Anand's fantastic performance in Norway Chess!

The Madras Tiger, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand played a fantastic event recently - he finished in 3rd Position at Norway Chess! We were able to get Vishy for a quick call and interviewed the man of the hour.

Complete Interview with GM Viswanathan Anand

Sagar Shah (SS): First off, congratulations on the great result! Are you happy with your performance?

Anand: I would say I was in good form for most of the tournament. Generally, I had a feeling that it was going well - the moves were coming to me easily and they were good. That's a nice combination to have (smiles). But of course - the games against Magnus and Mamedyarov break that impression a little bit. I mean- Rc6 is such a bad move on so many levels because of ...Qd3. I should've spent 15-20 minutes and found either Qg4 or Qa4, and that'd be it. The pawn on b7 is just sitting there! I would say it's a very big missed opportunity- you don't get these positions against Magnus every day.

The Anand-Carlsen battle in Round 5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess

Against Mamed, in a very strange series of events, I played 21.Bd2 - because as I understood it, I'm not better in any way and it's time to close up the position. But Bd2 started a very unfortunate chain of events - after 21...Ng6, even if I don't play 22.Qb5, there's the threat of ...Qxf3! These two moments I would say broke my impression of playing well a bit- but otherwise, I think I was playing very well.

SS: In Magnus's game, before Rc6 you found a lot of good moves like Re2! and Reb2! We had Kramnik on the stream then - he mentioned it was very difficult to manage an advantage against Magnus in these positions, but you did it! How did it feel?

Anand: Exactly! After 15.Nf1, I saw that he could not take on d5. He had three bad choices after that - first is ...Na5, the knight is bad, second is ...Na7 and the knight is bad, third is ...Nb8 and he loses a pawn. So when he went 17...Na5 I was very surprised. I was thinking very clearly at that point - but in the end, my technique just let me down. Before my blunder, I played a high-level game (chuckles).

SS: After the game, it seemed that the flow is not on your side - but your win in Armageddon was tremendous! How did you feel about it?

Anand: In general, my play in Armageddon surprised me - I thought the results would be a lot more mixed. In the beginning, White was scoring higher, but by the end, Black was scoring better. It's still dangerous for Black because you can run out of time - but it's nice to play for two results. Against Magnus, I was very happy to find 37.Bxd5 with very low time on the clock - that was high level, I was proud of that.

SS: Fantastic! Another move that caught my eye was h3! against MVL in Round 1. Did it come to you very naturally? It felt like a very hard move to find.

Anand: I spent around 15-20 minutes trying to find the correct move here. 29.h3 was not as difficult to find - because I wanted to play f4 and Qd4. h3 stops any ...Ng4 ideas It also keeps the g5-square open, so that if Black plays ...Rd8 I can play Qg5 winning.

MVL and Anand doing a post-match analysis | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess

SS: Your Armageddon game with Anish was also a very interesting one - both of you broke out laughing after the game. What was the story there?

Anand: (Laughing) Poor Anish, in the end, he offered me a draw saying "I don't have any more moves". It's a very funny position - White has no plans at all! Sometimes this happens in Blitz, more so with White than Black - you charge in with your pawns and you cannot recover. 17...Be4 followed by 18...Nc5 and 20...a5-22...Nb4 was helpful I think - to eliminate the knights, so that White has no play at all.

Both Giri and Anand shared a laugh after the game | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess

SS: In the Armageddon game against Radjabov, how easy/difficult was it for you to find 22.Nxe5?

Anand: Not very difficult - I had spotted the idea beforehand. It's funny actually - if Radja hadn't played Bd7, he has an extra move on the attack. You want to go for this d6-e5-f6 pawn wall, and then you are completely fine. He did it a move too early without playing ...f6 - and 22.Nxe5 just crushes him.

SS: You already spoke about the Mamedyarov game a bit - what was your reasoning behind the resignation? Mamedyarov mentioned afterward he had not seen the idea until you told him.

Anand: My resignation was most definitely a mistake. I shouldn't have sat there either - I was too tense. The best thing to do was probably just walk off to the player's lounge, make myself a cup of tea and sit there for some time. But I was not thinking straight - my head was spinning at this stupidity. It was tough for me to just sit there - Anish had seen the idea, and Teimour had seen it while walking by. I just thought Shakh would come and look at me surprised, then play Qxf3. But surprisingly enough, he had not seen it beforehand. He was very surprised when I resigned - he was asking "Why'd you resign"? It's a bit irritating when you have to explain to your opponent why you have resigned (breaking out in laughter). It was a 50-50 chance - if he sat and thought for two minutes he would've found it - but if he blitzed out his move I might've escaped. That resignation was the second blunder I made that day.

SS: The next day in your game against Aryan Tari, in a must-win situation, how was it psychologically to find the drawing sequence with 15...Nxc3 and 16...Nd4?

Anand: I evaluated the position as better for White if I don't do this. There's no point in taking risks in a worse position - if White gets Qe2, Rd1, and Qf3, then Black has to suffer a lot. If I lost this game, I would be completely out of the top three - why should I throw that away? I was a bit shaky in both the classical and Armageddon games due to the post -Mamedyarov effect, so I was very happy to win the match with a draw in the Armageddon.

Anand won the match against Tari in the final round | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess

SS: What's next for you, Vishy? Are you playing in any events before the Olympiad?

Anand: I'll be playing in the Leon Masters next month, and then the No-Castling Match in Dortmund against Kramnik. After that, I'll be visiting the Biel Chess festival for a short while and then I'll be back in Chennai.

No-Castling Match 2021 between Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand | Photo: Christian Lünig, Arbeitsblende

SS: Huge Congratulations on this amazing performance Vishy - everyone is in awe by your amazing play. Thanks a lot for your time. Bye!

Anand: Thanks a lot, Sagar - Bye!