31st December 2006 : Anand leads the way as Indian Chess has another brilliant year

INDIAN chess is a lot about Viswanathan Anand. But the chess revolution that Anand started back in the 1990s has now snowballed into a big machine. Indian players, especially at the junior level are doing extremely well. In fact at the World Age group championships in Georgia in November this year, India won the top honours with 10 medals, five of which were gold. The next best team was Georgia with two gold and six medals overall.

Elsewhere India has dominated the sport in Asia and they rounded of the year with two Asian Games gold medals despite Anand skipping the event.

Anand was recently back in Chennai for his regular December break, after another successful year in 2006. He came home for his customary break before starting off on his 2007 season with the tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands in January 2007.

The year 2006 was a fairly successful one for Anand with the title win in Corus being the highpoint. The victory at the strongest Classical Chess event also saw him cross the magical 2800 mark in Elo points for the first time. Anand rounded off his year with the dominating win the Tal Memorial Blitz event in Moscow.

In between Anand had won at Melody Amber in Monaco and Chess Classic of Mainz. At Melody Amber Anand won for the fifth time and in the last four editions he has won three times. He continued his winning streak in Mainz for the ninth time.

Anand once again won the event in Leon, where he beat Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Anand also came close to winning blitz events in Reykjavik, Iceland and Israel, but finished only third.

Asked about his run in 2006, the NIIT-supported Anand summarized, "I started off winning the strongest Classical event and finished off 2006 by winning the strongest blitz event and for the rest in between it was a standard Anand year.¨

Anand started off 2006 at the annual Corus Schaaktoornoi in Holland . By winning the last game against Gelfand , the Indian genius ensured his place in the tournament's history. He became the only player in the tournament's 68 year history to win the event five times. This victory saw him realise another long dream of taking his ELO above 2800.

When asked about what his win at Corus meant to him , Anand said ¨ Clearly Corus was the highpoint of 2006 and is clearly one of the high points of my career. To know that the record is in no danger of being broken anytime soon, is clearly a very special feeling.¨

At the Tal Memorial Blitz event in Moscow, Anand showed an uncanny consistency in winning the event with one round to spare. Anand has always been one of Mikhail Talks biggest fans. The Russian World Champion was a keen promoter of rapid and blitz chess. His brilliance at tactics had always been one of Anand's inspirations in playing rapid chess. "I remember meeting Tal in Brussels. For me it was like meeting one of the reasons why I started falling in love with chess. To win in Moscow, especially such a tough blitz event was really a thrilling experience. I think in Moscow my play was clearly at a high level."

In 2006 Anand got to play in three blitz events. At Reykjavik and in Israel Anand was close to winning and had to be content with third place. "I think everyone expected me to win in blitz just because I am good in rapid chess. In Moscow, playing under the watchful portrait of Tal just made me realise how tough blitz is ."

Anand surprisingly was able to construct 25 of the 34 games without having any reference material . At rapid chess Anand lived up to his reputation.

At the traditional Melody Amber Blind and Rapid chess event, Anand once again won the event. This takes him to total of another magical fifth time. In the last four editions Anand has won three times.

One of the toughest challenges for 2006 was his rapid match against Teimour Radjabov at Mainz. This is Anand's favourite hunting ground having collected seven black jackets in seven years. The young Azerbajani is seen as one of the most talented youngsters of Generation Next .

"Playing Teimour was a very tough challenge. He is a product of the computer generation . He has a lot of attitude and plays with a lot of confidence. I went into the match with a 50% chance of success. It was a match of energy and experience," said Anand

Another highlight of the rapid circuit was his victory in Leon against a red hot Vesselin Topalov. "I qualified to play Vesselin after barely squeezing past Bruzon. After my performance at the Olympiad I was not having any expectations against Vesselin. But I think I concentrated well in the match. In the match, Vesselin did not have a chance of winning in any of the games."

Anand's form at the Olympiad was not up to his usual standards and as a result the Indian team finished well below expectations.

In 2007 Anand will play in Wijk Aan Zee , Linares and Monaco. The main focus of the year will be the World Championship in Mexico City in September.

As Wijk Aan zee starts in January the race for the Number 1 spot is widely open. Vesselin Topalov after his recent bad performance has fallen back from the 2800 mark.

The Bulgarian is now approximately at 2783. With Anand´s Bundesliga wins Anand will be within a whisker of his Bulgarian rival. Although the Bundesliga points get added in the July list, Anand´s present ELO is at 2779. Vladimir Kramnik who has come out of a lean patch will now be between 10-20 points of the other two and should be approximately at 2760 plus in the next list.

On his expectations for 2007, the Indian maestro remarked, "I would like to play good chess and be in the driver's seat without having to look at the rear view mirror."

SUCCESS ALL AROUND

While Anand as usual has been the focus in Indian chess, there was good news from other quarters, too.

The most notable achievement, of course, was India's twin gold medals at Asian Games in December. Koneru Humpy emerged the women's champion and then Krishnan Sasikiran and Pentala Harikrishna shrugged aside their failures in individual event to team up with Humpy to win team gold medal.

The manner of their win in team championships with more than a round to spare indicated India's dominance despite the presence of China, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

In November, in New Delhi, which hosted the Asian Junior girls championships, 17-year-old Mary Ann Gomes, 17, of Kolkata won the title. Indian girls made a clean sweep of all three medals with Kiran Monisha Mohanty in second place and Lakhsmi Sahiti third.

Among boys, M.Shyam Sundar, a ninth standard school student from Chennai who became India's youngest International Master, grabbed a silver behind Vietnamese grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truongson who took the title on better tie-break. The third place went to Gogineni Rohit of India.

In October, India emerged as the most dominant country when completed its richest haul of medals in the history of the World Youth Chess Championship winning five titles (gold), two silver medals and three bronze medals at Batumi in Georgia. India's haul was better than even hosts Georgia, who had only two gold in their six medals.

India surpassed the previous best of two titles and three medals achieved in 2000. The winners being G.Koushik (Boys-10), Mohineesh (Boys-8), D.Harika (Girls 18) Sahajasri (Girls 10) and Ivana Furtado (Girls-8) won the World Age Group Titles for India. Overall India won a record 10 medals.

Earlier in the year in July, at the Asian Youth chess championships in Iran, Indian boys and girls won all eight gold medals. S Nitin and Bhakti Kulkarni won U-14, Mehar Chinna Reddy and Padmini Rout won U-12, G.V.Sai Krishna and Sahajasri won U-10 and Prince Bajaj and Sweety Patel took he the U-8, leaving little for other teams.

Amongst other successes for India was one title and four medals overall in the Asian Under-16 and 18 Championships at Kyrgyzstan. P.Lakshmi Sahiti of Andhra Pradesh scored seven points from nine rounds to win the Girls Under-16 section.

Without doubt chess is now India's best sport in terms of results and medals achieved each year.