Viswanathan Anand speaks: How a ‘limited’ young Magnus Carlsen became chess’ unbeatable beast

“I was in a chess crisis from roughly the end of 2010 until, well, after the match in 2013. I was really struggling with my game, and while I was working, I think I was unable to adapt to the new trends and developments. At the same time, I was working harder and harder in my old ways, trying to catch up, and it wasn’t working. This frustration climaxed in a pretty pathetic defeat in Chennai. But then I suddenly had this realisation… when I took a lot of pressure off myself and just tried to play for fun and experiment a bit more. I certainly won the Candidates in 2014 and played Magnus. I think I played much better this time… a lot of the games were at least two-way battles that could have gone either direction before they went in his favour. So that’s my story,” said Anand.

The legendary Indian chess player became the World Champion for the first time in 2000 when he defeated Spanish Grandmaster Alexei Shirov for the title. It was only in 2007 when he became the undisputed World Champion after finishing first in an eight-player double round-robin tournament held in Mexico City. He had his title until 2013, when Carlsen beat him to become the new World Champion.

Magnus Carlsen says Viswanathan Anand is not fit for the job. (X/FILE)

Anand then spoke about his Carlsen and how he used to be a “limited player” in his early days. “As for Magnus, he used to be quite a limited player, very, very good in that specific area. He limited himself to areas where no one else was really focusing, like the endgame and dry technical positions. He saw potential where others basically saw paint drying, and he was able to lure a lot of unsuspecting chess players to their doom over and over again. He was really cashing in those points before people learned the hard way to take those positions seriously and start working on them,” he said.

Viswanathan Anand interview with Prakhar Gupta

Asked to explain those positions where Carlsen used to excel, Anand said, “Dry positions, where it seems you’re just on the way to making a draw… he understood that you still need to be precise. When people relax, they stop being precise; they go through the motions but aren’t paying attention anymore. So he (Carlsen) used to increase his effort there, force precision, and then the other players would make a mistake, unravel, panic, and lose these dry positions. He was cashing in during 2013-14, but here’s the thing… he bucked two great trends.

“One trend was the broader trend I mentioned… why I think no country will dominate for a long time. Computers were supposed to level the playing field in terms of information, but Magnus showed that his unique ability, to increase his concentration at critical moments, to raise his effort when others were winding down, could be applied to many parts of the game. He was saying, “In any opening, I can find a little area to work in. I’ll apply this pressure, you’ll be inexact, and I’ll punish you.” He was able to do that for a while. He’s been through a lot of trends, but later, he even became the best opening player in the world. For a good five or six years, he was the world’s leading opening expert. He may not have advertised it much, but he had caught up in openings with everyone. He was playing positions he earlier used to avoid… he kept expanding his game,” added Anand.

“Second, he kept expanding his comfort range. He started playing faster and faster time controls. He always liked blitz, but he began playing all this online internet chess, seemingly curious to see what he couldn’t get good at. I think that’s one reason he’s dominating now… because a lot of these faster formats are becoming more common. He continues to do extremely well in them to the point where, now that he seems slightly bored of classical chess, he focuses exclusively on faster play. But that’s a transition he worked on for a long time So he’s the big exception to the trend that says, “We all have the same information; it’s not easy to show an advantage.” Magnus proved otherwise. And while others try to catch up, it turns out it’s not that easy to reduce his edge to a few simple steps. You have to change your whole attitude… concentrate for long periods without expecting immediate payoff, put in effort where others still don’t think it’s necessary. That’s what makes him different,” concluded Anand.