By IANS
Mainz (Germany) : World No. 1 Viswanathan Anand will try to increase his tally of titles from this German tournament to a staggering 10 as the Chess Classic Mainz gets underway this week.
For the first time, the matches will not be held in Mainz. Instead, the four participants – India’s Anand, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Uzbek Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot of France – will play in the Grenke Leasing Rapid World Championship.
Mainz is the world’s largest rapid chess event. During the week a number of tournaments will be played, including the Mini-FiNet Chess960 Open for children, the FiNet Chess 960 Open, the Livingston Computer Tournament and the Ordix Open.
Apart from these, there will also be the two world championships – the FiNet Chess 960 World Championship and the Grenke Leasing Rapid World Championship. The same four players take part in both events.
Three other Indians will take part in the open tournament – Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentala Harikrishna and Parimarjan Negi.
Both world championships follow the same format. In contrast to previous years, there will be no direct contest between two players, but preliminaries and finals and the winner will be crowned the world champion.
In the preliminary rounds, the players are involved in a double round robin with the top two clashing in the final. Time limit: 20 minutes for the entire game, plus five-second increments for each move.
Anand, who has won no less than nine times in Mainz, is the favourite to win the rapid world championship title.
Chess960, however, is a different story.
As Anand revealed in the press conference, he has played Chess960 only once in his life, against ChessClassic organiser Hans-Walter Schmitt.
But he appeared optimistic saying he is happy not to have to prepare thoroughly for each game.
However, fans of Aronian believe that the Armenian has a chance to win both championships.
His skills in rapid chess are legendary and in Chess960 he is not only the reigning world champion, but by winning the Chess960 Open in 2003 and by beating Peter Svidler in 2006 he has plenty of experience in this form of chess.
Moreover, Chess960 well suit his creative, unconventional style.
But Kasimdzhanov, who qualified for the tournament by winning last year’s Ordix Open, could outwit both.
He is an excellent rapid chess player and recently beat Anand in a rapid event in Corsica and proved that he could beat the world number one who at times seemed invincible in rapid chess.
At the press conference, Kasimdzhanov, now living in Germany, revealed some of the secrets of his preparation and said he played quite a number of Chess960 blitz games on the Internet recently.
The fourth player in contention is Bacrot. The Frenchman admitted it would be really difficult to win either tournament and said he hoped Anand had not secretly trained for Chess960.
Ivanchuk, top seed in the Ordix Open, emphasised that everybody has a chance to win.
Hans Walter-Schmitt, the organiser, talking about the format said: “I wanted to give people like Anand the opportunity to distinguish themselves in Chess960. The combination of two disciplines in one tourney can also be seen in Monaco, in which rapid chess and blindfold chess is played.”
He said anything could happen in Mainz.
“All players are excellent rapid chess specialists. But, for me, Anand is a great fighter with the best playing skills, and he is very experienced, so I think that he will be on the top spot again,” he averred.
“In the Mexico World Championships, there are three favourites: Anand, Aronian and Kramnik, who seems to be in good shape. The other players are the classical outsiders.”