Viswanathan Anand hopes to make a difference as an administrator

Superbet Rapid and Blitz event, part of the Grand Chess Tour, which concluded in Warsaw on Monday saw Viswanathan Anand in splendid form. Anand won the rapid portion and eventually shared the second spot with Levon Aronian while Jan-Krzysztof Duda clinched the overall tournament. Anand is relieved to have notched up a strong show against some of the best players.

In a chat with TOI, Anand delved on the takeaways from the tournament, how he views his role as an administrator, his mentorship to young Indian Grandmasters and more. How do you assess your performance at the Superbet Rapid and Blitz?I am pretty satisfied with my performance. The rapid went spectacularly well even though my last round loss stung a bit.

And the blitz, I was very shaky and luckily my lead in the rapid was so big I still had a very good position. It’s a good result overall. What have been the biggest takeaways for you from the tournament?Personally I am relieved I played well, there were many good games and I am able to compete.

But there are also a lot of areas that I need to improve. Will we see you feature in more events in the coming months or are you planning to see how it really goes?I will certainly play the odd event. I will play in Leon, in Dortmund and maybe later towards the end of the year.

It’s not a crowded calendar. It’s nice to play once in a while and I enjoyed it here. You are in the race to be the FIDE vice-president.