Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun, Nihal can all become World champions: Boris Gelfand

Once rivals, now allies: Gelfand challenged Viswanathan Anand for the World championship in 2012. He is now part of the group on the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy. | Photo credit score: Getty Images

Boris Gelfand challenged Viswanathan Anand for the World chess championship in 2012 and was one of many planet’s main gamers for many years. A former World No. 3, he received the World Cup in 2009. He was part of the Soviet Union chess dynasty that dominated the sport for lengthy earlier than transferring to Israel.

Although he nonetheless continues to play competitively, he spends extra time teaching and has labored extensively with Indian gamers, together with the group of younger males that’s taking the world by storm. Gelfand, who was in Kolkata just lately to go a coaching camp for India’s greatest expertise, sat down for an interview with The Hindu. Excerpts:

How do you discover working with a few of the world’s most fun younger abilities? You have spent a number of time with D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin.

I’m very impressed by how a lot respect the Indian gamers give to the coaches. They might have already become top-level gamers, however they respect their coaches immensely, and I discover it fairly good. That means they aren’t simply glorious, but in addition good human beings. I preserve involved with every coach that has helped me in my life.

Talking of the fabulous 4 of Indian chess, what are the issues that you simply discover most spectacular about every certainly one of them?

I believe you will need to word that we can’t generalise as a result of we’re speaking about gamers with extraordinary expertise. What unites all of them is their want to enhance. As for sure qualities of their recreation, I like Gukesh’s depth of calculation and his deep pondering. I like Pragg’s feeling for the sport and his intuitive understanding. I’m impressed by Arjun’s creativity and Nihal’s method and talent to grind.

Do you suppose there may, someday sooner or later, be a World title match between two Indian gamers?

Well, I cannot be stunned if all of them become World champions. They have perhaps 20 years forward of them and which means 10 World championships. So if all the pieces [about their game] goes the way in which it’s, why not? Within just a few years, India will become the No. 1 nation in world chess.  

You are additionally part of the group on the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA).

I believe the WACA is a superb thought, particularly with the involvement of Anand. The academy is serving Indian chess nicely.

How do you look again at your World title match in opposition to Anand in Moscow? That was in all probability your greatest probability to become the World champion. You had tied the rating 6-6 within the 12 classical video games, however misplaced out within the tie-breaker.

I noticed the World championship as an important alternative. I used to be very excited once I received the Candidates [the qualifying tournament], and earlier than that to play the Candidates, I needed to win the World Cup. I used to be very optimistic in regards to the World championship; I wished to indicate my greatest and I believe I managed to do it. It was an equal match. I believe I performed nicely within the tie-breaker, however not nicely sufficient to win. I paid the value of being too — the way to say — cussed in my opening selections. I in all probability stunned Anand within the openings, however he managed to discover a resolution.

Before that, in 2007, you have been positioned third within the World championship, which was performed in an eight-player round-robin format in Mexico City. You completed behind Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.

I had probability. I used to be at all times chasing him [Anand]. But perhaps I used to be not robust sufficient, as a result of I didn’t have an invite for high tournaments for a few years. I performed perhaps two high tournaments in 5 years. I lacked expertise, not like the others, so I used to be not robust or assured.  

Chess might be the one sport that benefited from the Covid-induced lockdown. It has become extra mainstream.

I really feel the Netflix sequence The Queen’s Gambit has additionally contributed to the recognition of the sport. It elevated individuals’s curiosity in chess tremendously. Back residence in Israel, it grew to become harder to purchase chess units. The Queen’s Gambit performed a major function in taking chess to widespread individuals. My buddy, who is likely one of the high chess organisers in Europe, informed me that one sequence did extra for the promotion of chess than the 40 years he spent making an attempt to do it.

You belong to the era of some nice abilities like Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk…

Absolutely. Nowadays, once they inform me this man is extremely proficient, I might suppose, come on. I used to be enjoying on the time of Karpov, Kasparov, Ivanchuk, Anand, Kramnik… It is hard to impress me. When I grew to become the Soviet Union junior champion, Ivanchuk was second. What an important expertise he’s, simply among the best I’ve ever come throughout. I want he wrote a e-book of his greatest video games, annotating his strikes. It will probably be an important reward to chess. Maybe I’ll ask him to write down, however then his nation [Ukraine] is at conflict now.

How do you look again at your time as a chess participant within the Soviet Union?

Well, typically individuals got scholarships. There have been coaching camps they usually have been giving us each day allowance. We couldn’t go to Europe due to the Iron Curtain. I used to be 19 once I went to Europe for the primary time. And the primary time I performed a overseas participant, I used to be 17. It was an Indian participant, A.B. Meetei, and I performed him on the second board. It was a match by which my metropolis Minsk took on an Indian group that was on a tour of the Soviet Union. Pravin Thipsay was the strongest Indian participant, by far, of that group. And then we performed a blitz match, and I received all the video games.

What pursuits you other than chess?

I like soccer. I like studying books.

Your favorite authors?

[Anton] Chekhov is certainly one of my favorite brief story writers, together with Somerset Maugham and Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Among the Russian writers, I additionally like Mikhail Bulgakov in addition to [Ilya] Ilf and [Yevgeny] Petrov.

What in regards to the nice Russian masters, like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky?

Dostoyevsky much less, however Tolstoy sure. You know, just lately I learn Anna Karenina once more. And I used to be actually impressed.