Viswanathan Anand - World Champ for 8 Years.

[jimmy]

Anand bags rapid title

[jaydeep]

And as Gansy already mentioned Anand joins 2800 elo points club and missing top ranking by mere 1 point.

Anand joins 2800 club

Jaydeep.

[gansy]

Couple of Anand interviews -

about the olympiad:

http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/27/stories ... 062200.htm

1. he is playing in the olympiad
2. he pretty actively follows the progress of other Indian players and thinks DP Singh is an exciting prospect

about the Mtel Masters:

http://www.mtelmasters06.com/en/intervi ... id=24.html

(looks like a pretty moronic interview deliberately putting down rapid events etc. - Anand however keeps his cool)

[jaydeep]

Veselin Topalov has won the Chess Oscar for 2005 ... He beat Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand by 881 points to clinch the honour ... Topalov pooled 4376 votes to Anand’s 3495 in a poll ... This is Topalov’s first Oscar. Garry Kasparov has won the Oscar five times with Anand taking the honour four times ... Vladimir Kramnik (once) is the only other winner of the title ... Topalov had 219 first choice votes to Anand’s 19.

Jaydeep.

[Kumar]

As per viji, Anand beats Topalov in MTel Masters

[jaydeep]

As per my knowledge Anand defeated Etienne Bacrot of France in first round with black.

Jaydeep.

[Kumar]

Anand beat Topalov with black in second round to go to 2.0 (both wins coming with black) .. Will face Kamsky in next round..

[jaydeep]

Gata Kamsky beat Anand with black pieces and lead with 2.5 points after three rounds of the Mtel Masters chess tournament at Sofia.

This was Gata Kamsky's second win on Anand in year 2006 ... In January he defeated Anand in Corus Chess Tournament, where Anand finished joint winner with Veselin Topalov.

Mtel Masters chess tournament - After 3rd Round

1 Gata Kamsky (US) 2.5 pts
2 Peter Svidler (Rus) 2 pts
2 Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2 pts
4 Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 1 pts
4 Veselin Topalov (Bul) 1 pts
6 Etienne Bacrot (Fra) 0.5 pts

Jaydeep.

[Kumar]

Anand is struggling second time around with two draws and 1 loss... He needed to beat Kamsky to have any chance of catching up to him. One more win for Kamsky will seal a victory for him..

[viji]

Anand comes 3rd at Mtel. Topalov wins the last game and wins the tournament ahead of Kamsky.

[jaydeep]

Final scorecard -

Round 1 (May 11, 2006)

Ponomariov, Ruslan - Kamsky, Gata 1/2 64 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Svidler, Peter - Topalov, Veselin 1/2 71 B80 Sicilian Scheveningen
Bacrot, Etienne - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 54 E12 Queens Indian Petrosian

Round 2 (May 12, 2006)

Svidler, Peter - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0 43 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Kamsky, Gata - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 103 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Topalov, Veselin - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 36 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed

Round 3 (May 13, 2006)

Anand, Viswanathan - Kamsky, Gata 0-1 57 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Ponomariov, Ruslan - Topalov, Veselin 1/2 66 D45 Anti-Meran Variations
Bacrot, Etienne - Svidler, Peter 1/2 32 D85 Gruenfeld Defence

Round 4 (May 14, 2006)

Kamsky, Gata - Svidler, Peter 1-0 24 B83 Sicilian Scheveningen
Anand, Viswanathan - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0 56 B19 Caro Kann
Bacrot, Etienne - Topalov, Veselin 1/2 29 E20 Nimzo Indian

Round 5 (May 15, 2006)

Topalov, Veselin - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 42 D15 Slav Defence
Svidler, Peter - Anand, Viswanathan 1/2 38 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Ponomariov, Ruslan - Bacrot, Etienne 1/2 47 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed

Round 6 (May 17, 2006)

Kamsky, Gata - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0 41 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Anand, Viswanathan - Bacrot, Etienne 1/2 50 C89 Ruy Lopez Marshall
Topalov, Veselin - Svidler, Peter 0-1 61 D87 Gruenfeld Botvinnik

Round 7 (May 18, 2006)

Anand, Viswanathan - Topalov, Veselin 0-1 61 B80 Sicilian Scheveningen
Bacrot, Etienne - Kamsky, Gata 1/2 52 D15 Slav Defence
Ponomariov, Ruslan - Svidler, Peter 1-0 53 B42 Sicilian Paulsen

