Anand Chat

"Recently I was chosen along with the King of Spain and several famous sportsmen and artist to read 'Don Quijote' on Spanish television."

I hope that video will be included in the next CBM... ;-)

"After ruling the chess world for nearly 20 years now, Viswanathan Anand is rightly regarded as one of the greats of the 64-squares game."

Yep.

I suppose they were confusing him with Kasparov (smile), but I agree with the latter half... no question.

What I like most about the chat session is its "freshness" and spontaneity. No filtering of questions... no structure... just a a nice flow of common questions. How often do GMs do this with fans? There are some GMs who do it on the ICC, but the Anand chat allowed for all types of questions... refreshing.

This sort of thing is not uncommon, acirce. Articles and interviews over the last five years often mistakenly referred to Kasparov as the World Chess Champion in spite of his vigorous efforts to set them straight.

and Greg...

what about the women's side?

Oh!

I've never seen so many "Queens of Chess" or "Women's Champion" in the media. Is it J. Polgar, S. Polgar, Zhu Chen, Xie Jun, I. Krush, A. Stefanova or A. Kosteniuk?

Who is the women's champion? Can anyone tell me without researching it? No cheating.

"After ruling the chess world for nearly 20 years now, Viswanathan Anand is rightly regarded as one of the greats of the 64-squares game."

Trying to avoid repeating words?

"Anandkumar : You are a good guy
Viswanathan Anand : Thank you Anandkumar
"

Good interview.

"After ruling the chess world for nearly 20 years now, Viswanathan Anand is rightly regarded as one of the greats of the 64-squares game."

I understand being nice to the interview subject and trying to make him and his accomplishments sound more impressive than they already are, but this is a bit much. In mid-80's, Vishy was unheard of. For most of late 80's he wasn't among the best. He has never ruled the chess world and was only #1 according to one FIDE tournament for a couple of years in 90's. Heck, why not just call him undefeated.

And no, Greg, this is not common. I have read a lot of interviews with chess players in mainstream media and elsewhere, and none that have called Kasparov a current world champion or that made a statement of somebody ruling chess for nearly 20 years, a statement that could be made about maybe only Garry and Karpov out of recent players.

Well Yuriy...

I've also read a lot of the mainstream press and there are frequent references to Kasparov as the current World Champion. They are assuming that his status at the top of the rating chart means he is World Champion. Since the press doesn't know how the chess cycle works (neither do we), then they often get it wrong.

As I stated before, there are references to many different female players as the "Queen of Chess" and it creates confusion. In fact, I believe the women's side is in more confusion as to who is the champion. Stefanova, for whatever reason, is not given the respect of a champion and has been invisible for the most part. Alexandria Kosteniuk and Susan Polgar have been dubbed the "Queen of Chess" frequently and I've even seen Irina Krush marketed this way.

The chess community (particularly chess journalists) must get the mainstream press back on track.

Hopefully Argentina will settle some of these issues. Kramnik will play himself out of any prestige as he tumbles down the rating chart. However, I do believe for the sake of chess, the FIDE winner could play Kramnik. Anand-Kramnik or Topalov-Kramnik would be interesting. Probably a win for the FIDE champion in either case.

Addendum...

I believe the problem we have in chess is that "World Champion" does not necessarily mean the strongest player.

That being the case, it would have to mean it sufficiently.

Susan Polgar does have a decent claim to the title but "a/the Queen of woman's chess" does not neccessarily imply world champion.

But when you're the "Queen," it implies that as a woman, you're the top female. My point being that all of these media persons are contributing to the confusion with these pseudonyms because the public does not know how to distinguish between the "Queen of Chess" from female World Champion and/or the best female player. If S. Polgar, Kosteniuk and others (Skripchenko, Krush, J. Shahade, etc.) have a right to the claim where does that leave J. Polgar or Stefanova?

Actually, I believe the men's situation is in better shape in this regard. That's a scary thought.

Very nice replies by Vishy, even if his IQ does seem about 40 points higher than any of his questioners'.

Actually, the woman's situation is much clearer as there is no doubt as to who the best one is.
Of course I had J.Polgar specifically in mind. She simply has to be the queen of chess by outrating the rest by 150+ points .

DP...

Let me rephrase my points. Of course Judit is the strongest. Then why are all these others being labeled as "Queens of Chess"?

As I said before, there is confusion between "Queen of Chess," "World Champion" and the strongest female player. The women's side is in much more turmoil as far as this is concerned and no one is addressing it. It is a publicity nightmare for women's chess.

Imagine how the public (who we market chess to) would think if they saw several people who were claiming to be the "Queen of Chess," another touted to be the strongest woman ever and another, the World Champion... all different women.

I would say that those of us who write about chess can play a role in correcting these mistakes by informing media journalists. For the writer to say that Anand has dominated chess in the last 20 years is indicative of the type of inaccuracies that lead to this confusion.

Has anyone heard anything of Stefanova lately?

The Queen of Chess was probably marching in a parade last weekend.

of course Judit Polgar is the queen of chess!!

Please, next time a current article refers to Kasparov as current world champion, send me a link.