinced that it is going to be a good result for me. After first three games, I thought I had given myself a great start and around that round my confidence grew. But after game nine I knew that it was my tournament to be won.
“After that I had a delayed shock after game eleven and there were some pointed questions in the press conference.” Further talking about Candidates tournament, he said, “This time I felt that my sails were in right places and the wind was just flowing. Sometimes, you need such extra things.”
Asked if his rivals would be under pressure now, Anand said, “It is hard to say. I think once you start playing well you are seen to be putting pressure on others. I hope so and I still have to make good moves and take advantage of these results.”