There is more creativity in chess than ever before, says Vishwanathan Anand

Watching chess players pore over millions of moves on a computer, one would tend to think that the excitement of thinking out new, creative moves has come down in the 64-square game. Everything is already there on the computer!

So, has modern-day chess lost some of its creativity and innovation?

“No. I won’t say creativity and innovation have changed, where you find them has changed,” said five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand in a chat with The Hindu here on Wednesday.

“Once upon a time, creativity and innovation were based entirely on what I came up with. Now, sometimes, it’s not what I come up with, it’s what the computer comes up with and if I can understand the entire explanation.

“Most players do not understand the answers at first. They need to think about the answer. In a sense, creativity has never been higher but it’s not the creativity we had 20 or 30 years ago. So, how it’s coming is changing but there is even more creativity and innovation than ever before.”

So who is currently the most creative player?

“I believe (World champion Magnus) Carlsen is very creative, constantly experimenting with new ideas. (Fabiano) Caruana is very creative in his investigations, then you have people like (Baadur) Jobava who try to be creative almost in a rebellious way, saying I don’t care about the computer I’m going to do my thing,” said Anand who was in Kochi for a promotion event, organised by Chess Association Kerala, for next month’s Chess Olympiad in Chennai.

Will Carlsen or someone like Frenchman Alireza Firouzja break into the 2900-rating?

“One day it will happen but it will happen by inflation. Certainly Magnus has set his targets on 2900, let’s see if he can manage it. Alireza… the expectation is he will go very far. Long term, there are very few people who will bet against him.”

Do we have someone like that in India?

Right now, there are four or five. Arjun (Erigaisi) and Gukesh, I’m simply going by Elo rating, they are close to 2700, both are top 50 and that’s fantastic. Then, there’s Praggnanandhaa. He played a lot of rapid and blitz so he could not get on the same ranking list but he’s beating Carlsen, Ding, he’s beating the world’s best and quite often. So, I would move him into this top group,” said Anand.

“Nihal (Sareen), belongs there but right now he’s having a choppy patch. It’s only a matter of time and he will climb again.”