WCh Sochi: personalities, players and seconds

The match between Carlsen and Anand begins today at 15.00 hours local time. And Anand will have the White pieces. This is what Magnus Carlsen had to say about it.

Drew black in the first game. This match is is indeed nothing like the first
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen)

As you all would remember, in the 2013 match it was Carlsen who had the white pieces in the first game and began with 1.Nf3. What will be Vishy’s first move today is the question on everyone’s mind. But before that let’s transport ourselves to Radisson Blu Resort and Spa where the press conference and the opening ceremony of the match were held.

As always the charismatic World Champion drew towards him loads of reporters

Anand was seen quite relaxed talking to his wife Aruna

In the press conference, Anand was asked an interesting question by a journalist: Your charming wife accompanies you to every tournament. Is she a talisman or your inspiration? Anand in excellent spirits replied with a smile, " Well, she is kind of wife! Obviously we are close. She has been accompanying me to tournaments ever since we got married. Recently our son was born and she doesn't come more often now!" When Magnus was asked about his talisman or inspiration, he simply shrugged off the question saying that he was not such a spiritual person!

The million dollar question asked at the press conference was who were the seconds of the two players. There was a silence for a few seconds as both waited for the other one to speak. But finally Anand revealed his. And apart from the old ones, there was a new addition.

On the right we have the usual suspects: Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Krishnan Sasikiran. But the big surprise
was the man on left: Grzegorz Gajewski. He is a country-mate of Radoslaw (Poland) and he has an Elo of 2643.

As for Magnus he revealed his seconds in the following manner: “There is the Dane and there is the hammer.” The Russian translator was confused and refrained from translating this sentence. But of course what Magnus meant were these two guys.

The Dane is Peter Heine Nielsen and the hammer is Jon Ludvig Hammer!

Carlsen was asked at the press conference whether he thought himself as the favourite for the match. He put a question back to the reporter in typical Carlsen fashion asking, “What do you think?!”

FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov and the President of the
Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov at the press conference

Also present on the dais for the press conference were former World Champion
Anatoly Karpov and Ilya Merenzon, organizer from AGON

The Opening Ceremony followed the press conference. It was so less elaborate than the opening ceremony held at Chennai in 2013.

The Masters of Ceremony were former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
and People’s Artist of Russia S. Makovetsky

The Masters of Ceremony spoke in Russian but their words were translated on the live stream into English. That was a very thoughtful gesture on the part of the organizers. As they rightly said, for the next three weeks the experts and amateurs of the world will be mesmerized by the duel of the two best grandmasters of today! They are not just very different players but very also different personalities which makes their battle really intriguing.

Igor Levitin, assistant to the President of Russian Chess Federation,
read out the words sent by Vladimir Putin

The Russian women’s team that had won the gold medal at Tromso 2014 was honoured by the Russian government. From upper left in clockwise: Kosteniuk, Pogonina, Olga Girya and Sergei Rublevsky, who was the coach of the team

Olga Girya and forme Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova

There followed a spectacular performance by elegant and beautiful dancers

Tina Kuznetsova, who was the finalist of the TV show Golos,
mesmerized the audience with her singing

The two players with chief arbiter Andrzej Fillipowicz for the drawing of colours

Magnus drew the black colour and hence the black pieces in game one

The opening ceremony ended with the performance of famous
Russian Jazz artist Igor Burtman with his quartet

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Our team of World Championship commentators (English)

Irina Krush: The female in the commentator team, several times US Women's Champion.		Daniel King: Well known, popular, experienced, and very good. Author of many Fritztrainer DVDs
Simon Williams: Englisher grandmaster, author of two popular ChessBase King's Gambit DVDs.		Chris Ward: Dragon expert and chess commentator at the London Chess Classic.
Niclas Pert: Grandmaster, trainer, and author of a number of excellent Fritztrainer DVDs.		Loek van Wely: Several times Dutch champion and quick-witted chess commentator.
Parimarjan Negi: Once the world's youngest grandmaster, author of books and DVDs.		Rustam Kasimdzhanov: The FIDE-World Champion 2004, former second for Vishy Anand

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German

• Klaus Bischoff: German Champion and Anchor of the German chess commentary on Playchess
• Oliver Reeh: Also known as "Tactics Reeh" for his regular column in the ChessBase magazine and the ChessBase website
• Dr. Karsten Müller: Graduated mathematician and chess grandmaster. His works on the endgame changed endgame training completely.
• Thomas Luther: Several times German champion. Active in the FIDE commission for the handicapped.
• Merijn van Delft: From the Dutch dynasty of the van Delfts. Lives in Hambug and in Holland.
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• Markus Ragger: Grandmaster and Austria's number one.
• Harald Schneider-Zinner: Chess trainer and moderator of ChessBase TV Austria.

French

• Christian Bauer: Grandmaster, several time French Champion and member of the French national team.
• Fabien Libiszewski: International Master and member of the French national team.
• Romain Edouard: Grandmaster, European Junior Champion and Vice-World Junior Champion, member of the French national team.
• Sebastien Mazé: Grandmaster and French national coaach

Spanish

• Ana Matnadze, Marc Narcisco, Sergio Estremera

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