Vishy.. the old fox

Vishwanathan Anand won the 8th game of the World Chess Championship match to hold Boris Gelfand 4-4. This win comes after a shock loss in the 7th game for Anand.

Anand, who has been off-color for last few years, seemed to be going down that path when he lost the 7th game and all the critics were all over him. However, the old fox returned the compliments in style by shutting out Gelfand in the very nextgame and that too within 17 moves !! This win should boost Anand's confidence and take his tally of titles further..

Way to go Anand!!

Your Favourite Sport(s) and your thoughts on it..

I have interest in all sports and the excitement for that particular sport increases many-folds when India is playing internationally.

It gets the adrenalin pumping - be it the Football qualifiers, where India is pitted against much higher ranked teams; Chess events, where we expect Vishy to hold the challenge and win everytime;Formula one, where Narain Karthikeyan has another chance; Hockey tournaments, where the Indian team struggles to qualify for bigger events like Olympics; Badminton tournaments, where Saina Nehwal will weave her magic spell and come out victorious; Tennis events, where the double S- Somdev and Sania will show their mettle to much higher ranked players; or, any Asian/Commonwealth events, where indian contingent will get many golds , silvers and bonzes in Weightlifting, Atheletics, Boxing, Shooting, Rowing, Archery and many such sports. Now, I will look forward to 2012 London Olympics as well :-).

Which are the sports you like and follow keenly and what are the changes you think are required to get India to no.1 in that sport or in case it is already no.1, then how to sustain that ranking? For example, In an earlier post, I was wondering who will keep up Vishwanathan Anand's legacy in chess. See that post here.

Keep your comments flowing in.....

The Vishy Magic...what happens next?

The Indian chess wizard and world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand, finished 3rd in the famed Amber Chess tournament at Monaco, a couple of days back. Levon Aronian won the tournament while Magnus Carlsen was second.

While Vishy has been weaving his magic on the chess board and winning many titles around the world on a regular basis for the past many years, the question that comes to mind is who is the next in line to take such rich legacy forward. I do not see any Indian player at this time doing that.

There have been quite a few good players like Sasikiran, Parimarjan Negi and P.Harikrishna, however, haven't seen any of them reaching heights of Anand.

What is lacking or is it that Anand is realy far ahead.. thoughts?

Meanwhile, do you know what Blindfold Chess is? well, it is not that the players are blindfolded and play against each other.

As per wikipedia... Blindfold chess (also known as sans voir) is a way to play chess, whereby play is conducted without the players having sight of the positions of the pieces, or any physical contact with them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation

Just to add, Vishwanathan Anand is a champion of this blindfold chess!!