On Christmas Eve last year, India's Viswanathan Anand realized his lifetime dream to become the World Chess Champion by defeating Spain's Alexie Shirov at Tehran. After receiving heartfelt congratulations in New Delhi and at his hometown in Chennai (Madras), the media interviewed him uninterruptedly for almost a month, which left little time for him to prepare for the world's second toughest tournament, the Corus Chess Meet in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. Vishy's main rivals were, the World No 1 Gary Kasparov and the new Braingames World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, World Runner Up Alexei Shirov, along with a dozen top Grandmasters in the world.

Besides having a victory against Russian Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov in his second game of the Corus Super GM tourney, Anand played a series of draws from round 3 to Round 10. The rally of draws ended when Anand beat Dutch Grandmaster Jeron Piket. Anand displayed great tactical sense and demolished Piket in rather double quick time. Our correspondent Vijay Kumar spoke to World Champion Viswanathan Anand immediately after his resounding  comeback win in the 11th Round.

Vijay Kumar :  How do you feel to have a win after drawing 8 games ?

Anand : Obviously very nice to have won a game, to be honest I play the games as they come and draws happen. I am very happy but these were hard fought draws.

Vijay Kumar : May be you did not find time to prepare after the World Championship, was the one month long tournament very tiring ?

Anand : No not all. This is a very tough tournament and these things can happen. You should not come expecting to make plus five or plus seven. Sometimes a game can flow and things can work out well and people can fall into the opening preparations, sometimes these things work and sometime the opposite happens and it happens quite often with me. Last year also I had plus 3 till the very end, I made 10 draws, so this sort of thing can happen in a strong tournament.

Vijay Kumar : But don't you think that after such a hype (of winning the World Champion title), you'd face any problem keeping that level ?

Anand : Obviously, it is not that I came here for pleasure, this is one tournament I look forward to, but as I said earlier sometimes things don't work. In New Delhi things were working beautifully, I had won all my white games, I liked playing in New Delhi it was pleasant playing there with all those celebrations after the championship. I really enjoyed it, but this did not happen here. This is a very strong tournament and I think what is missing here is not the motivation but the inability to score. Hopefully during the championship I had enough scare and I am now concentrating on my games.

Vijay Kumar : What are those scares you just mentioned ?

Anand :  I think yesterday's game against Shirov was the scariest but on the other hand it was very satisfying to make a draw and get half a point instead of giving away one point.

Vijay Kumar : Do you agree that some preparations are required before such tournaments say at least a week ?

Anand : Any amount of preparations is always welcomed.

Vijay Kumar : What is the next thing that you have in mind since you have already achieved your lifetime goal of becoming the World Champion?

Anand : To be honest I have not yet started focusing on any other thing but obviously to keep breaking new grounds. Oh yes!! 2800 and then 2820 and so on.

Vijay Kumar : What was the strategy, did you plan to develop it as you went along during the games ?

Anand : There was no strategy; I took it one game at the time. There was a certain amount of fatigue after coming out of New Delhi. My aim was to play steadily and play one step at a time. I am very proud; I saved a lot of games like Shirov. It is very difficult to compose a strategy in these games when they are very strong.

Vijay Kumar : How has your game evolved over the period of the last year ?

Anand : I think what I look for these days is consistency. Last year I learned that if I am fresh and really motivated things go well. I arrange my schedule so that I am never sick of Chess. I do a lot of physical exercises that is why I can do a tournament after tournament.

Vijay Kumar : In terms of pure chess what area have you improved in the last four years ?

Anand : I have become much deeper, I handle situations very well, my preparations are very good, and I do a lot of things I used to do well, just better. I emphasis the consistency and my physical fitness.

Vijay Kumar : Has the nice guy also become a tough guy?

Anand : I always think I was nice of the board, I always thought of my self very competitive.

PS : Vishy Anand went on to win all his remaining matches finishing the tourney in style with 8.5 points, just missing Gary's winning score of 9.0 points. His last three wins which came against the trio of Dutch Grandmasters Piket, Timman and Van Wely, brought him from sixth place to a clear second place, followed by Vladimir Kramnik and Ivanchuk at 3-4 th position.

Interview & Photos by Vijay Kumar