Viswanathan Anand is all for use of technology, all the digital platforms and more, to promote chess globally. Soon after becoming the deputy president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) here on Sunday, the five-time world champion spoke about his vision for chess, exclusively to The Hindu. Excerpts:
First of all, what made you accept the offer to be on Arkady Dvorkovich’s panel?
Well, for me, the most important thing was Arkady’s record. I’ve seen him as the FIDE president for the last four years, I’ve noticed a lot of improvements. A lot of administrative things are more streamlined and professional. So, I thought that this is an excellent team to join and extend support to.
What suggestions would you make?
Chess should continue to use technology, all the digital platforms, all the recent developments which have been very positive, and extend them out, make them go further and further to every Federation and across the world.
How can your presence in FIDE help Indian chess?
I hope that this will give FIDE and chess even more visibility in India. And certainly, if there are interesting projects and opportunities that we can explore here in India, then I hope that I’m able to push that further.
What has been FIDE’s feedback on the ongoing Chess Olympiad?
Not only have we had excellent organisation, most of the feedback I get from the rest of FIDE is that the organisation has been superlative. On top of that, we have this young generation of chess players, some of them in the India 2 team who are really shining. I would think that this is the moment to try and organize big chess events here in India.
