Everybody fought harder, says Anand

By Arvind Aaron

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 31. Viswanathan Anand explaining his performance in the Corus chess tournament, said he had to hide his opening preparation and not let anyone take a guess of what he had prepared and what not.

Breaking a spell of draws he won his final round game on Sunday against Smbat Lputian for a joint second place. He spoke to The Hindu in an exclusive chat:

Q: Was your preparation more for a match and not a tournament?

A: It is possible that all my preparation was for one guy (Kasparov) and somehow I had difficulty adjusting to a whole field. A lot of other players are getting well prepared and the difference is smaller. So it was difficult to surprise them. It was a tough tournament, nobody had it easy. If you look at Kasparov, he would have made plus four (8.5/13) in a normal event. He spoilt his game against Nikolic and in a couple of others games too he was very shaky. We had to overcome a lot of resistance. Everybody fought harder.

Q: Was the field tougher than last year?

A: No, many of the same players fought that much tougher. There was no easy wipeouts or big novelties. Generally everybody's preparation was good with black and that led to lot of draws.

Q: You had more draws this time unlike last year?

A: Last year I got off to a big start and kept the momentum till the end. I was scoring very heavily with the white pieces. This time it was tough going with the white pieces. Again, I was not the only one with this problem.

Q: How do you compare this result with that of last year?

A: Plus six (9.5/13 in 1999) doesn't mean you did everything right and plus three (8/13 in 2000) doesn't mean you did everything bad. In fact you take a closer look you may find mistakes in my games last year and many games where I played very well this year. Of course Wijk aan Zee 1999 was one of my best results. This one is less and there is no dispute in that.

Q: Your rating performance was 10 Elo higher than your rating this year. Is that a good sign?

A: I guess it always is. I have been slowly sliding away from 2795 which was my high after Madrid (May 1998). So, I would really try and get back there.

The Closing Ceremony

The final round was held in the afternoon for the first time and the players joined the prize giving mid- way. Sergey Tiviakov who won the Grandmaster Group `B' on tie- break was invited to play in the `A' tournament next year.

He is a Russian living in Groningen and playing for the Netherlands. He is a two-time winner of the Goodricke Open in India.

The 1931-born veteran Viktor Korchnoi from Switzerland received more applause than Kasparov and the latter who was seated next to him was also participating in the cheering for his shared eleventh place.

Kasparov whom some feared may not make it to the closing ceremony due to his nervous nature did make it there but was in a remote corner.

Van Wely was asked what he thought about his placing (last place). ``I will do better next time...if there is a next time,'' he joked. Speaking while presenting the winner prize money, Mr F.Van Duyne, Chairman of the Board of Corus said there will a next time in response. The next event will be held January 12-28, 2001.

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