It the was our last day of the "one-year homeless journey" that Amruta and I began on November 27th 2017, and what better thing to do than to interview the absolute best chess player of India, one of the best in the world and five-time World Champion, Viswanathan Anand. After his success at the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz 2018, Vishy has a few days off before he will once again be in action at the World Rapid and Blitz in St. Petersburg. We were able to catch him at his home in Kotturpuram, Chennai, where he spent a solid half an hour explaining all the intricacies of the Carlsen vs Caruana match.
In conversation with Vishy Anand at his residence in Chennai | Photo: Amruta Mokal
One of the things you will learn from Vishy in this interview is that he never goes over board with his comments. He has played multiple such matches and he knows the pressure of the occasion. That's why Vishy's views on the moves as well as the psychology and behind the scenes is so very important. The video interview lasted for 31 minutes. Anand was very relaxed and spoke his mind. It was an absolute joy for the viewers of ChessBase India YouTube Channel where they could hear the thoughts of such a legend. A week out from its release we already had 92,000+ views!
Vishy Anand recaps the 12 classical games of the World Championship 2018
As you probably know you can select games in the list below the board. If you pause the video and switch on the engine (fan button) you can even analyse with the built-in chess engine.
For readers who prefer text and diagrams here is a summary in that form. Note that in the diagrams below you can move pieces on these boards to follow the analysis.
When asked about which of his World Championship matches resemble the Carlsen and Caruana 2018 match, Vishy felt that the closest was the one between him and Boris Gelfand. In that match as well there were a lot of draws, but the players also exchanged a pair of decisive results, while Carlsen vs Caruana match had all 12 classical games ending in draws.
Anand won the World Championship Match against Gelfand in the rapid tiebreaks 2½-1½
Anand:
"It is very strange that Magnus did not win this position. Magnus' own hero [a younger version of himself -Ed.] from five years ago would have won this position quite easily!"
"It was one of the big misses of the match. What was striking is that Magnus' play until this point had been exemplary. Everyone praised him. Before cashing in he could have slowly improved his position. I would only put one caveat in this situation — it is very easy to sit at home and say this is how you should have done. God knows I have spoilt many winning positions as well. It's not my aim to make light of this. But it's a missed opportunity. There is no way around this."
"I had looked at it, I had notes on it, but evidently Fabiano went much further. I know that Hikaru looked at it as well because we had discussed it briefly. It was good opening work."
"This is the sort of thing that should happen at a World Championship match. You have so much time, you can go really deep and clean some stuff and play not even the most fashionable move. I don't think it was 'one-game stuff'. I think Fabiano intended to repeat it if Magnus went Rd1 again."
"I guess …Nb6 and …Be7 (1.c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 followed by Be7) is still leading if you look at the total number of games. I wouldn’t say that …Bc5 is completely taking over, but if you see, last year I played this line against Fabiano at Saint Louis, then there was the famous Dubov-Karjakin discussion here. And so it flared up and then dropped out of the radar for a while. But after this match, I think this is just going to be one of the main lines."
Not to be missed: the game that Anand mentions about Dubov vs Karjakin is analyzed in depth by Dubov in this video captured by ChessBase India
"The pawn sacrifice b4 is well known and the theme is also well known. Not only this game but also Fischer-Spassky where Bxc6 bxc6 was met with b4. Even what Caruana played in this game has been played before. I would expect both sides to be well prepared, obviously Fabiano because he played it, but also Magnus seemed to know it well."
"You try to play these unusual moves to get a game. But even these unusual moves you can analyze with a computer. You have heard this famous conversation between Grischuk and Kovalev that Grischuk had looked at the sequence that happened in the game with Nf4-Nd5 and Black going Nc6-Nd4 (laughs)."
"It's quite funny that they had gone that far! [After the moves 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nd3 Nxe4 5.Ne2 Ne7 6.Nf4 Nc6 7.Nd5 Nd4 8.Nxe7 Nxe2 9.Nd5 Nd4 10.Na3 Ne6 11. f3 N4c5]"
"Grischuk knew it was dead and it was not a big deal. When it works it works. There are cases when you play harmless stuff but your opponent doesn't know it and you get something. Fabiano's preparation has been thorough. But we won't know because Magnus has probed very little. He has just probed the surface, whereas Fabiano has stuck to one thing and kept on chipping away. We know now that Carlsen's Rossolimo preparation was very good, but the Sveshnikov preparation in the Nd5 lines gives the feeling of slightly improvised."
"When it works, it works" —Vishy Anand | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Caruana played 68...Nf3 and the position was eventually drawn. But he had chances to win if he had played 68...Bh4. We asked Anand about how difficult or easy it was to find the win here for Black?
Anand:
"Obviously, it was not easy. I haven’t even delved into it entirely. But the piece up position was not a forced win, which means that White could have used his bishop better to corral the knight in some other way. I saw Svidler’s recap of this ending and I have forgotten the details. The funny thing is that Svidler while doing the recap was also saying that I have to check my notes and corresponding squares! It’s a very difficult ending. But I think I understand the position after …Ng1 pretty well now."
"As Black, you need to lose a move here. So after h6 Kh8 h7 you go Bh4 Kh5 (or Kh6) then Be1 Kg6 Bc3 Kh6 (The bishop cannot move as then the knight comes out) Bd2 Kg6 Bg5!"
"And now I have transferred the move to you. This bishop loop is winning and it is always winning because Black can always lose a move by extending the loop! So this is not one of those mutual zugzwang things. This is one of those positions where White can be very clearly brought into a zugzwang. But I have not exactly grasped why it was drawn one move ago and why bishop on c4 is not well placed. This bit I have to go over once again slowly and try to understand. But it's fascinating. Suddenly you discover something new about an ending."
The computer shows Black wins with 68..Bh4 here. But had Caruana played the incredible 69.Bd5 Ne2 70.Bf3 Ng1!! they would request metal detectors immediately! No human can willingly trap his own knight like that. pic.twitter.com/ypBjXv3QCA
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) November 16, 2018
"Yes, some positions are just interesting enough that you must study them. It is conceivable that someday I might have a similar position on the board and this knowledge might be useful in some vague way. But, I am not necessarily studying it to score points. (smiles)."
Special thanks to ChessBase India for providing this video. There are hundreds of videos on their very successful ChessBase India YouTube Channel, and we are going to make vigorous use of them in the future.
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