Anand hails his team of seconds, calls it 'band of brothers'

SPORT-ANAND

New Delhi, Jun 15 (PTI) The extraneous support from the
likes of Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in his World
Championship battle has not diminished Viswanathan Anand's
faith in his team of seconds and the Indian chess wizard
Tuesday ruled out any change in what he calls a "band of
brothers".
It was an unprecedented meeting of extraordinary minds as
former world champions Kasparov and Kramnik offered generous
inputs to Anand, as did reigning world number one Magnus
Carlsen to help the Indian down Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in
Sofia last month.
"I worked with Kasparov, Kramnik and Carlsen ahead of the
World Championship but it would be very difficult to change my
team now because we are now like band of brothers," Anand said
here Tuesday on the sidelines of a product launch event.
Anand's team of seconds comprise Grandmaster Peter
Heine-Nielsen of Denmark, Indian GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly,
Polish GM Radoslav Wojtasek and former world champion Rustam
Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan.
"It always helps you when you work with the same set of
people for long. We have been working with each other for
quite sometime and we have respect for each other. This team
has worked for me.
"As a team we get together very well. We spend lot of
time together because you never know when one will get an
idea. We do a lot of brainstorming sessions. They used to work
whole night and slept only three to four hours daily during
the World Championship," Anand said.
Recalling the match against Topalov, Anand said, "It was
the toughest match I had ever played. If you look at my other
world championship encounters, never a game went to the wire.
Till the last moment nobody knew who is the winner.
"Topalov is a great rival. He is a tough rival for any
player. You have to give him credit too," he said.
Asked to react to Topalov's criticism, Anand said, "I
know how to leave my rivalry in chess board only."
Looking ahead, said he would be participating in five to
six tournaments this year including London Chess Classic.
"My focus would be on good performances in these events
as my tournament performances in 2009 was not that good."
Like most, Anand proved he too is not immune to the FIFA
World Cup fever and having shifted his base to Spain, the
Indian chess ace said he was closely following the fortunes of
his adopted country, along with that of Argentina.
"I am watching Spain and Argentina. I like Spain because
of their style of play and Argentina simply because of Messi.
"Spain are the current European champions and it looks
little difficult for them to make it a double. Argentina is a
pretty talented team and if they get their act together, they
will be difficult opponents for any side," Anand said. PTI SSC
KAB


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