I came across the following interesting quote from non-other than the current World Champion, GM Vishwanathan Anand of India.
"Nowadays, when you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it."
There are more quotes from him and other famous chess players at the following link http://www.chessquotes.com/player-anand
I had the opportunity of meeting (and playing against) Vishy Anand when he was just an IM at the old MAA building. I remembered we played blitz and I was handling the Budapest Opening using the white pieces. I lost - terribly and after the game, Anand showed me a simple move which would have made me won a piece out right in the first few moves of the game. I laughed about it.....
Najib, I envy you for having a chance to play blitz against Anand - a dream of a life time!
ReplyDeleteHe was a young IM then but a rising star as he was one of the fastest chess player in the world at that time, demolishing his opponents in minutes! How would have I know that he would be a world champion? He was invited to Malaysia at that time by Dato Tan as we were organizing the Asian Cities Chess Championship in Genting.
ReplyDeleteI did not have the opportunity to have a photo taken with him at that time but Khalid, Hamid's son did. I will try and post it once I find it.