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Crowning glory More than meats the eye We have not received Bharat Thakur’s column Fit Zone this week |
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The final game was a battle of nerves, says
Viswanathan Anand in an interview with N. Ravikumar
Hailed as the true Chennai
Super King, Viswanathan Anand successfully defended the World Chess
Championship with black pieces against challenger Veselin Topalov in
Bulgaria. As a sporting accomplishment, this should rank as high as
anything that any individual or team has managed so far in this country.
Anand has certainly entered the annals of chess as one of the greatest
masters. Coming out with flying colours in the acid test against Veselin
Topalov at Bulgaria, Anand showed tremendous mental strength to win the
world title for the fourth time. After losing the eighth game and
missing numerous wins in the ninth game, in one of the greatest
fightbacks in sports history, Anand bounced back strongly in the next
three games to script a golden chapter in his career. Having postponed
his return to Chennai for a week to relax and rest for a few days, Anand
shared his views with The Tribune. What is the major factor
in winning the match against Topalov? As it was a tight match, it
was a battle of nerves. It all boiled down to the nerves and who cracked
first. I held my nerve while Topalov succumbed to the pressure in the
12th and final game of the match. What do you think is the best game
of the match? In terms of quality the fourth game of the match was
the best. However, the victory in the last game of the match with the
black pieces was one of the best because it helped me retain the world
title. What is the role of your seconds? They played a big part
in my successful defence of the world title. The four seconds worked
extremely hard before the match. After the eighth game of the match,
they had to work very hard in the last four games. They had to find some
improvements in my openings, which they were able to do. We decided to
keep the Queen's Gambit Declined for the decisive game of the match. How
was Bulgaria as a host country? I was fully focussed on the game
away from the board as my team took care of the rest of the things,
which made me comfortable. In the tournament hall I had no problems and
the conditions were good. Do you consider Topalov, a stronger
opponent than Kranik? Kramnik ran into bad luck. He ran into my
preparation and was down by three points after the sixth game. Against
Topalov some of our guesses in the opening came correct. However, some
of our preparations could not be used because those openings did not
occur in the match. The surprising part was Topalov kept on playing the
same opening. We thought he will move on. What is your estimation of
Topalov, who took the 12-game encounter down to the wire? He is one
of the strongest players in the world. I think he is one of the
grittiest and I feel a decade older after this match. What is the
most difficult phase of the match? I missed a few. Game 7 to 10
were very difficult for me. I felt he started taking the match
initiative during this phase. In Game 8, he did press me; he had a good
idea and all, but having escaped, and then to blunder and lose was bad.
And in Game 10, when I was losing, I thought that, after the last three
games, if I were to lose and fall behind, it would be very difficult. What
about the final game? I think Topalov took a big gamble. Now it
seems obvious to me that this gamble was wrong. I realised he missed my
queen move but still, when my bishop is on the big diagonal like that,
and to allow me to open it, he took the decision very late. How did
you deal with the loss in the opening game? It was one of those
ridiculous moments that you are not supposed to have but it happens. The
only thing I told myself was if it had to happen, it is best to happen
in the first round. You still have time to recover. I knew it would be a
long match. I was not worried at that point. But it was the worst
possible start to the match. What did you feel after retaining the
world title? I was eagerly looking to catch some sleep. More than
anything else, I need some rest. After a point, the tension gets to you.
