Candidates title morale-booster for Carlsen rematch: Anand

Mumbai: Viswanathan Anand feels winning the Candidates title has given him fresh motivation needed to avenge last year`s loss to world number one Magnus Carlsen, when the two meet in the World Chess Championship title clash later this year. Five-time world champion Anand registered three victories in 14 games without a defeat en route his Candidates victory to earn a rematch against Norwegian Carlsen. "If I had been dropped into the match that would have one thing but qualifying for it gave me a morale boost," the 44-year-old legend told reporters here. "It will be a different match. It is very unlikely that we both would try to do the same things. Obviously I will try to learn from things that went wrong and I have many impressions that I will think about when I train," said Anand, who was soundly beaten 6.5-3.5 at the Chennai World Championship title contest last November. "You feel positive. Good result is also something you can feed off. I am hoping to carry that feeling into it. But it goes without saying that we have to do different things, especially the loser," the chess wizard explained further. Anand said he will try to give his best shot in the re-match which is scheduled to happen in November. "I will give it my best shot and I am looking forward to it. It is an unexpected second chance, so you definitely want to make use of that. Having said that, I don`t know when the match is going to be. Whether they will stick to the current schedule or the match moves, just literally waiting for details on that front," he said. "Obviously, once the April deadline passed, as far as I can understand, they have just left it open. People still seem to be looking and they are still trying to organise the match. I am just waiting to see if we get a date and venue soon," he added. Asked if playing at home put pressure on him while defending his world title, Anand said, "I wouldn`t blame that on Chennai. Playing at home has the impact of magnifying whatever you are going through. If it is going well, it will magnify that and vice-a-versa if it is going badly, it will magnify that. I don`t think I suffered. "I had more problems on the chess board, to put it another way. Obviously I hope to avoid that this time." Anand will now be participating in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships (June 15-21) in Dubai and conceded his performance in Zurich in March wasn`t upto the mark. "We saw in Zurich that I wasn`t able to get in that frame of mind. But last year I had quite a few good results in blitz, especially when these tournaments were having blitz tournaments to decide the drawing lots. Those went quite well for me," he said. On playing rapid chess, Anand said, "it is kind of strange that for many years rapid tournaments have kind of vanished. Till 2008 I would go to Amber tournament in March, Corsica at the end of the year - it was very cut and right. Amber stopped in 2011. "Now, I am often surprised when I turn up at a rapid event. For me it was a pity that I missed several world rapids and blitzes. I remember very clearly that I was keen to play in 2012 but the problem was it clashed with my son`s birthday function. So I simply couldn`t play. But I was happy this time to join in."