I have a love for astronomy; Aruna, my wife, and I love travelling, so whenever we get an opportunity, we set off to explore places that have tickled our interest. We are also wildlife enthusiasts. – Viswanathan Anand
Chess has given me a lot more than I could ask for. I have been able to feel special, travel the world and do what I truly enjoy. Moreover, chess players love being their own boss and hate having to wake up early! – Viswanathan Anand
The broader the chess player you are, the easier it is to be competitive, and the same seems to be true of mathematics – if you can find links between different branches of mathematics, it can help you resolve problems. In both mathematics and chess, you study existing theory and use that to go forward. – Viswanathan Anand
For me, each game is a new challenge, which has to be dealt with rationally and systematically. At that time, every other thought fades into oblivion. – Viswanathan Anand
I go to the gym every day. That tends to taper off when I’m at a tournament. During tournaments, I’m not trying to build fitness. I’m simply trying to keep away any kind of tension. I go for long walks to clear my head. – Viswanathan Anand
If revenge motivates you, go for it! But the main thing is to set your game in order. – Viswanathan Anand
I personally prefer long-distance walking, but we are talking about pre-tournament preparation. During a tournament I make do with walking, mainly to concentrate before a game. – Viswanathan Anand
Of course, you feel good to play in a familiar environment. I enjoyed Delhi 2000 a lot. But the advantage doesn’t work during a game. There, only the moves count. – Viswanathan Anand
I attend to my fitness. I go the gym every day and try to maintain my physical fitness; without that, it is tough to take challenges on the chess board. – Viswanathan Anand
My parents were very supportive of my chess. When I got home after a game of chess, having missed school or something, they always made me feel very welcome; I didn’t feel guilty at all about pursuing chess with such fervour. They never, for instance, perceived sports as a rival to academics. – Viswanathan Anand
There is always the risk of being over-confident when you are preparing to face a weaker player. – Viswanathan Anand
Grandmasters decline with age. That’s a given. There is nothing special about the age of 40, but age eventually takes its toll. That much is clear. Beyond that, it’s about how long you can put off the effects and compensate for them. Mistakes will crop in, but you try to compensate for them with experience and hard work. – Viswanathan Anand
In any match, there are few critical moments where there’s no second best decision. The rest of the moves are intuitive. – Viswanathan Anand
I honestly don’t remember when and why I started calling my mom ‘Momsi’. These are family things; it starts for some reason. It’s not that I just call her Momsi; I call her other things as well! – Viswanathan Anand
I feel that schools and corporates should help the government in popularising sports in the country. Blaming the government for every sporting debacle will not be fair. – Viswanathan Anand
I was very lucky that while I was a chess player in a country where chess was not a big deal, I happened to be in the one city where there was a sprouting chess team: Chennai. – Viswanathan Anand
I keep forcing, I keep learning new things in the game, and so far I have been taking challenges as they come. – Viswanathan Anand
If you have a strong opponent, a competition is stimulating. I am generally most open to ideas when I have had a bad result. In chess, too, players specialise. This specialty then becomes an entry barrier. – Viswanathan Anand
In the knockout tournaments, it’s futile to prepare for a grand finale. You may have worked out many strategies for the final. But you may lose in the first round itself. – Viswanathan Anand
Parents, first and foremost, it is important to… understand and recognise the activities your child is naturally gravitating towards. It’s important also to ensure that your child likes what he or she is doing. I believe in exposing children to as many hobbies and extracurricular activities as possible. – Viswanathan Anand
When I was about six, I saw my elder siblings play chess and pestered my mother into teaching me. Very soon, I was beating everyone at home, and they thought it would be good to join a club. So my sister would take me to the Tal chess club on Thursdays and weekends. – Viswanathan Anand
Things like the financial markets – a proper grounding in mathematics could help the common man. I believe that if people are more familiar with mathematical concepts… it can help deal with modern life, which is increasingly complex. – Viswanathan Anand
