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 Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand today said he was aiming to cross the 2800 ELO rating and win the FIDE world title in the coming years.
Anand told a press conference here that his ambition now was to cross the 2,800-mark in ELO ratings and win the FIDE world title under the FIDE reunification system. "This year has been good to me. I have been performing so well that
I will have to keep the momentum to cross the 2800 mark and win the FIDE world title."
On his future plans, he said "For a start, the 2800 mark, is something that I would like to go for. Since the reunification has been started out, the reunified title by the
FIDE will be one of the moot point for me. But it is a title bit into the future".
"Right now, I am hoping to pile up some points in the coming Linares tournament. I felt encouraged by the way I am playing and improving upon my game. I think I should do like this more often because it is in tournaments that I get lot of my work done. I would like to play a lot of tournaments next year," Anand, the Indian icon of the elite game of 64-squares, said.
Strong field at Hyderabad World Cup
 Anand, who was felicitated for retaining the World Cup title in Hyderabad last week by the Tamil Nadu Chess Association of which the chess prodigy is a life member, said "the Hyderabad World Cup was a strong field and its strength could be gauged by the fact that strong players like Vassily
Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich did not qualify for the tournament proper".
He said "I think the point here is there were a few famous and big names in chess. But that gives clear picture of the strength in chess. The tournament was intensively
competitive".
Emphasising that one could not compare the World Cup with the World
Championship, he said "you cannot really compare the world championship which has 128 players with field of 24 in World Cup. I would still say that the Hyderabad tournament was the strongest tournament that was held in its total entirety in Indian soil, where as last year, it was held between Delhi and
Tehran".
Summing up the Hyderabad event, he said he started with a deficit before winning the third and fourth game. "In mind, I came back from a deficit. The third and fourth games put me in run for one of the qualifying spots. In fact, it looked like a three-way tie for two qualifying spots. But it turned out to be a five-way tie.
On the last day, Rustam Kasimdzhanov was waiting for the result of Sasikiran's match against Xu
Jun and then tied, with me for the second spot. All these made the last round very confusing as all our chances of qualifying for the two spots depended on this cycle."
"After my draw, the only person who could be eliminated was Hamdouchi Hichem, who drew with me and he was half a point behind me. But at the end of the day, I got through to the next round and I felt sort of liberated and played exactly as what happened in the first World Cup. I was just thinking as to how much risk is appropriate in such a situation in the last round game. It went magically with my winning one game and did not need a tie-break and then went to win the title."
Sasikiran put pressure on me
As for his loss to Sasikiran, he said "Sasikiran played very well. He managed to spot an opening, which occurred very rarely in my career. He managed to put the pressure on me. Though we both exchanged a few mistakes, that cannot take away any credit from Sasikiran. It is hard struggle and it is normal in chess at this level".
"It was a loss for me in 11 years against an Indian, which is an easy record, almost a first game with an Indian in eleven years. But that does not take away the fact that I never had any real threat in the whole of Asia for about ten years. I can only say that something is brewing in my own city."
On the organisational point of view of the tournament, he said "it was one of the best organised tournaments. It was very pleasant to see the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Governor evincing great interest and following it very closely", he said.
"The steps that are being taken in Andhra Pradesh is brilliant for chess in the country. I think it is a big step in the right direction. We will get more tournaments like this in India. In general, the southern part of India is moving very well in right direction in Chess. Harikishna and Koneru Humpy are doing a lot for the game," he said, adding that they were coming up at a faster pace.
He said Sasikiran "is already there" and saw him as the future. He is already in the top 40 and his rating was up to 2670.
According to him, Humpy was quite strong. "In all these three players' cases all of them played a big part. May be they felt the pressure or got excited. Sasi collapsed towards the end. Chess-wise there is great stuff in India now.
"Women's chess is also getting noted at higher levels. For instance, there were two Indians, Meenakshi as well besides Humpy in the quarterfinals. There is a lot of depth and with more opportunities they will come through well."
Lauding the manner in which the TNCA was being run, Anand said his association with the present association president P R Venkatarama Raja went back to 10 years and "it was always been affectionate and respectful from the time the Ramco Systems helped me".
Wallowing in glory
"I always look forward to come to Chennai and felicitation functions with the family has always been special to me. I have had wonderful time during the last three days wallowing in glory. Today, I go back to Spain and the circuit goes on," he said.
As for his Academy, Vishy said "I am not looking forward to build a big building to name it as Academy for the present but I will continue to strive to help the Indian chess, like the way I had coached six players recently for over a week. Shortly, I will associate with the NIIT's Mind Champion Academy. I have not approached any
Government assistance in this regard so far".
Agencies
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