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Coming after a relatively lean period by his standards, India's Vishy Anand was at his very best in the Czech Capital city of Prague, taking the Eurotel World Chess Trophy 2002 in style. Vishy spoke in an exclusive interview with our Special Correspondent Vijay Kumar, immediately after his big title triumph at Prague.

Congratulations on winning the Eurotel World Chess Trophy. How important is this tournament victory for you?

Anand I think this is the strongest tournament I have played in and obliviously winning such a strong tournament is a great source of satisfaction and above that since it was my first big win in a few months so I am delighted.

This certainly was one of the strongest events in recent years how does it feel to be back at the top after some gap.

Anand I am very very satisfied and I am happy that not only my results were good but my chess was good. I played very good and attractive chess.

You were in trouble in some of the games here while rapid chess was played, but in classical it was a smooth sailing. now given your proficiency in rapid, did it surprise you?

Anand No ...not particularly…I mean you cant cover everything. In Rapid chess the only thing is to play as well as possible and be alert for your chances and I think I did that. OK sometimes my problems were there but I defended well.

Which was the toughest challenge here ?

Anand Against Chuky [Ivanchuck] I think the fourth game I played the best. In the main match I was in slight difficulty in the second game but mainly in the first game, but I defended well and got past these two games.

Karpov appears to be getting back in steam after a long time...What do you think of his chess ?

Anand Well he is a great player but his results for a while has been slightly shaky so I think the main thing is to see the consistency.

What next....?

Anand I will be participating in Advanced Chess at Leon, Spain and Chess Classic Mainz, Germany.

What about Olympiad ?

Anand I will not be playing in Olympiad.

  Vijay Kumar