Forty years ago, India had one FIDE titled chess player. His name was Manuel Aaron, and people actually remember him since he was the only entrant on the rating list for years. The World Chess Federation or Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) awards several performance-based titles to chess players. Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating points and norms, performance benchmarks in competitions. Once awarded, FIDE titles are held for life.
Forty years after Aaron became a titled player, India is defending its world championship chess title which Viswanathan Anand captured from Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik in 2007. Kramnik had beaten Kasparov to emerge as the new world champion in 2000 in London. You see, Kramnik used to train with Kasparov and became 
one of his primary seconds (assistants) for the Kasparov-Anand match, which I covered for the Stabroek News in 1995 at the World Trade Center. Kramnik learnt an irrefutable truth about Kasparov: that he preferred to play with Queens on the chessboard. In fact, Kasparov was “murderous” when his Queen was still in play.
In April of this year, a 22-year-old Norwegian, Magnus Carlsen, earned the right to challenge Anand for the title in a match that is being called a “spectacle”. Carlsen is ranked 95 rating points above the 43-year-old Anand and is generally considered the favourite to emerge victorious. But not so in India, and unapologetically, not so in Chennai, the city where Anand was born and where the match would be contested. Consider the unreachable odds in the numbers who favour Anand. Five million people from Norway, the entire populace, will be rooting for Carlsen, while 1.3 billion, 260 times over, will be clamouring energetically for their hero and idol Anand. The match begins on Thursday and runs until November 28.
However, numbers, good wishes and prolonged cheers do not win chess matches. Good moves win chess matches. Carlsen has been winning tournament after tournament, and his rating points have skyrocketed to the highest mark ever in the long history of the ancient game. But can he convert his sizeable tournament victories into one elegant match win? Anand performs at his best during match play. He has successfully defended his world championship title in the various formats of the game: match-tournament, knockout and matches. Anand has played against the likes of Kasparov of Russia, his compatriot Anatoly Karpov, and more recently, another Russian, Vladimir Kramnik, the Bulgarian Veselin Topolov and Israel’s Boris Gelfand to fight for the world title. Therefore, having the highest rating points and being acknowledged as the number one chess player in the world, may be one thing, but having the experience as Anand does, may be quite another.
Given the statistics, Anand holds the advantage. The two have played 29 games so far in the Classical format with Anand winning six and Carlsen clinching three and the remaining 20 ending in draws. Kasparov has observed that if the scores are even at the halfway mark of the designated 12 games, Anand’s chances of beating Carlsen will improve. That being said, we should remember that in their two last encounters, Anand was defeated both times by Carlsen, which must have been very dispiriting for the world champion. Also, it may be worthwhile to note that Carlsen has been the world number one for 21 consecutive rating lists! But still, we should not base our predictions on a set formula, because we have to take all of the factors into consideration.
There was a time not so long ago when the world stopped for professional chess. Hundreds of millions watched as Fischer beat the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972. It was that identical year that then president Forbes Burnham established the Guyana Chess Association. Ask the average person what he remembers about the year 1972, and chances are he may say the Vietnam war and the Fischer-Spassky match. During the 1990s, a pair of matches between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, a computer, recaptured some of the Fischer suspense. But since 1997, when Deep Blue was shelved, chess became an obscure sport again. The game requires some excitement, and therefore, one wonders whether the Carlsen-Anand match can provide that kind of stimulus.
In an article published by the Economist last month and titled “A Sporting Chance”, we are reminded of the number of fans of chess. The article said: “Research in five countries by YouGov, a pollster, found that more than two thirds of adults have played at least once. FIDE says 605 million do so regularly. In India, where Anand is a national hero, nearly a third of adults claim to play every week. The internet and smartphones mean novices no longer need a friend to play.” The article went on to say that Susan Polgar, a Hungarian-American grandmaster and one of the three famous Polgar sisters, noted that about 35 countries include chess in their school curricula. FIDE’s membership includes associations in 178 countries, up from 90 or so in the 1970s. This has cut the dominance of professional competitors from Russia and former Soviet states. Hou Yifan, a 19-year-old from China, won the women’s world championship title on September 20. Carlsen could become western Europe’s first world champion since 1937.
Leonard Barden, chess columnist for The Guardian, explains the kind of mind games that are unfolding between the two competitors.
“Carlsen got a warm welcome including one from 2,000 screaming girl fans, but the Indians had also prepared a trap, one used by the Soviet Union in the 1930s and by England in the 1970s for top foreign grandmasters. The world No1 was asked to play a simultaneous match against 20 children, who all turned out to be national champions and world youth prizewinners. India is a top nation in the junior category as were the USSR and England in the old days, and Carlsen won only 10 games, conceding six draws and four defeats,” The Guardian article said.
So it is advantage Anand, and on form Carlsen. If the games end in a 6-6 tie, the two competitors go into the speed chess category. And this is when Anand becomes very dangerous; simply because he is known as ‘the Fastest Brain in the Game’. He calculates quickly and extraordinarily. My view is that Carlsen will attempt to grind Anand down, since he holds the trump cards for being younger and bursting with energy. If the game goes to 100 moves, Carlsen will play on. Finally I should mention, en passant, that there is small reward of US$2.6 million for the players. But in a sense, the purse matters little. India, with its 1.3 billion populace, and Norway with 5 million, matter more!
In local chess, the senior qualifying matches for the 2013 national championships begin on Sunday November 10 at the Carifesta Sports Complex. Taffin Khan is the reigning national chess champion.
