Praveen Thipsay is a Mumbai-based Grandmaster. He spoke to Rajesh Pansare of DNA India.
The volcanic ash has virtually brought Europe’s air traffic to a halt as a result of which Vishy Anand has had to travel by road to Bulgarian capital Sofia where the defending champion will lock horns with favourite Veselin Topalov for the World Chess Championship in Sofia.
I don’t think Anand must have recovered from a 40-hour long bone-jarring road journey. The rejection of Anand’s plea to postpone the contest by two-three days will disrupt his gameplan. Also, his seconds would have reached late and they will be tired as well.
Anand has to make sure that he is not psychologically affected. Because in Bulgaria, Topalov is a national hero. The tournament is sponsored by the country’s government, which is not the case all the time. So it gains more significance over there.
With the government taking so much interest, the match will get a lot of public and media attention. It will be a national event in Bulgaria and you can compare the frenzy to the forthcoming football World Cup. That sort of thing never happened when Anand played in India.
Game wise, Topalov has been playing badly this year. He was lucky to win Linares title. So it makes me wonder what kind of games we’ll see from the World No.2. But Linares can’t be an indicator to his form. He played erratically because he didn’t want to reveal his preparations.
If he commits a mistake, Anand will kill him. But Anand has to guard against the erratic openings played by Topalov, who has won from precarious positions.
If Anand shows the same form as he had against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 title clash, then Topalov would be no match for him. But that was about 18 months ago.
One can’t ignore Garry Kasparov’s comment on Anand’s age. I respect Kasparov for his judgement. So I’m little worried on that front. But if you take player-to-player assessments then Topalov at his best is no match for Anand.
One important thing, Anand is unaware of who’s in Topalov’s camp. At least till few days ago when I spoke to him, he wasn’t aware. But Topalov knows who is in Anand’s camp.
The Bulgarian bureaucrats must have been leaked the information to him. Anand has made some guesses of Topalov’s seconds and made his preparations accordingly.
Other interesting aspect will be how early both can pick up each other’s mistakes. Anand has an upper hand in this area. Topalov’s judgement is not that good.
Anand is more composed and is aware of what is happening on the board. If Topalov makes a mistake Anand will make sure he kills him because the Indian Grandmaster will spot it faster than his opponent.
If Anand himself makes a mistake he will spot it faster than Topalov. It is the greatest aspect of Anand’s game.
Anand surprised Kramnik with d4 opening in 2008 championshipand I expect him to do the same against Topalov.
The two popular first moves in chess in recent times are e4 and d4. But over the last couple of years, Anand’s seconds have played d4 often and Anand might stick to that move. But he could come up with sub-variations in the subsequent moves.
Source : DNA India
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