ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard throughout the world. Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it.
The first part of this review was published last week. Here I shall deal with the chess content of the DVD. Volume one begins with his first steps in chess and takes us right up to the year 2000 when he won the FIDE world title. There are as many as 1424 games of which more than 450 are annotated, several by Anand himself.
Volume two covers the period 2000-2008, just before the commencement of the world championship match with Kramnik. It has 1038 games of which about 375 games are annotated. Apart from Anand himself the annotators include Robert Hübner, Igor Stohl and Mihail Marin, Lubomir Ftacnik among others. It should be pointed out that some of their analysis here has been superseded by the more recent annotations in the book, Viswanathan Anand: World Chess Champion by Anand and Nunn (Gambit 2012).
As of now this DVD set is the largest database on Anand up to 2008 with 2462 games of which about 830 are annotated by him and others.
Both the DVDs are neatly divided into several segments. In each Anand first narrates events and then offers critical moments from games explaining what's going on. The commentary itself is crystal clear, the variations short and to the point. On occasion it is a bit fast. But you can always pause and follow his line of thought.
Anand-Kasparov, Tilburg 1991
Kramnik-Anand, Belgrad 1997
This brings me to some limitations of the DVDs. Anand does not say much about his early experience in India. Probably he thinks he was too young and the level of competition low. So he does not even mention the fact that he became the national champion at the age of 16, way back in 1986. As for competition abroad, he does not dwell too much on failures and tends to skip over unhappy results. On the other hand he can be very sporting and appreciate a fine effort by an opponent. So a number of fighting draws and even losses are included. This offers a balanced view of a great player who is no less human than the rest of us.
ChessBase has followed Anand's career from inception and captured some remarkable footage over the years. It’s a pity that it isn’t included here. You will find some of it in the Jubilee DVD of ChessBase Magazine (Vol 100), a rare collector’s item today. Fortunately, the games are very much there, with many nuggets among them. I have resisted the temptation to show some of them here and instead picked an entertaining game that Anand himself likes and comments on...
Video of the critical part of the game. In his Youtube upload the author, Frederic Friedel, writes: "Ancient footage I captured with my Sony video camera and then compressed drastically, so it would fit – together with lots of other videos – on the ChessBase Magazine Vol 55 CD. Sorry for the tiny format, in those days we did not have much bandwidth so spend."
In recent years Anand has undergone a crisis of form with challenge from younger talents like Aronian and Carlsen. On his own admission his play has left much to be desired. But he is determined to come back. As the adage goes, form is temporary and class is permanent. This DVD is worth viewing for that touch of class.
