V ISHWANATHAN ANAND

Excerpts from an Interview with Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand by www.latestchess.com after he won the 2007
Morelia-Linares Super Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Linares

At the 2007 Morelia-Linares Super Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Linares, Vishwanathan Anand,the Champion, took an early lead and hung onto it right upto a final draw with Vassily Ivanchuk, to not only take the Title at Linares for the first time since 1998 but also to take the FIDE World No.1 Ranking for the very first time ever!

Viswanathan Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. Anand is one of only four players in history to break the 2800 ELO mark in the FIDE rating list. He has been among the top three ranked players in classical time control chess in the world continuously since 1997.Since April 2007 according to FIDE rating list, Anand is ranked first in the world for the first time. He is only the sixth person to lead the rating list, the other five being Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov.

To read the exclusive interview with Viswanathan Anand, where he tells us about the importance of daily physical exercise for the chess players, his views on modification of draw rules, cheating at high-level tournaments, about the playing style of the world's strongest chess players, computer chess programs, how children can manage the balance of both academics as well as chess, log on to www.latestchess.com

LatestChess:- Do you think daily physical exercise can help a chess player to increase brain's ability to concentrate, remember, focus, visualize, and plan ahead? Could you tell our readers about your views on importance of physical fitness + chess.

Viswanathan Anand:- In chess a small mistake can cost you the game. If you are tired then you make errors in calculations. I go to the gym everyday and it helps me concentrate longer. Especially when you play a tough tournament you need to conserve energy for the last rounds.

LatestChess:- In India, Many young chess players are ready to take a break in the education and they are fully focused on chess preparations, do you think it is a risky approach considering the risk of the failure possibility?

Viswanathan Anand:- A normal childhood is very important. It is healthy to have a lot of interests and go to school . It is not just academics but also the need to interact with other children . Children are very smart and they can very easily learn to balance both academics and chess.

On 30th September 2007, at the age of 37, Vishwanathan Anand became the World Chess Champion for the 2nd time at Mexico city. He won it the first time at Tehran in 2000. He gets a prize of 390,000 USD.

Vishy Anand as he is known has become one of India's greatest sporting heroes!

SOURCE:www.latestchess.com