Vishy Anand: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yes. Topalov doesn’t like to be passive, but he’s also much more of a . . . He actually can play positional chess incredibly well, but over the board, he tends to lapse in this area. The gap between his positional play and his sharp openings that he’s really comfortable with is huge. So, stylistically he’s more limited. The idea was, you are a better natural player than me, so you should try to steer the game through to Slav’s more harmless — which is how we came under the Kramnik approach — more harmless waters. Play sensible chess, and don’t get into forced lines that much, and you’ll probably have the easier time of it. More of a philosophical thing. Kramnik called Kasimdzhanov after the fourth game, and he said, “I’m flattered that you are trying to copy my openings, but you’re doing it very badly. Can I help?” Literally, that’s what he said, which is the funniest story. We said, “Of course you can help.” I was amazed how dedicated he was, since he was just doing this on his own thing. He could have easily said, “I’ll help you for an hour.” I would accept it. “I’ll look at your notes for 10 minutes.” I would accept it. There were days he sat with the team till 5:00 in the morning, working all night. He had just gone to Baku to play an event. He played there. Then at night, he would work with us. For the team, it was great because we were getting his insights on his opening. We realized there was so much we had missed. Every game, he basically became my fifth second from game five till the final game. I couldn’t possibly thank him enough. I’d just beaten him two years ago in the match. Again, it was his ability to put that aside that impressed me. We had spoken a little bit the previous year about his newborn daughter, and it broke the ice, but I was still feeling awkward. I thought it might take a bit of time for both of us to move on, but in fact, he seemed to be able to take this very well. So, they all helped me in different ways. It was nice. When you get that kind of feedback, it of course gives you a hell of a lot of confidence. In your 2013 game against Aronian at Tata, when you played 15 for black bishop to c5, all the ensuing combinations and tactics — how much of that were you seeing in advance?…

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