Viswanathan Anand likely to train upcoming chess wizards from India next year

Legendary chess player and five-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand can team up with Russia's Vladimir Kramnik to help train India's upcoming chess in Chennai next year. Kramnik has already trained six Indians in the first camp that was held earlier this year in Switzerland, and is expected to impart his knowledge to a few more youngsters from the country when the second camp takes place in Sitges, Spain in December this year.

The camp will feature the same bunch of players who were a part of the camp in Geneva in August, with S Kailasanathan, the MD of Microsense, the sponsors of the camp, stating that they have plans to include a woman player as well. "There is a chance that we may include a woman player, but I don't want to name her before finalizing the details," as reported by Times of India.

Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa might miss the camp as he will be busy playing in the London Chess Classic event.

During a felicitation ceremony of India's latest Grand Masters Raunak Sadhwani, Prithu Gupta and P Iniyan, Kailasanathan said, "We are in talks with Anand to be a part of our third camp that will be held in Chennai. It will be great to have him as he is the flag-bearer of chess in India, and our youngsters will benefit immensely from his experience."

Anand, on his part, looked eager to come on board, and spoke about how systematic coaching can make a huge difference to the chess players in India. "The systematic coaching and ability to work with people like Kramnik will make a huge difference. The patient and long-term support from Microsense will go a long way, and we have agreed to see where I can chip in."

The chess star also spoke about his future plans, and hoped to end the year on a high. "I am going to play 27 games in Romania (during the World Senior Chess Championship) and another 27 in Kolkata during the Grand Chess Tour. That is a lot of blitz chess and I don't think you have a lot of time to look at each game when you play nine games in a day. So I just want to be in the best shape possible and be in the right frame of mind," Anand told TOI.