Sky is the limit for Anand

A: Yes, I think it is very important to win such a strong tournament. The tournament is similar to the one I won in Reggio Emilia. I would attribute my success to stability8217; which in the end proved the decisive factor.

Shirov played a brilliant tournament. But he had highs and lows. His chess is veryunpredictable.

Q: You have already won three super tournaments in 1998. For any player they will reach a point in their career from where they find it difficult to improve. In your case, there is no such thing as stagnation. How is it possible for you to do it time and again?

A: I get tremendously excited about tournaments. I have got a great desire and motivation for playing tournaments. I was very eager to play Groningen, Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Madrid. Whenever I have this eagerness I play well and combined with the hard work I have been doing off late, I am happy with the results.

Q: The match between two strongest players, Kasparov and Anand looks like a remote possibility. However, if you get a chance to play Kasparov, what do you think you have to do to beat him in a match?

Q: I have learned a lot from the 8217;95 New York match. Two things I would like to point out about the match. We had to do too much work. Kasparov had to prepare only for one opening whereas I had to prepare for varioussystems. So having only one opening is little bit of a handicap. I was not expecting Kasparov to play the Dragon. So I was unable to find a solution in the match. In a long match your openings have to last longer. In the last couple of years I have broadened my repertoire. So it will be a totally different match.

Q: Did you enjoy the knockout format of the World Championship? Do you think it is right determining the World Champion by playing a blitz game?

A: I don8217;t know whether you can call this a world championship, It is exciting and I feel it8217;s perfectly okay. When you can accept a tie-break in tennis, what is wrong in this? It might not be the best way, agreed. For example the recent Shirov-Kramnik match was a correct match in terms of deciding the better player. However, It failed to generate much interest.

Q: You have recently written a book on your best games which according to John Nunn is a fantastic book.

A: Nunn did all the drudge work, collecting analysis from various books and checkingmy analysis with the computer. Basically he did all the boring work. I did the creative work. Nunn was a big help.