Already discussed possible changes in World C’ship… could be more formats: Viswanathan Anand

From the next generation of Indians who will someday take his place at the top echelons of the sport, to what Ding Liren’s title could mean for chess in China, from Magnus Carlsen’s looming shadow over the World Championship to the possible tweaks in format, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who was in Mumbai to attend an event for Fincare SFB, spoke to The Indian Express on a range of topics.
Excerpts from an interview:
Since you became a world champion, India has had lots of GMs. But not too many Indians have actually contended for the World Championship title. Why do you think that is?
It takes time. First of all, they started as juniors and they have to grow. We are in a good place now. There are maybe three or four juniors — I call them juniors as they’re still under-19 or 19 years old but many of them are super GMs who have a very realic shot at playing the Candidates, which is the first stage. Then, it’s obviously a huge ask that they qualify right in the first cycle. But not impossible. So this time it is quite exciting. Gukesh (Dommaraju) is very close. And we have a talented group who are all getting ready to compete and try to qualify for the Candidates. If not this cycle, then at least the next cycle, I think we’ll be ready… Right now, Gukesh is kind of standing out, in the sense that he is maybe 25 points above the others but it is a very competitive group.
When we look back at this World Championship match, will this world champion be looked at as a world champion? Or will there always be an asterisk mark next to it?
No, I think it’s just a World Championship match like any other. It is a landmark moment because the last time this happened was 1972. Except Fisher withdrew from all chess whereas Carlsen is only withdrawing from the specific title. In that sense, it is significant because it doesn’t come that often. But in the end, the World Championship cycle has always been apart. It’s been an endurance contest, which has made the World Championship unique. You can’t have a world champion who doesn’t want to play it.
We’ve seen China in other sports where they get one World Champion, and then they somehow seem to produce a factory of them. Do you see that happening in chess?
It’s difficult to say. They have lots of talented youngsters, but so does India. So do other countries. The USA actually has a very competitive youth team. So maybe chess is much more crowded at that stage. And so that’s another factor.
Speaking as a Super GM and somebody who’s won the title five times and challenged multiple more times for it — and not as the FIDE vice president — do you want to see any changes in the format of the World Championship?
We were already discussing possible changes. The thing is, once you’ve started a cycle, you don’t want to change the rules midway through the cycle. So that’s one limiting factor. But it’s not inconceivable that we make some changes, obviously not for the next one because that’s going to start very soon, but the one after that. So, (if) not 2024, then 2026 becomes a realic possibility to make some changes or beyond. But let’s see also what the 2024 World Championship game is like.
What kind of changes are you considering in the World Championships?
There could be in the format, you know, more formats, more variety. Because you don’t want to switch over to rapid and blitz completely. But at the same time, the question is can you bring a little bit of that in? Those were along the lines of the ideas that were proposed. It’s not like any consensus was reached because it’s very easy to say you want to change the system. That’s the statement that people generally agree with. Then you ask them to nail down what exactly they want to change and everybody suddenly says I’m not too sure. I think that’s the problem we’re facing in chess also. Given that we have this very valuable tradition — the World Championship, and it’s really a tradition going back all the way — essentially boils down to why would you want Wimbledon on some new astroturf surface? You would want it on grass because of tradition. It’s the same argument. And second, there are other tournaments for every other format. So it will be tricky to make that change. I think at the moment when it comes to making the change we will hesitate because we’re tinkering with something (horic). But it could be discussed later.

When you started off as a player, it was the Cold War era. Now, when you start off as an adminrator, the world kind of looks slightly in a similar place again. Does that make it more challenging with your job and how will you approach it in the coming months?
Those are actually sweeping things. In my junior days, the Cold War was still going on. Though the time I was 16, the Cold War sort of ended because Mikhail Gorbachev (former President of the Soviet Union) had come in. And it wasn’t obvious then, but now it seems obvious that already 1985 they were winding down in a way. 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into all these countries. Then these players, who couldn’t travel freely, suddenly could travel freely. They were everywhere in tournaments and then we got completely used to this new situation. So the Russia-Ukraine war from last year is an anomaly. I mean, it’s been 30 years without this. And then suddenly there’s this. But it’s been very tough on chess because Russia and Ukraine are quite deeply connected with chess and so invariably, the chess community has had to suffer a bit there.