‘One should try to be competitive in all the formats’

Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh capped his spectacular rise with the World chess title late last year but hasn’t had strong results subsequently.

Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand, who has been mentoring Gukesh among others, when asked what advice he would give to the young star to ensure his levels didn’t drop said, “I think ‘mera pass panch hai (I have five titles) is a good starting point. I think he knows what to do.,” he said.

Asked if a player should just focus on a single format in these times when there are a lot (of formats) to deal with, he said, “The simplest way to say it is that they shouldn’t rule out any format mentally.”

“In a sense, you won’t probably have good results in all the formats, in all the years but I don’t think you’re assured of one format either. I mean Gukesh has had a bad Classical (event) in Romania, for instance. I think when one misfires, you should be able to compete in the other. So, you should try to be competitive in all. Maybe you won’t succeed, but it’s worth it,” Anand told reporters on the sidelines of the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters tournament here on Sunday.

“Sport is evolving very fast, new formats, new things. I think the only thing I can do is if they ask, I can describe how I faced a certain situation and then it would be their job to convert that. We are not comparing the same thing anymore,” he added.