A moment to cherish for the champion

By Arvind Aaron

TEHERAN, DEC. 25. Life as World Champion for Viswanathan Anand began with a series of phone calls on a cool Christmas morning at his suite at room 1410 in Esteghlal Grand Hotel here.

The earliest to call him was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr. M. Karunanidhi. While wishing him, the Chief Minister told him that he would be holding a State function to felicitate him on January 3, 2001, Anand said.

The phone never stopped ringing as the new champion invited this writer over for breakfast in his room. Relatives, friends and journalists kept calling the star who on Sunday became the new FIDE World Champion. Congratulatory messages were flowing all day.

An interview he gave to a radio station was interesting. His wife did the Hindi part comfortably and Anand was asked to say one sentence in Hindi and with help from his wife he managed to say ``I am very happy.''

The formal crowning ceremony will take place on the evening of December 27, the official scheduled date. Anand is arriving in New Delhi on the morning of December 29 and will leave for Chennai the same evening.

Aruna Anand said there was a request from the Tamil Nadu Chess Association if he could reschedule to arrive at day time and not night time since they like to parade him through the streets of Chennai from the airport. Anand was once given this honour at Calcutta in January 1992 when he arrived directly from Reggio Emilia in Italy after winning his first super category tournament there ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.

``Two games down is a miserable situation to be but I would not have taken the excursion on the free day which Shirov took. I might have taken a walk if I were him,'' Anand said this morning about Shirov's decision to see palaces in Iran on Saturday.

On Monday, Anand said he is finishing all the interview requests and if time permits would visit the palace and get back in time for the dinner which the Indian Ambassador in Teheran is hosting.

Last night, Anand, after talking to relatives and journalists was at the restaurant where they served from the containers sent by Indian Embassy officials like in the previous days. His seconds GMs E. Ubilava and P. San Segundo tried the Islamic beer which has zero percentage alcohol. The quiet table became noisy after Indian journalists and one from Associated Press, Boston arrived to join him to share the Indian food. There was an announcement constantly going out from the reception of the Hotel, calling Anand. He spoke to all callers whose calls were transferred to the restaurant. One of them was from the popular tamil cable TV channel Sun TV. Aruna Anand served everyone including AICF Secretary Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya `payasam', a dessert.

Anand announced that his Georgian trainer Ubilava has started to like south Indian food including curd rice and masala dosa from the Woodlands Hotel in Delhi. Here he continued to have Indian food although in a French restaurant.

On the adjacent table, it was a sign of mourning. Nobody was talking. It was Alexei Shirov and company sitting after their

0.5-3.5 defeat. It was a large group of officials, Shirov's former trainer GM Valery Salov of Russia, who was the commentator, WGM Elisabeta Polihroniade, Mr. Javier Ochoa, President of the Spanish Chess Federation besides his team. Shirov was bright and had gotten over his defeated look when he darted outside his room with his girlfriend Victoria Cmilyte at midnight, wishing everyone for Christmas.

German International Master Stefan Loeffler said if the Indian Embassy in Teheran arranged Vishy Indian food, at least Shirov's country should arrange some brandy for him. That is what he needs now. Iran enforces strict prohibition.

``Adams warned me that Anand has an advantage at Teheran because he does not drink at all,'' said Shirov. If I was offered a beer after game two I would not have refused it, Shirov added.

With most journalists expecting exclusive interviews, the press conference on Sunday evening paled into insignificance in comparison to those which follow traditional world championship matches.

Shirov's defeat in game two where he missed a draw, appeared to be the turning point of the match. Anand said it would take a few days to realise what he has achieved.

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