Viswanathan Anand says India could win gold at the Chess Olympiad
Viswanathan Anand, who recently won the World Rapid Championship in Riyadh, has said he is glad to play in the Chess Olympiad and has expressed confidence of securing a gold.
Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand admitted on Sunday that although he took 11 years to make a decision to take part in the Chess Olympiad, he was always curious to be a part of the tournament, but a few rules kept him away.
Citing zero-tolerance, which hands the opposition a victory if the chess player concerned is late even by a few second, Anand said: “Of course I was curious about playing it. In different circumstances, I might have played it earlier but it’s nice that I can come back now and play it. There are some things I didn’t like, things like zero-tolerance and some of the rules in the Olympiad but I feel that this time the camaraderie and the team, the positive vibes will more than make up for it. I know all these colleagues as well. To be fair, they have done extremely well without me, they finished well in 2014 and 2016.”
Anand, who was recently crowned as the World Rapid chess champion, was in town to felicitate the winners of the IIFL Wealth 3rd Mumbai International Chess Tournament.
Reiterating that the side can be expected to do well in the Olympiads, Anand added: “We will one of the top five-six teams, even that by very small rating points. It will be silly to rule out the gold. We have a good chance but so do many other teams.” The Chess Olympiad is slated to be held in Batumi, Georgia, in September later this year.
India’s best showing in the Olympiads have been in 2014 when they won bronze.
With 2767 points, Anand is the highest rated Indian player and only one of the three to breach the 2700-mark. Penatala Harikrishna (2745) and Sathosh Gujrathi (2718) are the other two. However, there are seven in the 2600 bracket and another 19 in the 2500s.
On being asked how can the rest push their way up, Anand stated: “One of the ways to become a 2,700 (point) player is to compete against a stronger player. That brings a lot of rating points and you can play in your own circle and because of competing against each other, their rating stay in the same band. They need to travel around and look for places where they can play against such players. I don’t think their ratings are really 2650, they have potential to improve it.”