Top players at one platform would be good for Indian chess: Anand

PUNE: Bringing top chess players of the country to play in the same tournament can help the sport grow better, feels five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

Anand was in Pune to announce his association with a city-based construction group by starting his academy Viswanathan Anand Chess Academy at one of their projects.

Anand, 48, appreciated Badminton Association of India's idea of reviving the national championships in Nagpur recently where all the top Indian shuttlers played and then winner turned out to be a real National champion.

Anand said similar step could be taken by the national chess body.

In the just-concluded National Premier chess meet in Patna, only three of the top 20 Indian players participated. And none of the top-12 were there.

"It would be very good idea to get all the top players to play in some event, could be the Nationals or may be a league. Either of them works for me, but currently talks are more about the league than all the players getting to play in the nationals," Anand said.

When asked if there are enough platforms for the upcoming chess players to compete with elite Indian players, the veteran said there is always a scope of improvement.

"We have a circuit of four open tournaments, Indian 'A' and 'B' championships. They are very competitive even if the top-players don't participate. Of course, it would be nice if all of us could play. The Maharashtra Chess League (MCL) was a very good initiative in that sense (getting top players play with juniors), hopefully it can be revived soon," said Anand.

The MCL, which was held for four consecutive years in Pune, is unlikely to be held this year because state politics is more vibrant than chess activity. The AICF had disaffiliated Maharashtra Chess Association and gave blessings to newly-floated All Marathi Chess Association.

When asked the details about his academy, Anand said in jest: "By the way, it is a nicer way to ask the retirement question."

He added: "My role will be of monitoring (and not coaching). My first job will be to monitor to see new training methods. The second will be to see how the students react to the coaching methods," he added.

Talking about India's representation in the sport at the world level, Anand was all praise for youngster Vidit Gujrathi.

"Vidit is one of our great hopes. He has progressed over the last year and a half. It has been a very consistent rise. He has been firmly a 2700 player and he is showing that. I think working with Anish Giri has helped him a lot as it allowed him to see how the best players work. We have four or five hopefuls, but he is definitely the best one," Anand said.

Interestingly, Vidit is India No. 3 (Elo 2676) behind P Harikrishna (Elo 2687). But at 23, Vidit is younger than Harikrishna by eight years.