Rejuvenated Anand looks forward to World Championship rematch against Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand on Wednesday said the World Championship loss to Magnus Carlsen in November last year ‘knocked the stuffing out’ of him but the break he took after that helped him recover from the disappointing result. Speaking on the sidelines of a promotional event of his sponsors NIIT, Anand said he has ‘fairly good idea’ of what he needs to do to win back the world title. Excerpts from an interaction
How did you overcome the disappointment of last year’s World Championship loss to CarlsenIJ
I’ll be honest, these three months I didn’t have time to sit and fix anything. I remember once long back, at the end of a tournament we (Anatoly Karpov and me) were talking about somebody who had a bad tournament. Karpov mentioned that he thought that the player would take much longer to recover from the bad result because he was really in love with chess and he didn’t have anything which could take his mind off chess.
So basically that’s the strategy I followed because I thought that it was more important to recover emotionally. After all, a result like this knocks the stuffing out of you. So most of the time in December and January, I was trying to avoid chess rather than really get heavily into it because the closer I came to the tournament, it became unavoidable to do some work but most of the time I tried to get away from chess. I felt that it was more important to get back to desire than to fix specific issues. I had a short training camp in February but if I had felt more enthusiastic, I would probably have worked more. But as it was, I decided that was enough. The most important thing was to spend time at home, play with my son and meet some friends and wait for this hunger to come back.
What went wrong in that matchIJ You must have analysed your game after the loss.
I think many errors had crept in my approach. I was becoming more reliant on computers and there were some mistakes coming up. I was not oblivious to it but I was not able to address the problem. I didn’t have time to fix anything.
You think because you were world champion, Carlsen had more knowledge of your style than you had about hisIJ
I would say we both brought different strengths and completely different situations to the match. Unfortunately, his qualities turned out to be more important. I don’t think there is too much of a world championship style and non-world championship style. I mean, in the end, you play the same thing. The only thing is that in my previous world championships I was much more focused. Perhaps, I always had a lot of focus on the match but even that kind of concentration didn’t help very much last year. I mean sometimes somethings go wrong, they simply go wrong. There is not much you can analyse afterwards. But I don’t think I play differently in the World Championships than I do in other tournaments. May be I do it more intensely but there is nothing called World Champioship experience. Perhaps there are more emotions involved in it because the attention level is much higher.
What are the tournaments you are going to play this yearIJ
At the moment I am scheduled to play in Corsica in May. In June I will play World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Dubai and then I have an event in Geneva in October. For the moment that’s it. I might try and fit in something else but it depends on my training schedule. All this is assuming that the match (World Championship) happens in November. It is kind of tentative. Anyway, I am not playing anyone in April. By the end of this month, if we have a clear direction when the match will happen, I can start planning things.
Corsica is an exhibition event. Dubai will be a five-day Rapid and Blitz and then Geneva again will be Rapids. So this year a lot of Rapids, which is nice because earlier I didn’t get to play a lot of Rapids. This year, I will compensate for the last year.
How do you plan to win back the World ChampionshipIJ
I think I have a fairly good idea — I don’t know if I am right or wrong — what I want to change and what I think went wrong. So I have a rough idea of the kind of work I want to do. Now it’s about implementation. So I will choose my team accordingly. But right now, I am not going to give any details of that.
Secondly, I’m simply waiting for the bid. The bidding procedure will finish by the end of this month. So I will have a clear idea of when and where the match is going to happen. It is roughly scheduled for November but I will like it to be confirmed.
Did the venue make any differenceIJ
I don’t think India had effect on it. Perhaps you can only say is that it amplified the situation I was in but my problems were mainly my own. There were certain mistakes I was making and somehow I couldn’t manage to correct them in time. So I wouldn’t blame the location.
last year you were defending champion and had everything to lose. But this time you are going to try and win it back. Does that make it psychologically easier for yourIJ
I hope so. For me, right now the dominant emotion is the buzz I have after winning the Candidates than anything else. I certainly hope that those things come into play. But I would only know afterwards if it was. like I said, I needed a good result and this result felt like oxygen and I will stick by that and I think that’s the most important thing I take from the Candidates; not just that I qualified but I got a good result.
Is it going to be grudge match for youIJ
It is inevitable that when you get closer, you remember some aspects and I won’t be able to put away the whole match. To be honest, I have no reason to keep reliving that match. I really want to forget it and I will try and play it like a fresh match.
Is it so easy to forgetIJ
I didn’t say I will succeed. I said I will try! (laughs) But you can’t help it. Your mind will wander and it will eventually wander back. And you can’t help these things completely. I simply believe it will be a new match and new things will happen. So that’s what you should get ready for and not fighting the old war.
Did this phase test you the most in your career so farIJ Was it the sort of rediscovery for you to win the CandidatesIJ
Yes, it was a very testing period. Even in 2013, there were good and bad events but I felt the bad moments more intensely than the good ones, which is unfortunate because I got to look back at many positive things in my first six tournaments. But somehow what I kept remembering was watching the tournaments at the end and like that. And, that was the feeling I carried in the match. There is no reason why I did well in the Candidates. I can’t even pin point something and say that’s why I did well. If there was such a thing, I would have applied much earlier. I think the most important thing before the Candidates tournament was the period where I simply stopped following chess for a while. So it was all about recovering emotionally rather than the chessboard.
You will be facing Carlsen once again. Does it add to the pressure when you play someone to whom you lost the World Championship matchIJ
Obviously the previous match will influence our thoughts, our preparations and things like that but still it will be a very different match. At least I am going to try and change the course of the match and he is going to anticipate my move. So it’s going to be a very different match.