Viswanathan Anand - An amazing year in 2003!

World Rapid Chess Champion and NIIT Brand Ambassador Viswanathan Anand created history of sorts by winning the Corsica Masters title for the fourth time consecutively.

The victory comes soon after his win in the World Rapid Chess Championships in Cap d'Agde a week earlier.

Anand who has been the strongest rapid chess player by winning in Prague in 2002 proved his mettle once again by defeating Vesselin Topalov in an energy driven nail biting finish.

If one takes a look at Anand's performance in rapid chess, the Indian ace has won every event he has participated in since the Eurotel Trophy in Prague in May 2002.

If the Eurotel Trophy was the strongest rapid event in 2002, the Cap d'Agde event brought together an even stronger playing field. In what is termed as the "Tour de France" of Chess, the two events in Cap d'Agde and Corsica brought together the absolute elite of the chess world.

In 2003, Anand has won every rapid chess event he has participated in. Starting with the Amber Rapid and Blind Chess Tournament in March. The Indian Grandmaster became the only player to win the event three times unshared.

Soon after Anand played in the SIS MH Masters in Denmark. Making a near perfect score of 5.5 out of 6 Anand won the tournament with ease.

In Mainz Anand was pitted against the strongest women's Player, Judit Polgar. In a see saw battle Anand and Judit exchanged victories going into the last day of the match. On the last day Anand won both games. The Indian lightning kid created history by winning the famous black jacket four times in succession. Anand has won this rapid event six out of seven times since 1997.

In Corsica, Anand qualified with ease with the required plus four score by the sixth round and cruised to qualification three rounds later. He played the Croatian veteran Miso Cebalo in the pre quarters. In the first game, Anand got a lucky break with black when his opponent missed a two move tactic. Needing just a draw with white, Anand moved into the Quarterfinals. His opponent, the Polyglot French Grandmaster Joel Lautier qualified by beating the Russian Grandmaster Epishin. On move 4 in his first game with black Anand noticed that Lautier was aiming for a Catalan opening, and improvised with a highly unusual flank thrust. This took the game completely out of charted paths and a bit later Lautier missed an important pawn advance, he had to give a pawn just to stay in the game. Anand conducted the technical phase easily to victory. Once again a draw with white saw him through to the semi finals. When the colours were being draw

n against his next opponent, the young and flamboyant Russian GM Alexander Grischuk. The Russian commented, " Vishy, I do not like the way you win with black and draw with white." Once again Anand had a strong novelty prepared with black and got into a winning end game, inexplicably Anand misplayed the technical part missing a mate in two and drew the game. Anand tried to keep his cool after a close brush with victory. In the second game, Grischuk who is one of the sharpest tacticians around doesn't play calm chess and threw up a maelstrom in the Petroff defence. Play was very sharp and both players ran very short on time. The advantage for Anand was that he had the two bishops, which are very dangerous in open positions. Grischuk at one point had only a few seconds left to make his moves and committed several errors handing the game and the match to Anand. Anand's opponent Topalov also qualified beating Shirov, but needed a tie break to do so. Funnily enough, both players faced each other in the same Mexican restaurant that evening. A sort of piquant prelude to the match that was to follow.

Topalov is a very combative player and went for a complex variation arising from the Nimzo-Indian defence. Anand countered it by using some of his old preparation from the match in 1995 with Kasparov, which culminated in a pawn advance to d2. Topalov found his way through the complications, and was two pawns up at the end. However the presence of opposite colored bishops meant that Black had compensation and the game was drawn by repetition. The second game was similar. It was Topalov's turn to sacrifice two pawns and he added a rook to the list before drawing by perpetual check. Two more rapid games of ten minutes ended in a draw.

In the three minute tie break games, Anand won the 5th game with black. He was under pressure for the greater part of the game but when his opponent mis-evaluated a rook ending Anand was able to smell victory. In the last and final blitz Topalov hungry for revenge, went for the attack but Anand was able to stop the advance and won two pawns in the process. At this moment Topalov resigned and Anand won the Fourth Corsica Masters Title.

In the Corsica Masters event, Anand proved very productive with black and efficient with white. Speaking to the press after the even, Anand said, " I was not sure what to expect here. Just coming off a gruelling event in Cap d'Agde I thought I should play well but not put too much pressure. I qualified with ease and then thought, maybe I can win this too. This event is also very special to me, as I have won it four times in a row. The Organisers put in a lot for the event and I was happy to win."

After the event, Michael Gurevitch who was also Anand's first trainer and "Guru" in Brussels 1991 commented, " Anand is our very own Lance Armstrong. He has won two very strong events four times in a row closing in on the Armstrong's by created a sequel in Chess, Tour de France".

In Classical Chess, Anand has put in a good performance in 2003. He won the traditional Corus 2003 Chess tournament in January.

In Linares he finished joint third with Kasparov. In Dortmund after a disastrous start, Anand fought back to win three games in a row. His game against the tournament winner Victor Bologan deserves special mention for the novelty employed by Anand . To quote Anand " After my first loss to Victor, I was waiting to play him in the second half of the event. Seeing that he played the Caro Kann defence in most of his games, I thought this was the best time to pull out this ace. Actually the move occurred to me during my match (Mainz 2002, Anand won 4.5-3.5) against Ruslan Ponomariov. In the first game at one point I was so lost and thought if Ruslan played Rook to E1 I have to resign. Luckily he played Knight to D2. I held my breath! I came home and checked this move and found no defence. Bologan was Ponomariov's second and I knew they must have worked a good deal on this. So he was the perfect person to wheel out this novelty.

Anand took joint second along with Kramnik.

Viswanathan Anand also became the highest scorer in the Bundesliga for his German team, Baden OOs. He scored 5.5/7. Anand will debut for his team in the 2003-2004 season on November 22nd.

To finish this year's circuit Anand will participate in the "Torneo de las estrellas" in Benidorm, Spain. It will also be a rapid event along with Karpov and Topalov. Apart from that Anand will play two weekends in the Bundesliga.

Will Anand want to win in Benidorm? " To win is always nice. Winning Cap d'Agde was most important. It was the World Rapid Chess Championships and defeating Kramnik in the final was really nice. He is one of the strongest and most solid players in the elite. He hardly ever loses a game. Of course I will play chess and not think too much of records. Old records always get broken when you set new goals for yourself".

Looking back at Anand's performance in 2002 and 2003, a more mature Anand seems to be emerging. More aggressive and with more fighting spirit. " In many of my tournament victories, especially in Rapid chess I have lost one or two games, at this moment there is a sudden surge of adrenalin and you just want to go out and play 100% and prove to yourself. I just want to win. It seems to work. "

In 2003 Anand has played much more than other players at the top and that too with success. He has been the only player in the top to win a series of events. Anand always known for his diplomacy and humility prefers his chess moves to do the talking. " After a victory or a loss you always go home back to your computer and check if there was a better move that won or a move that could have salvaged the position. In an essence that is what triggers your appetite for chess. You have never learnt enough. There are a lot of avenues, which I would like to work on. These last few tournaments have thrown up a whole range of interesting ideas, which I need to understand and add to my repertoire. "

Apart from Chess, Anand is also the Brand ambassador for NIIT, India's leading Computer training Institute and the Vidyasagar, a Chennai based organisation for the Spastics.