Viswanathan Anand on what will happen when Magnus and Hikaru leave: ‘Sport goes on, hundreds of new talents coming in'
The world of chess has been left pondering about what would happen if stars like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura call it a day and stop playing classical chess, as indicated by the Norwegian world no 1 recently. Five-time world champion Carlsen has anyway reduced his classical appearances to a bare minimum — the ongoing Norway Chess is likely the only classical tournament he will be competing in this year as he trains his focus on playing in faster time control events, freestyle events and events like the Esports World Cup. Nakamura too has spoken more frequently in recent years about dialling down on the longest — and the purest — format of the game.
But former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is also a Deputy President in FIDE, the global governing body of the sport, believes that the sport can endure even when the most popular crowd-pullers like Carlsen and Nakamura walk away.
'In a sense, we can't ask what's the future every time somebody decides to dial it down. I mean, nobody asked me. I also dialed it down (reduced playing in tournaments). So what's going to happen? So the sport goes on. There are hundreds of new talents. 11-year-olds, 80-year-olds. It's coming at both ends. It's a normal part of life, I think,' Anand told journalists from India during the ongoing Norway Chess tournament.
'Magnus and Hikaru have advertised this for some time (them not playing classical chess). I mean, Hikaru doesn't play very much anyway, he is really quite busy with his other commitments, streaming and so on. And the same with Magnus. He has mentioned this many times that he wants to work on this and that. And in this case, we had a lot of warning. I mean, Magnus has been talking about it for at least six years. Then this kind of came into focus in 2022, during the Madrid Candidates tournament. And it's the same with Hikaru. So it's not at all unexpected.
Carlsen made global headlines recently after slamming a balled fist on the chess board after an uncharacteristic error from him resulted in a defeat to Gukesh, his first loss to the reigning world champion from India. Carlsen later said that classical chess was not 'fun at all' for him. He mentioned that at some point during the game against Gukesh he was asking himself why he was playing the format at all, and later also mentioned that he should 'maybe totally stop playing classical chess.'
Nakamura too had said that there was a good chance (about 80 percent) that the world had seen them playing against each other at Norway Chess for the last time.
Carlsen had told Norway's TV2, 'I don't think that (the game against Gukesh) was fun. I have to consider how to avoid it… maybe I should totally stop playing classical chess. It was not fun for me at all. In general I feel I have played well in the tournament but I don't feel it is fun playing. I am not worried about my level.'
Meanwhile, Anand also praised the 19-year-old Gukesh, who currently occupies the world champion's throne. Gukesh started Norway Chess in the worst way possible, losing to Carlsen and then Arjun Erigaisi in the first two games, before stabilising his tournament with some big wins, including the one against Carlsen and Arjun as well.
'He's tough, quite tenacious, copes pretty well with setbacks. Obviously, this (Norway Chess) is a higher test, more intense tournament, so he seems to be under pressure every day, but several days he came out (and played well). I think yesterday (against Nakamura), he flipped a little bit. something was off with him. But that's also normal. You have big off days after a good run,' Anand said about his protege.
Asked if Gukesh should take a break from tournaments rather than playing non-stop, Anand said: 'It depends what you want to try. And I also think you have to grab opportunities. Maybe going forward, careers won't be as long. You have to schedule some timeouts, do some (few) tournaments. After this (Norway Chess), he gets a break. But I guess he will play Zagreb. So he's got to enjoy the moments of break as well, because there's no use if the brain refuses to come along.'
(The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess. Matches are live-streamed on Sony LIV.)
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
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