Prospect of meeting Aronian or Carlsen excites me: Vishwanathan Anand

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand tells Derek Abraham he is enjoying fatherhood. Excerpts from an interview:

You were crowned world champion (for the fifth time) on May 30. How have the past 50-odd days been?
Actually, I have been very busy. There was a ceremony for my son. And we have been travelling a lot. Also, the chess work keeps piling up. Dortmund (Sparkassen Chess Meeting) is going on now, a few other tournaments will follow. So there are new games to be played. There is no time, really, to reflect on my victory. At some point, when I get a few days off, I will catch up on it. But right now, I haven’t been thinking about it much.

You obviously spend a year or so preparing for a world championship. How did you cope up with the challenges that come with fatherhood?
It’s an amazing feeling to watch your son grow up so fast. He is a year and a half now. When I was training, Akhil started to walk. I have caught quite a few moments and enjoyed every bit of it. Aruna and I try to spend as much time as possible with him. We also take him on some of our trips. But taking him to Moscow for the world championships wasn’t practical. So he stayed back in Chennai. But yes, I am enjoying fatherhood.

It was reported that Akhil hugged the TV on seeing Aruna. How thrilling was it to meet him after the world championship match?
I was actually worried. I had gone abroad for about two weeks in November. And when I got back, he had forgotten me! This time, though, he remembered me. It’s a blow when your son doesn’t recognise you. It hits you for a day. So I was glad this time.

Have you shifted base to Chennai again?
Yes, we still have a house in Spain and we stayed there for about two weeks recently, but Chennai is very much home now. At some point, you always want to come back and live in India again.

You watch a lot of sport, don’t you?
Very much! In fact, watching the French Open, Wimbledon and, of course, the Euros helped me relax after the world championship. I missed the better part of the French because of the match. But I did watch the (rain-delayed) final on Sunday and Monday. Wimbledon was awesome, too. Nadal was out early and I was obviously surprised. But I watched Federer-Djokovic, Federer-Murray and all the big matches in the Euros. I used to be a Roger Federer fan. It’s not that I am not a fan now, but I was rooting for Murray. I mean I wanted him to finish the 76-year thing so that everyone stops talking about it. But I have huge respect for Federer. Somewhere down the line, his opponents lost their cool. Federer didn’t and that’s what made the difference.

How do you handle criticism? Most experts expected you to trample Boris Gelfand…
I think their judgment was mistaken. They simply underestimated how difficult Boris would be. For me, it wasn’t surprising. Instead of admitting that their judgment was an error, they started inventing stories how the match was not interesting and all that.

Your critics include the likes of Nigel Short…
The idea that I would walk over Boris was erroneous. I went into the match without the slightest feeling that I was the favourite. Boris is a really good player. And he did a good job of covering his weaknesses. He did the same in the Candidates’ tournament too. I don’t know how people say that I don’t have motivation. The experts thought I’d win easily because Boris hasn’t beaten me in 17 years. That’s true, but I hadn’t beaten him in 15 years. So what’s the big deal? See, I don’t have time for this criticism. I never read anything during the match. My opponent was not Short; it was Gelfand.

What’s lined up for you?
I will play a few tournaments. There’s Bilbao in September; the Barcelona got postponed. Then I’ll be going to Brazil and Spain in September, followed by London in December.

You may have to defend your world title against Levon Aronian or Magnus Carlsen. Are you looking forward to it?
That, to me, is a very exciting prospect. To play these amazingly talented players would be a huge challenge for me. It would help me learn a lot about chess. The odds are very high that one of them will (earn the right to challenge me), but there are some other players too. In fact, most people would consider them the favourites.

You’ve beaten them both and lost too. But it’s believed that Anand holds the edge, especially in match play.
I hold the edge in match play, but I have also shown a lot of my cards. Everyone knows the kind of matches I play and the strategies I apply. So you are exposed as well.

Who after Viswanathan Anand in India? Have you ever thought about it?
I don’t think about it. But yes, the NIIT Mind Champs Academy is creating a huge base of fans. Chess must aim for huge numbers.

Do you think the game is better received than it was, say, 15-20 years ago?
People are appreciating the game more now. The kids I just met in school were asking me chess questions. Those were not the kind of questions people used to ask me earlier. Also, the media coverage is much better these days. I am told that the tie-break games were watched by a lot of people. Some of them told me they saw my biting my nails!

Your mother summed up the whole thing beautifully by saying that if it’s not tough, it’s not worth winning!
(Smiles) These are the values you pick up from your parents. Some things are worth doing and worth doing well. And some things only come when you do it well. My parents have always supported me. I never had this monkey-on-the-back feeling.

Do you think Akhil will take to chess?
Right now, he throws everything we give him. Let’s see, when he’s three or four, I will leave a board near him. Then, I’ll see whether he takes a liking to the game or not.

How do you kill time?
Music, reading and I have also taken a liking to astronomy. I actually subscribe to a website which has telescopes in New Mexico, Spain and Australia. It’s called itelescope. It has nothing to do with Apple! So you just log on and ask for a picture of a particular galaxy or star and they use huge equipment. Generally, you go for galaxies or things like that. You don’t take planets with these things. We do pretty big objects or distant objects. So just like people collect family photos, we collect images of galaxies.

Do you follow the progress of the Indian youngsters?
I watch their matches online. GN Gopal is good, so is Abhijeet Gupta. Then there’s B Adhiban, Murali Karthikeyan, the World U-12 champion. Among the girls, there’s Koneru Humpy, D Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni, Tania Sachdev and Ivana Furtado.