MUMBAI: He has seen more highs than lows in an illustrious career and Indian chess wizard Viswanathan Anand says one factor that has contributed immensely to this has been his habit of “forgetting” the achievements to keep the motivation intact.
The five-time world champion says he likes to set new goals frequently.
“The first rule for excellence is there is no room for complacence. You have always be humble and assume that there is something to learn. You have to keep setting yourself with new goals. I became World Champion for the first time in 2000, and it was in my third attempt,” Anand said.
“The failures managed to motivate me to keep trying and I got better each time. The second time I did better than the first and the third time, I had enough of being second. When you sniff the world title, I knew in my blood, in my being, that it is not over till you finish the job.
“I knew that I had to wait and there could be no euphoria, no relaxation, till I finish the job, so this time I managed to see everything through the end and I became a world champion,” he recently stated at the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Awards.
Recollecting the phase when he became India’s first Grandmaster, Anand said he lost the focus soon after winning the title.
“When I was young, there were steady goals at every stage. First was to become an International Master, then become a Grandmaster, and then try for the World Championship,” he said.
“When I won the Grandmaster title, which was right after winning the World Junior title in 1987, I had a funny period of about six months where I simply couldn’t make a Grandmaster result again. Though I had become a Grandmaster, I had received the title, but I simply couldn’t attain a Grandmaster result again.
“What happened is something I later on discovered, which many Grandmasters shared. They all said yes, we all went through this period of six months after getting our title,” he added.
Anand said he became a bit complacent after winning the World Championship for the first time, which affected him and it took him a while to play at the same level again. (AGENCIES)
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