"I honestly thought he had gone nuts" - interview with the World Champion

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Interview with the World ChampionOn Tuesday, World Champion Viswanathan Anand from India retained his title by defeating Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria 6.5-5.5, thereby also creating an all-time record of unique visitors on one day at this website. A day later he sat down for a lengthy interview with ChessVibes - enjoy a 28.5 (!) minute video interview with the World Champ.

"I honestly thought he had gone nuts", Viswanathan Anand told us about the mistake by his opponent Veselin Topalov in the decisive game of the World Championship. "Either he had missed Qe8, or I had missed something." We spoke with Anand about all games, about the Sofia rule, about playing slow ("I never thought anyone would advise me to play faster"), his favourite curry, about which historical world champion he'd like to play, and several other things. In other words: a mixture of my questions and questions from the ChessVibes readers. Enjoy!






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Peter Doggers

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Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

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