Round 8 (May 19, 2006)

Kamsky, Gata - Anand, Viswanathan 1/2 39 C68 Ruy Lopez Exchange
Topalov, Veselin - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0 65 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Svidler, Peter - Bacrot, Etienne 1/2 37 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed

Round 9 (May 20, 2006)

Kamsky, Gata - Topalov, Veselin 0-1 29 B97 Sicilian Najdorf
Anand, Viswanathan - Svidler, Peter 1/2 40 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Bacrot, Etienne - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1/2 45 E15 Queens Indian

Round 10 (May 21, 2006)

Topalov, Veselin - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 42 D15 Slav Defence
Svidler, Peter - Kamsky, Gata 1/2 33 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Ponomariov, Ruslan - Anand, Viswanathan 1/2 53 E12 Queens Indian Petrosian

Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (BUL), 11-21 v 2006 cat. XX (2745)
-------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6
-------------------------------------------------------------
1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2804 ** 11 01 =0 =1 =1 6.5 2842
2 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2671 00 ** 1= 1= 1= =1 6.0 2831
3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2803 10 0= ** == 1= 1= 5.5 2768
4 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2743 =1 0= == ** == 10 5.0 2744
5 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2708 =0 0= 0= == ** == 3.5 2641
6 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2738 =0 =0 0= 01 == ** 3.5 2635
-------------------------------------------------------------

After starting well Anand lost big opportunity to win this prestigious tournament ... Other hand Veselin Topalov showed truely champion material and showed the world why he is no. 1 player ... He won last 4 games to win the MTEL Masters title ...

Jaydeep.

[jaydeep]

Anand again showed his supremacy in rapid chess as he defeated World no. 1 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria 2.5 - 1.5 margin to lift the 19th Magistral Ciudad de Leon title in Leon, Spain ... This was Anand's 6th title at this tournament.

Anand thrashes Topalov to win title - PTI Report

Jaydeep.

[viji]

Anand beats Rajdabov 5-3 to take the GrenkenLeasing Rapid Championship at Mainz.
After the setback on the first day, Anand managed to equalize on the second. Then he came back to his usual dominating self, as far as rapids are concerned.
The final chessbase report is at
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3300

[kujo]

Well, this thread should have at least one post about a significant milestone in Anand's chess career. Vishwanathan Anand - will be ranked World No 1 in the FIDE ranking list, to be released on April 1 , 2007. 

Barring any last minute surprises, his recent performance as Linares Champion should be included in the FIDE ratings calculations. Here is a nice article in rediff (interview with Anand's parents) http://specials.rediff.com/sports/2007/mar/16sld1.htm

We also had an occasion to watch him play Kasparov. The first seven games were drawn, and then Anand won the eighth game. My goodness! You should have seen Kasparov's behaviour. I said, "I don't want Anand to win at all if that man is going to behave that way."

He [Kasparov] was so abrupt after the game that he knocked out all the doors and made so much noise. He doesn't take defeat like a sportsman.

There is that 1995 championship still fresh in his mom's memory. Can you believe what she says there? She would rather see her son Anand lose, if it meant that Kasparov would behave normally!!

Say what you want, sometimes a mom's wish is much stronger than you think it will ever be.... Anand did lose the championship in 1995.

cheers
-kujo

ps: No disrespect / criticism of Anand's parents. They are good people and are proud of Anand being a nice boy, more than anything else.

[PKBasu]

Beautiful story and quote from Anand's mom. I am proud of her!

It also helps explain why Anand has not become world champion yet. Looking over chess history, he is undoubtedly the nicest person to ever hold the FIDE's world #1 rating.


BK Nehru's autobiography comes to mind; IIRC, it is titled "Nice Guys Finish Second"!! Very Indian! His cousin, Jawaharlal, became PM because he was non-Indian at heart (ruthless when necessary, obsequious toward Gandhiji at every turning point while appearing to be with the Socialists at all other times that did not require significant decisions). While Jawaharlal was non-Indian in domestic politics, his quintessential Indianness (and touching romanticism) was entirely evident in foreign policy -- especially in dealings with the US (who he disdained for no apparent reason) and China (with whom he was blinkered in his naivete). We are still paying the price -- both in having his family ruling us, and in suffering the consequences of his disastrous foreign policy that has set us back several decades economically.