Viswanathan Anand quotes

Viswanathan Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. Known for his rapid playing style and sharp strategic mind, he has won numerous international tournaments. He is regarded as one of the greatest chess players in history and has inspired generations of players in India and worldwide. Here are 68 of his quotes:

Magnus has many good qualities... he is very versatile and he can play a lot of positions at a very high level. He's also very flexible. And he has this amazing talent for grinding on, as you say. So that combination I was unable to deal with.

Viswanathan Anand

Age is part of it. For instance, I recognise that [Carlsen] is going to do certain things because he's 22 and there are certain things I can do because I'm 43.

Viswanathan Anand

I can relate to many of the emotions they describe...But personally I just like to get on with the job of playing chess. I understand that if I win, I'm probably crushing my opponent's ego but it's not like I do that with great satisfaction. So I don't really look for conflict around the game ... It's true that someone like Kasparov has this sense of history, and I'm talking world history rather than chess history. He has a sense of himself being in it, which, for me, is very hard to understand or even relate to in any way.

Viswanathan Anand

You would have to sit at the board and sweat and feel the fear of defeat or the nearness of victory to understand what goes through a player's head ... If you think it's that easy, switch off the computer and try and figure out a few moves on your own.

Viswanathan Anand

Chess as a sport requires a lot of mental stamina, and this is what that makes it different from a physical sport. Chess players have a unique ability of taking in a lot of information and remembering relevant bits. So, memory and mental stamina are the key attributes.

Viswanathan Anand

I attend to my fitness. I go the gym every day and try to maintain my physical fitness; without that, it is tough to take challenges on the chess board.

Viswanathan Anand

If you have a strong opponent, a competition is stimulating. I am generally most open to ideas when I have had a bad result. In chess, too, players specialise. This specialty then becomes an entry barrier.

Viswanathan Anand

If revenge motivates you, go for it! But the main thing is to set your game in order.

Viswanathan Anand

It's important, according to me, to train in small doses so as to not lose the joy of playing chess. I personally think too many coaching and training classes may take away a child's interest in the game itself. The essential thing to do is practise often and, in case of a doubt, to consult a trainer.

Viswanathan Anand

I started at the age of six. My elder brother and sister were dabbling a bit, and then I went to my mother and pestered her to teach me as well.

Viswanathan Anand

Since the 1990s technology has taken some of the sheen off the Russian trainers and their methods.

Viswanathan Anand

He must make sure Magnus is out of his comfort zone, he needs to direct the positions. It needs to be a mess. He needs to get Magnus into a brawl.

Viswanathan Anand

When you lose, you really feel a sense of self ... You actually feel that you are being taken apart, rather than just your pieces.

Viswanathan Anand

...in 2000, when I defeated Alexei Shirov at the World Chess Championship in Teheran to become the first Indian ever to win the title.

Viswanathan Anand

But perhaps they were thrown off by my playing style, which was intuitive-and perhaps a little influenced by Vodka. I ran away with the match early. The result was overwhelmingly in my favour: four wins, five draws and only one loss –an annihilation. The Russians were stunned. I was pretty surprised myself.

Viswanathan Anand

When I started out, Indians did not have much interest in chess...Now India seems to spawn new chess academies every day.

Viswanathan Anand

One of the things I bring to my play is my Indian identity – my ability to shrug off a loss as destiny and hope for better tomorrow. I am often described as a "natural” or "intuitive player.”.

Viswanathan Anand

I felt I had I worked hard enough and I felt confident I had done the right kind of work and the right amount of work. But when you talk of preparations, the measure of success is whether it works or not. In that area, I failed completely. I did not stay the course. When you hit the right spot, the sweet spot, it feels great and you feel the preparations have been ideal, but I never got there.

Viswanathan Anand

When I first visited Moscow in the late 1980s, I was so intimidated. I thought I could be checkmated by every cabdriver.

Viswanathan Anand

I learned to play fast without agonizing about strategy or overanalyzing individual moves.

Viswanathan Anand

As a young kid sprouting a wispy moustache, I was sometimes dismissed by the Russians as an upstart. I have been referred to even as a "coffeehouse player”.

Viswanathan Anand

Anything unusual that you can produce has quadruple, quintuple the value, precisely because your opponent is likely to do the predictable stuff, which is on a computer.

Viswanathan Anand