CHENNAI: Of all the five world titles he has won so far, Indian chess wizard Viswanathan Anand has rated the latest one as the toughest in terms of intensity.
Anand has been the undisputed world champion since 2007 and he is back in the country after defending his fifth world title, against challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel.
“When you finish an event progressive, it is the toughest ever. It was certainly the longest world championship as such. If you see earlier matches, I finished in game 11 and game 12 but this one went to the tie breaker. I think in terms of intensity this was the toughest,” Anand said on Monday.
Anand said he is aware of the legacy that the fifth world title has created in Indian chess but he just wants to focus on his own game right now.
“At the moment I am aware that it (the legacy) exists but beyond that I do not think about it. When I was in Moscow defending this title, I could not care less whether it was the fifth or the first.
“I simply wanted to defend it. At that point you don’t have luxury to think of what it means. It took it in the perspective and simply wanted to get it over,” he said.
Talking about Gelfand, Anand said the Israeli was a tough nut to crack and had loads of experience to counter whatever he threw at him.
“Boris (Gelfand) is very experienced. He has played in many top events and against top players. He has very close and deep relationships with top players. I did not expect him to lack experience but he might have lacked the actual experience of playing in a World Championship,” he said. (PTI)
