Grand Chess Tour: Viswanathan Anand hints at retirement after eighth-placed finish
Leuven: India’s premium chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has not been in the best of form recently.
After losing two games in the Altibox Norway chess, to Vladimir Kramnik in the second round and Anish Giri of Holland in the fourth round, the Indian ace bounced back to form with a sixth round victory over Fabio Caruana of United States in the same tournament.
However, the 47-year-old from Chennai could not continue to replicate his form as he secured a disappointing eight placed finish out of 10 players in the Leuven leg of the Grand Chess Tour recently with a score of 8.0/18.
With these mixed results for the Padma Vibhushan winner, Anand has hinted at retirement from professional chess.
“I think I was playing mental. I think I shouldn’t bother playing like this. It makes no sense, there’s no point playing chess like this,” said Vishwanathan Anand during an interview with grandmaster Maurice Ashley after the 8th place finish.
His triumph over Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the 2014 Candidates Tournament was a landmark victory, but since then he has been struggling to find form.
The next major tournament is the Chess World Cup, to take place at Tbilisi, Georgia in September, and Viswanathan Anand will be hoping for a good show in the tournament.
