So, for Anand, Carslen is “the absolute dominant player of the decade.” Also, in Kasparov’s time, chess was mainly played in the classical format with rapid taking baby steps and blitz yet to come into existence. 2, had his way of thinking, and Carlsen lives in the computer era, Anand said. Garry Kasparov, who like Carlsen and Bobby Fischer would be consistently way ahead of the No. Every once in a while he is having a bad time, someone else is having a good time, the gap narrows to 25-30 points and then it diverges again… Look I am going to run out of superlatives with this guy.”Īnand is loath to make cross-generational comparisons. But he adapted himself to stay comfortably 40-45 points above the No. Inevitably, people slowly catch up with you. Has Carlsen got even sharper since? “He has kept up his dominance. Twice Anand had lost, one as a defending world champion at home in Chennai. Everything else everybody has to some degree but his hunger is unbelievable,” said Anand.Īnand and Carlsen had met twice in successive years for the world title. That’s why he is willing to play long games, play blitz and rapid, travel at a minute’s notice, play on the park bench, play bullet on the internet.
“I think it’s heavily based on his love of the game. The green tea was nearly over and Anand could have left his answer at that. The question could have been framed in a million different ways but the way it came out was: how do you explain Magnus Carlsen’s consistency? By then, we were somewhat deep in our conversation one floor below the auditorium in the National Library.