Anand wins chess world championship

MEXICO CITY—India’s Vishwanathan Anand was crowned world champion of chess as he won the marathon tournament in Mexico City that brought together eight of the game’s best players.
Known as the “Tiger from Madras, Anand, 37, replaced Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as champion, winning the tournament Saturday on points after tying a match with Hungarian Peter Leko on the 14th day of the contest, which he dominated from the start.
“I enjoy this new feeling of being world champion,” he told. “I had a couple of difficult games, nothing too worrying for this kind of tournament,” said Anand, who was ranked world number one going into the tournament.
“I am just very happy with my game, we had a good team, I felt very well, my second (coach) helped me (with) a lot of interesting ideas, everything clicked.” Kramnik, who saw the championship slip from his gasp on Friday after a tie, finished in second followed by Israeli Boris Gelfand. Eight of the world’s top chess brains met in Mexico for the competition. Prominent players such as the world number two, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, did not make it through the championship’s complex qualification process.
Anand played at a clearly superior level throughout the 17-day tournament but came close to defeat on Friday. He managed to tie his five-hour, 73-move game with another Russian, Alexander Grischuk. He would have won the tournament immediately if he had beaten Grischuk, who has been focusing on a poker career. The Indian, who learned to play chess at the age of six, had previously won the world championship in 2000, but the achievement was valued less since at the time the chess world was split between two rival world titles.
Anand said both victories were equally sweet. “For me it is not different or more important than the 2000 title, for me they are both lovely memories,” he said Saturday. Anand distinguished himself as a youth for his chess acumen. At the age of 13, he won the junior title in India, and at 16, the senior chess title.
“It is as if he had a computer in his head,” said his spouse, Aruna Anand. “He has a brain that works faster.” She said his “Tiger” nickname aptly describes his play as he appears tranquil like a cat until “he seizes the advantage and transforms into a tiger.” As champion he gets a prize of 390,000 dollars, while the runner-up will go home with 260,000 dollars and third place gets 180,000.
Anand may have to fend off a tough challenge to his newly-won title next year from Kramnik in a duel of the 2006 and 2007 champions. He said he planned to keep a light playing schedule for the rest of the year but anticipated tough matches upon his return. “I will not play too much between now and January, and I will start again the tournaments with Morelia, Linares and Monaco,” he said. “I think there is a lot of room for improvement and also the others are going to be working very hard and I am sure the next tournament will be a difficult competition,” he said.—Agencies