ONLY Viswanathan Anand plays chess for a living! This one-liner from a TV commercial just about sums up an average Indian's concept of the game. For millions of countrymen smitten by the cricket bug, any other sport would hold their fancy only as long as it is in public memory, thanks to the media.
The gold-medal winning performance by Mr Bindra and the superlative efforts of our olympians seem destined for the same fate. Cricketers sharing the dais with cine-stars is an indication of the obsession we have for the game. No sincere efforts have ever been made to bridge the ever-widening chasm between cricket and other sports.
Mr Viswanathan Anand's efforts at maintaining his supremacy in world chess should be viewed as that rare event where an individual has, solely on his skills, made fame and fortune for oneself. His triumph at the World Championship in Germany where he successfully retained the title can only make us fellow-countrymen gloat with pride.
The World Chess Championship will be held from October 11 to 30, 2008 in the Art and
Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn , between Viswanathan Anand
( India ) and Vladimir Kramnik ( Russia ).
Viswanathan Anand (37) and Vladimir Kramnik (32) are the two outstanding personalities in chess today. The world championship match between them is keenly anticipated by chess fans all over the world. It is part of a 120-year tradition of chess history, which includes matches like Capablanca-Alekhine, Fischer-Spassky, Kasparov-Karpov and Kramnik-Topalov.
The reigning and undisputed World Champion Anand won his title in September 2007 at the World Championship tournament in Mexico City . Kramnik, who was undefeated in his three world championship matches,came second in this double round robin event.
The main sponsor of the World Championship is Evonik Industries. This industrial
enterprise is located in Essen , Germany , and was the exclusive sponsor of the 2006
World Chess Challenge between Vladimir Kramnik and the chess program Deep Fritz.
What of the mediocre performances of late from former top dogs Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik? Both have fallen dramatically from grace at Bilbao and the Tal Memorial to be respectively #5 and #6 - all of which calls into question the credibility of their $2m world title match starting soon in Bonn.
The 12-game, $2 million plus match will run October 14th to November 2nd in the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn, Germany, under the patronage of German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrük, and sponsored by Evonik Industries AG.
Game 1: Tuesday, October 14
Game 2: Wednesday, October 15
Game 3: Friday, October 17
Game 4: Saturday, October 18
Game 5: Monday, October 20
Game 6: Tuesday, October 21
Game 7: Thursday, October 23
Game 8: Friday, October 24
Game 9: Sunday, October 26
Game 10: Monday, October 27
Game 11: Wednesday, October 29
Game 12: Friday, October 31
Tiebreak (if needed): Sunday, November 2
In less then 2 weeks, the
world championship of chess will begin at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. The build up to this event has been tense and there have been a few
"psychological tricks" played by the the former World Champion - Vladimir Kramnik, while the current world champion Vishwanathan Anand, has quitely parried these away saying that
"As a champion you should learn to play all formats and accept the results."
This was some months earlier. Since then things have been very quiet and both players have suffered severe defeats at the hands of the other grandmasters at the Masters Tournament in Bilbao for Anand and at the Tal Memorial for Vladimir Kramnik. Both Anand and Kramnik have now dropped out of the
top 3 in chess rankings, which has been taken over by Topalov, Morozevich and Ivanchuk.
Anand in a recent interview to the
German Magazine Spiegel, likened chess to an arms race, due to the ever increasing influence of technology computer applications. So let the Championship begin.!
