World Open
VANQUISHING
VISHY
How I “Worsted” the World Champ in
Hectic Heyday World Open
By IM DAN EDELMAN
Viswanathan Anand has retained his world championship title (our report will appear in
August); as the World Open is being played this month, we look back a quarter century
when Vishy was savaged in Philadelphia.
ONLY A SELECT FEW PLAYERS CAN
brag about an over-the-board encounter
with a future world champion. And an
astronomically small fraction can boast of
a win in a rated game, here on U.S. soil.
But in one unusual tournament exactly 25
years ago, a number of talented players did
just that. Reigning titleholder Viswanathan
Anand visited Philadelphia back in 1987
to participate in the annual World Open,
the largest and most lavish Swiss on the
planet. In this event the champ met his
match, as not one but four players inflicted
defeat on the future grandmaster.
Anand’s meteoric career can be traced
back to the middle 1980s, when as a
teenager he won the India Junior and
became an international master at age
40
Chess Life — July 2012
15 in 1984. Within a year he was national
champion of India and by 1987 he claimed
the World Junior crown. At age 18 he was
awarded the grandmaster title, and within
a few years he was mowing down the likes
of Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov to
capture über-tourneys such as Reggio
Emilia 1991/92. What was most striking
about his play was his lightning speed;
Vishy played rapidly and effortlessly
against any opposition as if playing a bullet chess game.
I became a friendly acquaintance of
Anand in the first half of the 1990s,
particularly through our mutual friend
Patrick Wolff. I recall once even helping
Anand indirectly with some suggestions
and variations for use against Kasparov
in their 1995 World Championship bout
in New York. One year, Patrick, Chris
Chabris, and I were in the Boston area
to celebrate the 30th birthday of fellow
Harvard alumni (and USCF Ratings
Chairman) Mark Glickman. Anand was
in town and joined us; there were some
attractive young ladies dancing at the
party, though not the kind that keep up
to date on the latest opening theory. As
a gag we introduced Vishy, the internationally famous celebrity known to a
billion people in Asia and soon-to-be
challenger for the highest title in chess.
“Uhh ... that’s nice,” was the response
we obtained from the girls, who couldn’t be bothered to speak to the shy lad
from India.
uschess.org