Viswanathan Anand, the 15th world champion, suffered a complete meltdown in his title defence against Magnus Carlsen towards the end of last year. Anand was an impressive match player, defending the title successfully against challenges from Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand. He was also world champion for around six years. In his latter period as champion, though, his tournament results were largely unconvincing. How does Anand figure in the pantheon of champions?
I would say that as champion he is more or less on a par with Capablanca, Petrosian and Kramnik. His record as champion was superior to that of Euwe, Tal, Smyslov and Spassky and way ahead of Bobby Fischer, who played no games at all as champion and even defaulted in what was meant to be his first title defence. Anand’s record does not, however, match up to the great champions, who are: Steinitz, Lasker, Botvinnik, Alekhine, Karpov and of course, Kasparov.
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