`I’m on cloud nine, I can’t even think straight, it’s still sinking in’

“I can’t even think straight now. It’s still sinking in,” India’s finest sporting champion said in words that typically follow an exhausting win. “It has been a long time coming,” he added.

Oh yes, a long time indeed. About 1,400 years approximately. For a legion of chess aficionados in India and across the world, there was never any doubtthat one day Anand would rule the kingdom of chess. That it should all happen at the cusp of the millennium in Teheran — to where the Persians spirited away the game the Indians had called Chaduranga and they called Shatranj — at a time when there is so much upbeat about India is all the more sweet.

Anand also becomes the 15th world champion and the first non-Soviet/Russian champion in 28 years, the last one being the mercurial American Bobby Fischer at 1972. For a whole generation, this young man signalsa resurgence of the Indian spirit.

Should you detect excitement and emulsion unbecoming of a professional journalist in this panegyric, indulge me on this Christmas Day please. I first interviewed Vishy Anand a decade ago when he won the World Junior Crown in Manila. Speaking to a kid and listening to him explain his victories, I thought I heard a future champion speak. I wrote as much, andin a spirit of generosity towards the game newspapers at that time were not known for, the daily I worked for splashed it on Page One.

Since then, I’ve tagged Vishy Anand here and there across the world, whenever my ardour for the game overtook the more mundane task of earning my living writing about less esoteric subjects. Once, in 1992, I spoored Anand all the way to a small town named Tilburg in the Netherlands, where 100 of the world’s top Grandmasters were gathered for an unparalleledfeast of rapid chess.

Anand was then known as the lightning kid of the chess world for the speed with which he made his moves. I was sure he’d win. He was too.

When he was just short of the summit, a young grandmaster named Vasily Topolov knocked him out. We met a couple of days later in a restaurant called Two Claveren in Amsterdam. He was full of good cheer, andfooled around with the patzers there, shrugged his shoulders and said it was all a part of the game. I wondered if he lacked the killer instinct, something we Indians are famously said to lack.

Around this time I nearly wrecked our friendship, commenting sulphurously in one piece about the weight he had put on around his midriff and his general lack of physical fitness. But the terrific sport he is, Anand took it gamely. He moved to Spain, learnt yoga, became a passionate bicyclist, and started a fitness regimen that did his game a world of good.

In 1995, I met him again, this time in New York, where he was taking on the reigning world champion Garry Kasparov. Appropriately, the games were held atop the World Trade Center, on the 108th floor. Again, I thought Anand had reached the summit of the chess world and would plant the Indian flag there. He drew the first eight games, showing the kind of deep reserves the game’s elders did not know he had. In the ninth game he stunned Kasparov with a spectacular win and the chess world stood up to applaud him.

Kasparov was beside himself with rage. He stormed out without the customary handshake and slammed the door behind him. The tantrum rattled Anand, a gentleman in the vain and largely egotistic world of chess. The burden of public expectation was too much for him. Slowly, Kasparov clawed back, showing the real stuff champions are made of. The crown slipped away fromAnand.

I missed the Fide knockout final against Karpov in Lausanne 1998 where he again blew his chances, mainly on account of the scheduling, because he had to labour his way through to the final while his opponent waitedin comfort.

But I knew his time was coming. And it happened the night before Christmas. The moment Shirov threw the towel in Teheran on Sunday evening, I was on the phone with this great sportsman and ambassador of Indian renaissance, my heart glowing even in the icy winter that has enveloped Washington.

“Yeah, this is something I have dreamt about and worked hard for,” Anand chuckled, recalling our many interviews and conversations. “I thought I almost had it in 1995, but obviously I wasn’t ready. I had toearn it.”

Anand said he is not perturbed by the fact that Kasparov and Kramnik played in a rival unofficial world championship last month which Kramnik won. He,Anand, is now the official FIDE (the international chess organisation) world champion. And that is what mattered. When the excitement about this win had died down, he would think about playing Kramnik.

He said he has a slightly positive record against Kramnik, that is, he has won more games in their one-on-one encounters.

On a potential rematch with Kasparov, Anand suggested the former world champion would first have to earn the right, adding, “But he is a great champion and far from finished as a chess player.”

Anand said he was better prepared and mentally at peak form during this face-off, unlike his last effort when he had to take on Karpov after having played exhaustively. He was full of praise for his seconds(trainers) Ubilava and Pablo Segundo, who he has knownsince they became friends during a junior worldchampionship in Manila.

Anand said he would be returning to India on December29 and resting for a week before returning to Europefor more chess. Fittingly, he will play in strongtournament in Wijk an Zee in Netherlands that willfeature Shirov, Kramnik and Kasparov among others.

But the newly crowned champion cautioned againstreading too much into the field, saying “it is farmore important to win something with the worldchampion label attached to it” than top a strongfield.

This has been an incredible year for Anand. He won theWorld Blitz Cup in Warsaw, Poland, the UnofficialWorld Rapid Championship in Frankfurt, and morerecently the World Cup in Shenyang, China. But thesweetest of them all, Anand said, is the FIDE worldchampionship.

I don’t know if he felt a little giddy as he saidthat, but I certainly did and you should allowyourself too. We’ve waited 1400 years to drink tothis.