At a time when the sporting fraternity is divided over Salman Khan's appointment as brand ambassador for the Indian contingent for the upcoming Rio Olympics, five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand has said that the focus should be to address the needs of the Rio-bound athletes.
The 47-year-old former World champion is taking some time off before he gets down to tournament play in St. Louis, United States, where the focus would be on Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov, who is making a surprise return to the game.
Anand (4150 points) won by one of the biggest margins in recent times as he finished 1575 points ahead of his nearest rival, Peter Svidler (2575).
Viswanathan Anand's hunt for the elusive victory continued as he was again held to a draw by Alexander Grischuk.
Back with a bang, World champion Viswanathan Anand will be up against World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway in a much-awaited fifth-round clash of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
Viswanathan Anand says one factor that has contributed immensely to this has been his habit of 'forgetting' achievements.
Leaving out Tania Sachdev proved a costly mistake as India's medal hopes went up in smoke when the women's team lost to second seed China in the 10th and penultimate round of the Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
Taking his tally up to two points out of a possible four, Anand now has his task cut out for the remaining five games in this strongest tournament of the year. The world rapid champion needs a couple of victories to stake a claim in the tournament.
Indian sailor Vishnu Saravanan is taking an unconventional approach to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand crashed through the defences of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan to jump to joint lead after the end of the second round of 10th Tal Memorial Chess tournament in Moscow.
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand played out a second straight draw by holding Fabiano Caruana of the United States easily in the fourth round of the Sinquefield Cup, which is part of the Grand Chess tour.
The victory and a full point took Gukesh to 3.5 points and gave him a clear lead in the eight-man field.
Israel's ace Grandmaster Boris Gelfand made it to the final of the Chess World Cup following victory over Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin in the second game of the semi-finals, in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. In the other semi-final, Vladimir Malakhov of Russia failed to break the ice against Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine despite getting a complicated position and another drawn result means that the stalwarts will have to tackle it out in the tie-break games.
Back to the Olympiad after a gap of 12 years, Anand was precise in calculation and brilliant in judgement giving away nothing to Ragger who was all at sea defending a difficult position out of the opening on Tuesday evening.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Having done all the hard work with spectacular results, Indian players would look to hold their nerves in the final dash to finish at the podium in the World Women Chess Team Championships, in Mardin, Turkey.
Grandmaster and former Asian champion S P Sethuraman has knocked out former FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a big first round upset at the Chess World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Pragg, Gujrathi out of contention
Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive win continued as he was held to yet another draw by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the sixth round of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, Stavanger, Norway.
Viswanathan Anand played out a quick draw with eventual champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to finish second in the Norway chess tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour.
The King is wounded, not dead. Defending champion Viswanathan Anand had to be content with a draw but said he was relieved to eke out a draw after two losses on the trot against Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship in Chennai on Monday.
India's hopes in the Under-18 Open brightened as R Praggnanandhaa outclassed compatriot P Iniyan in the highly-anticipated battle between two Indian Grand Masters in the World Youth Chess Championship, in Mumbai.
Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika staged a great comeback in the FIDE World Women's Chess Championship in Tehran, winning the second game against Tan Zhongyi of China to take the semi-final into a tie-breaker.
India had a disappointing outing at the 43rd Chess Olympiad with the men's team finishing a poor sixth and the women ending their campaign at a lowly eighth spot, in Batumi, on Friday.
In the women's section being held simultaneously, the Indians came back strongly to beat Poland 3-1 aided by victories from D Harika and Tania Sachdev on board two and three. Its surprising that Tania Sachdev was rested in the previous round when the Indian team drew with Serbia, losing on last two boards.
World champion Viswanathan Anand capitalised on a blunder by Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to beat him in the final round and finish second in the Zurich Chess Challenge that concluded in Zurich.
Hans Niemann, the teenage American grandmaster at the centre of an alleged cheating scandal, sued world champion Magnus Carlsen, online platform Chess.com and others for slander and libel on Thursday and is seeking at least $100 million in damages.
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against American Hikaru Nakamura to remained in joint third position after the end of the fifth round of Norway Chess 2015, a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand scored a thumping victory over French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to jump to joint-second after the end of the sixth round in the Norway Chess tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda settled for a quick draw and shared first place along with Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine in the Fujairah International open chess tournament that concluded in Fujaira, UAE, on Wednesday.
Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against world No 2 Fabiano Caurana of Italy in the first round of Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden, Germany. Playing his first tournament after winning the London Classic, the five-times world champion was pleasantly surprised as Caruana went for the Italian opening with white that does not find many followers in top level chess.
In another entertaining contest SG Alpine Warriors defeated Chingari Gulf Titans 11-6.
Having won two games in a row with white pieces earlier in the tournament, Carlsen could do little against Anand this time and the Norwegian was not quite happy with his play.
The Indian needs just a draw in the second game against Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia to qualify for the semis.
Sitting at tied fourth, Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh will have some catching up to do if they want to finish on the podium with four rounds remaining in the ongoing Prague Masters Chess tournament in Prague.
You don't prep for 2028 but for 2040, or even 2044. Sustained sporting excellence is based on mass support, grassroots development, and funding - and it is this trifecta India needs to work on, systematically, asserts Prem Panicker.
Playing his second white in the event, Anand tried the Rossolimo variation to counter Carlsen's Sicilian defense, an opening that the Norwegian chose second time against Anand in the current year.
Anand, who first made it to the World's top-10 in July 1991, has remained India's top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987.
India's Arjun Erigaisi defeated top-seed Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran with black pieces in the sixth round of the Chennai Grandmasters Chess Championship in Chennai on Wednesday to move into joint second spot in the standings.
