I'll Think About World Chess Championship Next Year, Says Viswanathan Anand

With the World Chess Championship slated for 2016, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on Friday said he will start thinking about the Candidates tournament only next year.

"I am not thinking about the Candidates at all, because I don't know who is playing. It may well be that I am the only person who has qualified (so far). It's hard to concentrate when you are the only person. I will think about that much much later, maybe next year. For the moment I think I should use the tournaments to get into shape of playing better," he told reporters on the sidelines of the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Awards.

The winner of the Candidates tournament will get a shot to take on World Champion Magnus Carlsen, in the World Chess Championship, which is scheduled to be held in the US.

On the prospects of taking on the Norwegian Carlsen, the 45-year old said, "It's not like I am guaranteed a match against him. The first thing is already one year away. It's leading towards that but that is not my goal right now."

Anand had a disappointing campaign in Baden, Germany in the Grenke Chess Classic but topped the Zurich classical and the former world champion said he will try to concentrate more in the upcoming tournaments.

"I should just try to hit the tournament in better state of concentration. It seems that I need some time to warm up and then it goes better. It's hard to explain. I think I was concentrating much more on Zurich, because of Baden. I will be playing in Azerbaijan next in April," he said.

"I have goals in these tournaments and I am going to try and go for that. I play in Azerbaijan next and hopefully I should have three or four events till the year. There is a new circuit coming up, I will probably play in those tournaments. I have to map out what I am going to aim for. I have some chess goals like do this and do that," he added

The chess ace further said that he found it difficult play against the younger players a couple of years back.

"Couple of years back I felt that I had not kept track of recent developments. I felt that the style of the younger players, I was not able to follow in the same way. The last two years it's gone a bit better and maybe that gap has closed a bit. It's an ongoing thing. They have so many players in the top 10-15 that you have to get used to, so many guys and their styles," he said.