Anand wants to renew rivalry with Kasparov

NEW DELHI: Having established himself as the undisputed World Champion, Viswanathan Anand wants to renew his rivalry with Garry Kasparov, one of the greatest chess players ever.

Anand has managed to defeat Kasparov only eight times in 78 matches, classical as well as rapid chess, in his career and lost 27 games before the former undisputed World Champion quit active chess.

"Yes, if Kasparov is interested. It will be very interesting. For me it will be a nice challenge. There is a match waiting for him if he wants," Anand said.

"I can assure him that it will be less dangerous than his current occupation," he quipped, referring to the former champion's dabbling in political matters.

Anand said beating Kasparov was even more satisfying than winning the recent World Championships title.

"Beating Kasparov was certainly more satisfying," he said.

The World's top-ranked player, who returned home to a tumultuous welcome a fortnight after becoming the first Asian to win the undisputed World title, said he did not want to compare chess with cricket.

"I don't know about the comparison. You try to do the best for your sport and you don't lose the focus. That's the way it should be."

His love for chess remained as fresh as it was when he began to play the game.

Anand said he was in holiday mode at present but admitted he would have to guard against complacency.

"Now I want to finish first in every tournament, but complacency is one danger," he said and added "I still make a lot of mistakes. On a good day it's different but when I botch up somethings I make mental notes of what went wrong".

Anand insisted that he was 'hungry for more chess' and his passion was his biggest motivation.

"It just comes down to passion and I still have the hunger. I want to keep on improving on my own results plus the element of curiosity is still there. If you have not given 100 per cent, that's a shame," he said.

"I love playing chess and now it will be nice to have new targets, challenges, like it will be nice if I win Corus (Super Grandmaster tournament) for the sixth time," he added.

After almost a month's break after a hectic and successful year so far, Anand will play at Wijk Aan Zee, Linares-Morelia, Leon and the most important of them all, the World Championship match against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

"I am on break now and there is not much chess for me this year. But I will play all my usual tournaments next year and try to further improve my records there," said the 37-year-old.

Anand revealed that the secret of his success lay in his calm composure.

"Every time you show emotion, you give information to your opponent. So I have learnt to keep it to myself," he said.