Vishwanathan Anand was the single reason I started following chess regularly. I had followed the last World Championship match between Kasparov and Karpov but that was a one off. I followed his every move as he took one giant step after another. There were setbacks on the way – like when he lost to Karpov the first time he played in the World championship cycle or his shocking defeat to Gata Kamsky from a near unbeatable position in the next year’s cycle. But Vishy always came back strongly to overcome these obstacles – ones that had proved his undoing the last time. And that was what made us even bigger fans. Nothing seemed to be beyond him – he always had another level. He was a genius who would win everything.
This match gave me a moment of joy and then years of anguish
The biggest thing in that everything was the World Championship. In 1995, that seemed to be becoming a reality as Anand took on Garry Kasparov in the Intel World Championship Final played on the top floor of the World Trade Centre. That Garry Kasparov was the strongest player of all time was an added bonus. This way a victory for Anand would also legitimize his claim as the best player in the world. After 8 draws, Vishy Anand won the ninth game. And we all went bonkers with excitement – surely Anand was on his way to a famous victory.
What happened next is the most painful memory for any Anand fan. Garry Kasparov inflicted four crushing defeats in the next five games to secure a convincing victory. It was a gut wrenching blow and our dreams were left in tatters. We had celebrated too soon.
This bitter experience made the desire for a World Championship even stronger. Avenging this defeat was now part of my psyche – one of the things that I had to see in my lifetime. And it had to come at the expense of Kasparov – Nothing less would do. And we were fairly confident that revenge was not too far away – we knew that Anand had suffered big defeats previously but had always come roaring back.
Sadly, that revenge never came.
Not because Anand could not beat Kasparov or could not reach the final again.
It never came because we never had another World Championship in the good old style – 20 games of heavy –duty chess in the classical format – a true test of a player’s ability – similar to the way test cricket is the real test of a cricketer’s ability.
Garry Kasparov played only one more classical series in his playing life before he took up the cause of his native Azerbaijan fulltime – other than the ones he played against machines. This one was against Vladimir Kramnik – considered by many to be his true heir apparent. Kramnik’s winning this duel solidified his claim even more.
And then the format of the World Championship also changed. We no longer had those 20 game encounters.
Even the World Trade Centre was no more
The desire for revenge stayed strong for some time and then slowly got lost in my subconscious somewhere. It was pointless without the adversary and the setting.
Without any chance of the desire being fulfilled even my interest in the game waned.
Anand went on to become the unified world champion and I also cheered. But it wasn’t the same and I wasn’t crying ‘Redemption! Redemption! ‘Like I had once aspired to do
This match has taken a long time coming
But now the desire is back – it’s back because Vishy Anand takes on Vladimir Kramnik in a 12 match encounter in the classical format. Now we have the perfect setting and the almost perfect opponent – after all Kramnik is the only person to have beaten Kasparov in a classical match-up. A victory will also settle the debate about who is the true successor of Kasparov as the best player in the world. I am madly rooting for Anand like I once did long back. Thirteen years on I am a Chess fan again.
