| Viswanathan Anand - Wijk Aan Zee  World Cup Champion Viswanathan Anand clinched his first undivided
title at Wijk Aan Zee drawing his final round game against defending Champion
Bareev.
Immediately after the game he spoke to our special Correspondent Vijay Kumar
Vijay
: Vishy Congratulations
on Winning the Corus title. How do you feel ?
Anand
: I am very delighted because it is incredibly strong
tournament. As you know the Top 20 chess players of the world were
here except for Kasparov. This is the first time I have won the
tournament undivided - I have won this tournament earlier also but I
shared the first prize . This is the first time I won it undivided.
Vijay
: What kind
of preparations did you undergo for Corus?
Anand
: I did lot of theoretical work and mainly I tried to stay
fresh. I took rest before coming here and I wanted to remain fresh and
that's the main factor.
Vijay : Your form
over the past one-year has been excellent. Winning so many important
events. What exactly keeps Vishy going?
Anand
: I slightly went through a
rough patch towards the end of 2001 -even I say early 2002 - till
Eurotel Trophy in Prague - and if you have gone so long for some dicey
results, definitely you want to play some good games of chess and I
feel I manage to do that.
Vijay
: Your games
have been quite business like here. No major difficulties except
against Kramnik?
Anand
: Yes - in general I think I won the tournament because I
was the most stable player and many people were playing quite well but
they really had one or two bad days while I was stable till the end
and I think that made all the difference.
Vijay : The game
against Shirov was quite exciting. Was it like taking the bull by its
horns?
Anand
: Yes, may be a little bit. Alexei's style forces you
often to do it. He forces you to go for the full blooded battle. I
think it was not the normal Alexei. On that day he was slightly in bad
shape. he blundered right in the opening and I was able to take over
the issue very quickly.
Vijay : Would you
say Karpov chose the wrong variation going for the Caro Kann against
you?
Anand
: Well he plays Caro Cann and Petroff and I won my last two
Petroff games against him. Actually I was able to put pressure on all
his openings.
 Vijay
: What about
Judit? She displayed superb form here?
Anand
: I think basically she is a very matured and experienced
player and she is still quite young. She has been playing so long and
in the last few years she has incorporated solidity into her style.
Now
she is more all round and she brings her experience and is able to
attain results quite often.
Vijay : Which of
your four victories here would you rate as the best?
Anand
: Topolov one was the most difficult one, because ok he was
better and I had to win a counter attack. Well as for leisure I would
say I enjoyed all the other three . I enjoyed the game with Karpov.
Vijay : Linares is
a much tougher field in comparison with Kasparov joining in. Your
comments.
 Anand
: It become little bit more competitive because Leko and
Kasparov join the field - but this field [at CORUS] was also very
strong. Well Linares will be stronger because of the fewer players so
the field is compressed from 14 to 7 - I think if I can keep this form
it should be ok.
Vijay : You plan
to open an Academy in India. When is it actually going to happen?
Anand
: Well it is already in process. We are going to roll out
very soon.
Vijay : The Chess
fraternity is still confused about the outcome of the unification
treaty. What according to you is an acceptable solution?
Anand
: I think the only acceptable solution is to take the
process all the way, I mean, if Kasparov plays Ponomariov than there
should be a match with Einstein people and there should be a
unification match and we should have one World Champion again
otherwise there is no need to have Kasparov-Ponomariov match if it
does not lead to unification.
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