Indian grandmasters D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi will not lack any motivation to go after Magnus Carlsen who too will look forward to such confrontations in Norway Chess beginning next month, feels the legendary Viswanathan Anand. A total of four Indian players – Gukesh, Erigaisi, R Vaishali and Koneru Humpy – will take part in the Norway Chess event which will be held in Stavanger City from May 26 to June 6. “I expect a very exciting battle,” Anand said during a chat organised by the Sports Journalists Association of Mumbai.

“Both Gukesh and Arjun will not lack motivation or the determination to go after Magnus. But Magnus is highly motivated by our youngsters if I can still call them that.” “He is highly motivated by the challenge. I mean I’ve seen him in multiple tournaments whether it’s Kolkata or the World Rapid Blitz. He eagerly looks forward to these confrontations and so we have the perfect storm,” he added.

Anand said the presence of four Indians in the event tells about the growth of chess in the country.

“Certainly on the men’s side, Indian chess is as strong as it’s ever been, even more so obviously due to the depth we have. But it’s great that Humpy is still competing so successfully and that she’ll be joined by Vaishali as well.” Talking about innovations such as confession booth and armageddon – a tie breaker after the classical game ends in a draw – Anand said there must not be many innovations apart from two of these.

“If you have too many in one tournament, it gets distracting also and there’s kind of overload. Armageddon is good because it gives a little something to look forward to at the end of a game in case the game is ending to a draw.

“I don’t know that we have found the perfect value of an armageddon game. It used to be what, 2-1 and then it’s a bit more, we’re still tweaking the number. “There might be some formula which will give the armageddon a bit more importance towards the overall score.” He continued, “But armageddon plus confessional both is a good enough combination and if they’re going to have more innovations, probably they should move one or two as well because too many at the same time is going to be tough.” Anand said being not used to the confessional booth in a way prevented him from using it.

“I was not used to that, and because I had competed more than what 40 plus… 38 years or something without a confessional booth, when it was finally introduced I never remembered to go there.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to go; I actually thought it was fun and I should make the effort but I got caught up in my game and I never went there.” “I don’t know if it’s the same thing happening with Prag (R Praggnanandhaa) and Gukesh and Arjun. Again, perhaps someone just needs to remind them before the game or something and they might do it as well.”

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