Viswanathan Anand may not have even played the Candidates Tournament, let alone win it and now stand at Magnus Carlsen's doorstep to challenge him for the world title the Indian wizard lost to the Norwegian around six months back.
Anand has admitted that he was in two minds over his participation at Candidates. The five-time world champion was no longer in possession of his crown and the way he lost it to Carlsen left him pondering if he should push himself again, maybe for one last time.
"I got into a little discussion with myself, that I was not going to play the Candidates at all. I needed a few days alone to let my head settle down. The world championship title had become something that I thought I owned and then one day it was gone. I was experiencing what you could call withdrawal symptoms," Anand said speaking at an interaction organised by NIIT in Chennai.
"The constant speculation in the press meant that I was not getting the peace of mind I wanted. It was only after Christmas that I managed to get a week alone to think about it.
It was in the New Year that clarity of though arrived. "One morning, I just woke up and started thinking about what possible reason I had not to play," Anand said. I had already spoken to several people, some of who told me this was something I had to figure out on my own. Others were more encouraging."
And then came the game-changing moment, on a dinner table with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.
"He [Kramnik] basically argued that there was no reason for me not to play. He jokingly said that at the very least, I should play as Khanty-Mansiysk was a beautiful city and I could go around it. Coming from a person who had been in the same position as I was then, and who could understand what I was thinking, it was easy for me to digest. That night he ended up convincing me to go [to Candidates]."
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