The match between Carlsen and Anand begins today at 15.00
hours. And Anand will have the White pieces.
This is what Magnus Carlsen had to say about it.
Drew black in the first game. This match is is
indeed nothing like the first
— Magnus Carlsen
(@MagnusCarlsen) November
7, 2014
As you all would remember, in the 2013 match it was Carlsen
who had the White pieces in the first game and began with 1.Nf3. What will be
Vishy’s first move today is the question on everyone’s mind but before that
let’s transport ourselves to Radisson Blu Resort and Spa where the press
conference and the Opening Ceremony of the match were held.
As always the charismatic World Champion drew towards him loads of
reporters
On the other hand Anand was seen quite relaxed talking to his wife
Aruna
In the press conference, Anand was asked an interesting
question by a journalist: Your
charming wife accompanies you to every tournament. Is she a talisman or your
inspiration?
Anand in excellent spirits replied with a smile, " Well, she is kind of wife! Obviosuly we are close. She has been accompanying me to tournaments ever since we got married. Recently our son was born and she doesn't come more often now!"
Anand in excellent spirits replied with a smile, " Well, she is kind of wife! Obviosuly we are close. She has been accompanying me to tournaments ever since we got married. Recently our son was born and she doesn't come more often now!"
And when Magnus was asked about his Talisman or inspiration,
he simply shrugged off the question saying that he was not such a spiritual
person!
The million dollar question asked at the Press Conference
was who were the ‘seconds’ of both the players. There was a silence for a few
seconds as both players waited for the other one to speak. But finally Anand
revealed his. And apart from the old ones, there was a new addition.
On the right we have the usual suspects: Radoslaw Wojtaszek and
Krishnan Sasikiran. But the big surprise was the man on left: Grzegorz Gajewski. He is a country mate of
Wojtaszek (Poland) and he has an Elo of 2643.
As for Magnus he revealed his seconds in the following
manner: “There is the Dane and there is the Hammer.” The Russian translator was
so confused that she refrained from translating this sentence. But of course
what Magnus meant were these two guys.
The Dane is Peter Heine Nielsen and the Hammer is Jon Ludvig Hammer!
The Stylish G-star Raw model
Carlsen was asked at the Press Conference whether he thought
himself as the favourite for the match. He put a question back to the reporter
in typical Carlsen fashion asking, “What do you think?!”
FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov was the one who began with a welcome
speech at the press conference. He also welcomed the guests at the Opening ceremony.
Also present on the dais for the press conference were former world
champion Anatoly Karpov and Ilya Merenzon organizer from Agon
The Opening Ceremony followed the Press Conference. It was so
less elaborate than the opening ceremony held at Chennai in 2013.
The Masters of Ceremony were former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
and People’s Artist of Russia S.Makovetsky
As they rightly said, for the next three weeks the experts
and amateurs of the world will be mesmerized by the duel of the two best
grandmasters of today! They are not just very different players but very also
different personalities which makes their battle really intriguing.
Igor
Levitin who is the assistant to the President of Russian Federation read out
the words sent by Vladimir Putin
Deputy Minister for the sport of Russian Federation Pavel Kolobkov
President of Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov with Pavel Kolobkov
The great Boris Spassky was there
Antoaneta Stefanova also graced the occasion
The Russian women’s team that had won the gold medal at Tromso 2014 was
honoured by the Russian government. From upper left in clockwise: Kosteniuk,
Pogonina, Olga Girya and Rublevsky who was the coach of the team
Some spectacular dances were on show…
Performed by elegant and beautiful dancers
The two players with chief arbiter Andrzej Fillipowicz for the drawing
of colours
Magnus drew the black colour and hence the black pieces in game one
For lovers of the game, chess
seems like magic and hence they were joined by a professional magician. The
magician has the white balloon of Vishy Anand in his hand.
And from the balloon erupts out of nowhere a white pigeon! Vishy Anand
looks extremely impressed
From Magnus’s balloon out comes a grey bird
Tina Kuznetsova who was the finalist of the TV show Golos mesmerized the
audience with her singing
The opening ceremony ended with the performance of famous Russian Jazz
artist Igor Burtman with his quartet
The first game begins tomorrow at 15.00 hrs local time in
Sochi and Anand will have the White pieces. What will be his first move? Your
guess is as good as mine!
THE OPENING CEREMONY
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Pictures from the official website.
This article has been originally published on ChessBase website.
This article has been originally published on ChessBase website.
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