JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

DOU­BLE ROOKS

Anand wins return crack at Carlsen

by

20140402

When he lost his world ti­tle last No­vem­ber in an in­dif­fer­ent dis­play against Nor­we­gian star Mag­nus Carlsen, the chess world was ready to write off 44-year-old Vish­wanathan Anand as an age­ing phe­nom­e­non whose glo­ry days were all but over.

Af­ter all, the In­di­an gi­ant had al­ready made his claim to chess im­mor­tal­i­ty by a five-time con­quest of the world cham­pi­onship, a 19-year feat that may well re­main un­blem­ished in the his­to­ry books. Al­so, his hu­mil­i­a­tion at the hands of the young Nor­we­gian was so com­plete that it seemed to mark a point of his de­cline.

But to the amaze­ment, if not the de­light, of chess lovers across the globe, the Tiger from Chen­nai has now demon­strat­ed that the roy­al game al­so has its glo­ri­ous un­cer­tain­ties.

Anand, who had failed to win a game in his clash with Carlsen, played un­beat­en in the re­cent Can­di­dates tour­na­ment earn­ing a hand­some vic­to­ry against sev­en of the world's best and a re­match against the bril­liant young­ster who had de­throned him.

The In­di­an icon won three games and drew eleven in the dou­ble round-robin elim­i­na­tion con­test in Khan­ty Man­siyisk. He fin­ished on eight and a half points, a full point ahead of sec­ond-placed Segey Kar­jakin. His marathon 91-move draw against the Russ­ian in the penul­ti­mate round as­sured him of an unas­sail­able lead af­ter top seed Lev­on Aron­ian suf­fered a painful up­set against world No. 43 Dim­it­ry An­drekin.

Anand opened his re-match cam­paign with a spec­tac­u­lar win over pre-tour­na­ment favourite Aron­ian, skill­ful­ly trap­ping his op­po­nent's knight at the edge of the board.

In the third round, the ex-cham­pi­on crushed Mam­e­d­yarov with a tac­ti­cal on­slaught, a clear in­di­ca­tion that he was back in top form. Round nine pro­duced the turn­ing point as Kram­nik and Aron­ian, both hot on his heels, went un­der while Anand dis­patched his old ri­val Vaselin Topalov.

Clear­ly work­ing in Anand's favour al­so was the qual­i­ty of the Can­di­dates where every com­bat­ant was ca­pa­ble of bring­ing down a fan­cied op­po­nent. And so the sto­ry went. The fi­nal ta­ble made for strange read­ing, with one play­er un­de­feat­ed and every one else los­ing at least twice.

The Times of In­dia ob­served: "It is clear that de­spite los­ing his abil­i­ty to churn out mas­ter­pieces, Anand's so­lid­i­ty and risk free chess proved to be a big fac­tor in the Can­di­dates."

Some com­men­ta­tors have hailed the 44-year-old In­di­an's vic­to­ry as "one of the great­est come­backs in chess his­to­ry."

So far, of course, Anand's per­for­mance is cer­tain­ly im­pres­sive, but oth­ers feel that his "come­back" would not re­al­ly be com­plete if he fails to re­gain the world ti­tle from the young Nor­we­gian who re­lieved him of it last No­vem­ber.

What­ev­er the case, the ami­able In­di­an ge­nius has now be­come the sec­ond old­est play­er in FIDE world chess cham­pi­onship his­to­ry to win a re­match. On­ly Vick­tor Ko­rch­noi was old­er (50) when he earned a re­match with Kar­pov in 1981. Mikhail Botvin­nik al­so de­throned Mikhail Tal in 1961 at the age of 50 but he ben­e­fit­ed from the pol­i­cy of a di­rect re­match.

Now what do the com­men­ta­tors say about Anand's chances of achiev­ing an un­be­liev­able sixth reign as world chess cham­pi­on?

"It's hard to say if Anand is play­ing any bet­ter than he played against me," says Carlsen. "But then Chen­nai was a dif­fer­ent kind of game. He is more prag­mat­ic in his ap­proach, maybe too prag­mat­ic at times."

The leg­endary Kas­parov tweets: "Anand will be the un­der­dog to Carlsen, clear­ly. But chess his­to­ry has shown re­match­es have their own dy­nam­ics. Rarely a re­peat of the first."

Eng­lish GM Nigel Short proph­e­sied that Anand would not suc­ceed in re­cap­tur­ing the world ti­tle be­cause "top class chess is a young man's game."

One com­men­ta­tor sent this mes­sage to Carlsen: "This is not the same Vishy you faced last year. Vishy is com­ing back for his throne."

DR's guess: We'll just have to wait and see.

?


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Leslie Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Leslie Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Leslie Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Leslie Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Jesus Explosion 23: Visiting priest feeds RC faithful

8 hours ago
Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Israel Khan honoured by community cricket league

8 hours ago
SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa steps up Caricom collaboration after summit

Yesterday
Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Argentina wants to export world-famous beef to T&T

Yesterday