Anand still rules

Viswanathan Anand, officially, finished the year as the World No.1, officially that is. He would have rather wanted to end the year as the world champion, instead. The most consistent, gentle and uncomplicated player in world chess suffered rare fits in San Luis. He was, sometimes, too defensive for his good. One Veselin Topalov erased the word caution from his lexicon.

Any other year and any other time, the Indian Grandmaster would have won the title. But San Luis, Argentina, was hit by tsunami called Topalov. The Bulgarian displayed different levels of attacking chess. For his adversary across the board, Topalov was not like another intellectual plotting his rival’s downfall, but a boxer ready to unleash a left-right-and centre. Topalov was too fast, strong and wise to resist.

Yet Anand had a good year, although he had suffered another rare defeat at the hands of Vadim Milov in Corsican International in November. The Indian GM had successfully defended his Mainz Classic winning it for the sixth time in a row and sweeping all three titles in Amber Chess. He was second at Wijk Aan Zee, M-Tel Masters and third at Linares. He ended the year with 2,888 Elo points.

P Harikrishna was more than 200 Elo points behind Anand, yet the Andhra Pradesh boy too had a great year in 2005. The former World Junior champion had won two big tournaments - Sanjin Hotel Cup in China 9th Essent tournament in Hoogeveen. He was also second in the just-concluded Pampolin tournament. He overtook K Sasikiran as India’s No.2 after Anand.

Elsewhere, Koneru Humpy had won a tournament in Russia (North Urals Cup) and little N Srinath of Tamil Nadu became the world under-12 champion. Indian team also had won the Asian team chess in Iran to end the year in style. Year 2005 was a good year for Indian chess. But for San Luis, it would have been a great year.