So, right now, I am looking forward to lots of sleep. You have
triggered a chess revolution in the country? What will be the effect of
your latest victory on the mind of chess players in India? Right
now, I can't think of any sort of legacy. I am just relieved that I am
still gonna wake up tomorrow as world champion. |
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Hours of preparation and thorough homework by his backroom boys shaped Viswanathan Anand’s victory, writes M. S. Unnikrishnan Viswanathan Anand made the right moves after a numbing defeat in the opening gambit to renew his lease on the world chess crown in a display of resilience and perseverance, which marked him out as a sportsman of exceptional class and talent. Anand’s success at the highest echelons of chess has come after burning a lot of midnight oil, and shedding gallons of sweat and tears. Anand’s triumph was sweeter as he grounded challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria on his home turf at Sofia to hold on the world title for another two years with an astounding 56-move victory with black pieces in the deciding 12th game of the 12-match contest to win by 6.5-5.5 points. This was the 40-year-old Anand’s second consecutive World Championship victory in match format. He first won the world title in 2000 at Teheran, beating Alexei Shirov of Spain, though at that time the chess world was a divided zone. Anand became the undisputed world champion after winning an eight-player contest in 2007 and defended the crown against Vladimir Kramnik a year later. Topalov earned the right to challenge Anand after beating Gata Kamski in 2009 “It is the best win of my career. In terms of intensity, this match would rate as the most difficult,” a relieved Anand said after his title victory. Anand was ranked No 1 in 2007 and became the sixth player to occupy the top spot since ranking was introduced in 1970 —behind Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Vaselin Topalov. The Indian maestro, who has seen the peaks and troughs with equanimity, has now swept all the chess honours worth winning, including five Oscars. Yet, he remains modest and humble and is still “Baba” to his parents back home in Chennai. Perhaps, even Anand did not expect the match to pan out the way it did after he lost the first and eighth games. From the outset, things went terribly wrong for the reigning champion as first, he was stranded at the Frankfurt airport when ash clouds spewing from the volcanos of Iceland enveloped Europe, leading to the suspension of flights. He had to make a 40-hour drive down across five countries to reach Sofia just a day before the championship, as the FIDE (the world chess body) did not accede to his demand to postpone the championship for three days, but agreed to only a one-day grace period. And before Anand could settle down, Topalov stunned him in the first game. Though Anand fought back to win the second and fourth games, Topalov, playing aggressive moves, neutralised the score with another win in the 8th game. They then played closely fought draws in the next three games before Anand settled the contest with a stunning victory with black pieces in the 12th to avoid the rapid-chess tie-break. Anand pocketed a whopping Rs 6.8 crore from the total purse of 2 million euros. Topalov took home euros 8,00,000. Anand can now hold on to the title till 2012, when the next World Championship contest is expected to be held in London. With four world titles in his name, Anand has become the undisputed master of the chequer board. The player to challenge Anand would be decided in the eight-player Candidates Tournament to be held in 2011. Imagine, Anand, now sitting pretty on the high pedestal, had to go through the qualifying rigmarole himself before meeting Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Kasparov of Russia in the 1990s, and against Alexei Shirov of Spain in 2000, in the title matches. Anand and Topalov had not played any serious chess against each other since 2008, and both were thus in the dark about the game plans of each other. Anand had to be wary of the aggressive Topalov, but his backroom boys did their homework pretty well to enable the World Champion to sail through in the crunch game. Hours of preparation went into Anand’s game plans though each game against Tapolov was a long
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"The Commonwealth Games Federation's requirement from the organising committee is to provide to a quality 24-hour catering service offering nutritious meals and snacks to the athletes and their team officials during the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010, taking into consideration, cultural and dietary requirements and the need for variety and rotation of menus. The organising committee is duty-bound to carry this out," the committee replied. Recently, the Delhi government had also clarified that beef will not be served during the Games. Meanwhile, a new study says eating processed meats like salami, sausages and hot dogs is likely to up the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Eating unprocessed beef, pork or lamb appeared not to raise risks of heart attacks and diabetes, but processed meat was associated with a 42 per cent higher risk of heart disease and a 19 per cent higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. Processed meat is defined as any meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or with the addition of chemical preservatives; examples include bacon, salami, sausages, hot dogs or processed deli or luncheon meats. Conversely, researchers did not find any higher risk of heart disease or diabetes among individuals eating unprocessed red meat. "Although most dietary guidelines recommend reducing meat
consumption, prior individual studies have shown mixed results for relationships between meat
consumption and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes," said Renata Micha, who led the study. Micha, research fellow in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), said: "Most prior studies also did not separately consider the health effects of eating unprocessed red versus processed meats." Researchers, led by Micha and HSPH colleagues Dariush Mozaffarian, assistant professor in epidemiology, and Sarah Wallace, junior research fellow, systematically reviewed nearly 1,600 studies. Twenty relevant studies were identified, which included more than 1.2 million individuals from 10 countries on four continents (US, Europe, Australia, and Asia). The researchers defined unprocessed red meat as any unprocessed meat from mutton, beef, lamb
or pork, excluding poultry, said a Harvard release. These findings were published online
in Circulation. — IANS |
Laying all controversy to rest, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has clarified that beef will not be served during the Games scheduled to take place in the national Capital later this year. The organising committee replied with an emphatic "no" to a query by Right to Information
(RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who wanted to know if beef was a compulsory item to be served during the Games, scheduled from October 3-14.
Laying all controversy to rest, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has clarified that beef will not be served during the Games scheduled to take place in the national Capital later this year. The organising committee replied with an emphatic "no" to a query by Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who wanted to know if beef was a compulsory item to be served during the Games, scheduled from October 3-14.