Knowing and playing your chess better than anybody else is one thing, but then you still need a computer, says the genial young man who stands a world apart from the archetypal chess Nazi played out by his fellow legends Bobby Fischer, Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. “Using a computer to help you with chess is much like using an encyclopaedia to bounce off your existing knowledge against a vast ideas database,” says world chess champion Viswanathan Anand.
“I analyse positions a lot on my computer,” Anand says. His machine crunches a million possibilities every few seconds over a 5-10 minute period before dishing up an array of options before the champion. “But sometimes, I leave the computer at its work overnight depending on the moves to be analysed. This can lead to the processor overheating, but then, that’s something I cannot afford to happen,” Anand said, smiling blithely against a logo of his sponsor looming in the background.
“I like my machines cool and quiet,” he adds. A lot like him, but do they match the scorching pace of his inbuilt chess engine? Anand does not offer a direct answer, but affirms that older players like him were comfortable starting off without a processor plunking their every move. “Today, players like Anders Larsson or Sergei Karjakin cannot imagine life without computers.”
But wouldn’t somebody like Bobby Fischer find today’s computer-fortified players more than a match with his workmanlike approach to the game, and the delicate relationships between the pieces which he forged into all-time great moves? “Well, I grew up with Bobby Fischer’s games, and I stand on the foundation he has built,” Anand said. “But then, Fischer wouldn’t be able to play today the way he did in 1972. He would need time to adjust against players, including me. Computer-based strategising would help him too.”
From the early days when he became the youngest Indian to win the International Master title at the age of 15 in 1984, Anand said that he had no real contact with computers till he became a GM in 1988. “The first chess database with about 20,000 games was released in 1987, but it was very small by today’s standards. Today, I use a 12-million game database, though it is quite selective,” Anand said.
While the man-machine divide was to assert itself in the beginning, Anand soon found himself being able to sort through data and prioritise much faster using a computer. He still prefers to handle the strategising, while using the computer game database and customised software to glean insights into each of his moves and compare different possibilities and outcomes. “I enjoyed playing the odd computer puzzle game or two, so there was more than one good reason to take to active computing. I also feel quite ok to seek chess advice from a computer. That sometimes elusive perspective on a possible move, on how to strategise in a more intuitive way at the board can be done efficiently on a computer program.”
Anand, who became the FIDE World Champion in Mexico in September 2007 and successfully defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik this year, is the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: knockout, tournament, and match.
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While he was billed to defend his title at Linares next year against the winner of the challenger match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky, Anand said that the challenger is as yet undecided. “I hope to do well at Linares next year and retain my title, whoever the challenger is.” Till then, it will be practice and more brainstorming at his workstation.
The game has changed and new doors are opening. “The computer is opening as many doors as it has shut,” Anand said. “They are becoming more difficult to beat. I would say that my game has improved and so has my ability to come up with innovative moves. In another 50 years, it will be impossible to defeat a computer.”
When the chess arena still features mere mortals like Anand, new and unorthodox moves will segregate the champion from his competition. The processor is now playing aide-de-camp to the man from Chennai, as it does for countless others, but thanks to Moore’s Law, it is his coach, mentor, and maybe, interlocutor in equal measure. For now, Anand has no reason to mind.