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Anish Giri: It’s a real achievement to host Chess Olympiad

06 September 2016 [10:50] - TODAY.AZ

Anish Giri, top board of the Netherlands team, joined Susan Polgar for a press conference right after his game against Michael Adams from England was concluded drawn.

-          Welcome Anish! You’ve had a wonderful start in this tournament, winning your first three games before drawing your game today. How was it?

It was a very interesting Sicilian. At first I was worried at some point – well, at first I was happy with my position, THEN a little worried, but towards the end I was getting quite excited about my chances, that I have some attack potentially going on… But then he found some counterplay, I couldn’t see how to make my attack succeed, so I decided to misplace his queen; he didn’t want to do that, so we ended up repeating the moves.

-          Your team is doing wonderfully so far, with three wins. Did you all prepare together?

I think “wonderful” is a little bit of an overstatement, we just started the tournament. I don’t think it matters all that much how we play at the beginning; at some point we will lose a match, or two, or three… It’s not possible for a team like us to avoid it. We have a lot of good players, but there are a few teams that are much stronger. So I think it will come down to whether we will be able to have a good finish or not; for now I don’t mind about our score too much. But yeah, we have a lot of ambitious players in the team; they’re not the world’s very best, but they are not far from that. All of them are reasonably professional; I think Robin (Van Kampen)is studying at the moment, but he took this tournament seriously and he spent his summer holiday preparing, so… Everybody did his job.

-          Anish, you’re only 22 years old, but this is already your fourth Olympiad. How do you compare this one to the previous three you participated in?

Well, I think there are players here who have played dozens of Olympiads; Eugenio Torre is the recordman, Nigel Short played quite a lot as well… I guess even my teammate Loek Van Wely has played a lot of Olympiads. As for me, this is my fourth and I must say, from my point of view, all the Olympiads I played in were all very good. I think the organization is always very good, but it’s always a matter of individual opinion. For example, I heard from a few players that the Olympiad in Dresden (2008), where I didn’t play, was the best ever and from a few others that it was the worst ever – and it turned out they just stayed in different hotels. So it’s really really individual; there were Olympiads where I knew we have a very good dinner and other teams were in a place with not so good dinner. Here the organizers are trying their best, but there are cases where internet doesn’t work in the room, for example; you just can’t make sure that everything is running smoothly. No matter how much money and how many people you put into something, with so many people and unpredictabilities something will go a little bit wrong. But as a whole, of course, it is always an achievement to organize an event like this. I heard that the Chess Olympiad is one of the biggest sporting events in general, if you count the people… So it’s a real achievement to host it.

-          You’ve had a fantastic career already, despite your young age. Can you tell the people out there, who don’t know much about the life of a professional player, what does a young man your age do? You don’t go to a workplace, you don’t have an 8-to-5 job; what do you do?

  Yeah, I’ve played in too many tournaments, I thought you were planning to ask me if I’m planning to quit already! Because I’ve had a lot of events in the recent past and I’m looking forward to having some more. Of course you don’t have a daily job and that’s very attractive for many people, ‘cause in general people are quite lazy. But I guess it’s sort of an illusion; just like with people who work from home, you probably realize that all these things like waking up on time, going to bed on time are there for a reason; if you really only do whatever you want to do, at some point your life will get a little bit too messy.

-          So do you have a schedule, a routine when you’re not at a tournament?

Not a very strict one; I’m more flexible in taking my holidays or spending time with my family – in that way I’m fortunate to be a chess player. I’m also happy that I don’t have a boss; I know plenty of people who are unhappy about their bosses! So yeah, you prepare a lot – I think all chess players love the game, they work a lot on the game even during their free time, not only because it helps them perform better but also because they like to do that. So that’s one of the things. Also, many chess players like to do sports, because being a chess player is more or less like being a top sportsman; the competitive aspect is there and when you do some sports, it gives you extra confidence.

-          What are your favorite sports?

I like to play table-tennis, but it’s always difficult to have a favorite sport that involves more than one person, because you don’t always have a partner to play with. If I’m alone, I think I’d rather do swimming than going to the gym; still, I try to do both sometimes.

-          How is married life so far?

(smiles) Can’t complain – it’s a bit early to complain if you just married a year ago, I hope it will stay this way!

-          Do you stay on honeymoon?

Yeah, absolutely, I hope we will stay on honeymoon even longer! You know, my wife Sopiko, who is also a chess player, is very busy, travelling with me and working for a website, chess24; she is doing a lot of chess-related work, so I find it good that we have a lot in common. We have an eventful life so far!

-          When neither of you are at any events, do you spend most of your time in the Netherlands or in Georgia? (ed: Sopiko Guramishvili is a Georgian International Master)

Normally in the Netherlands, but lately we’ve been in Georgia quite a lot.

-          Have you learned any Georgian yet?

Yeah, a little bit! It is hard, when you are exposed to a language, not to pick it up at least a little bit.

-          You speak a lot of languages already, right? How many?

I speak English, Russian and Dutch reasonably well, and the rest I just know a little bit; I mean, I know a little of a few languages that I can bluff people into thinking that I speak them, but I don’t really speak other languages. Georgian is maybe one of the next on my list, but I’m not putting too much effort on that.

-          For those who are not familiar with you, you have a very mixed ethnic backgroundis that right?

Yes, my father is from Nepal and my mother is from Russia. When people ask me where I’m from, I usually say “India”, because if I say “Russia” they will ask why I don’t look Russian, if I say “Nepal” some people are not educated enough to know that there is such a country; but if I say “India”, people usually don’t have any more questions!

-          (laughs) You are very practical! Well, I know you’re anxious to go back and see how your teammates are doing, so I think I’ll let you go on my end, but maybe our media colleagues might have questions!

What are the sites that you particularly like in Baku? What have you seen that amazed you?

I’ve been to Baku last year for the World Cup as well, and I was fortunate enough to stay here for quite a while. I was impressed by the mixed architecture; the modern part, such as the Flame Towers and other modern buildings, but also, when you go into the Old Town, you can see how well older architecture is taken care of, at least from the outside. It’s a nice mix for the city, to have skyscrapers alongside traditional buildings. Also, it is very nice, for those of us chess players who like to walk, that there is a very nice boulevard from one end of the city to the other – though sometimes it starts to smell too much like oil because of the wind, but I’m sure it’s healthy.

-          You live in the Netherlands right now; could you tell us if there is a program like “Chess In Schools” or any kind of support from the Dutch government?

Unfortunately, I am not overly educated on “Chess In Schools” in particular. I know the Dutch Chess Federation has a sponsor when it comes to junior chess. There is definitely no obligatory chess program in schools per se, though I’m sure some schools do have chess classes. The government does support chess, through the Olympic Committee; though chess is not an Olympic sport, it is still considered a sport in the Netherlands and the Olympic Committee invests money in it, even though it doesn’t bring you medals in the Olympic Games, as other sports did in Rio; it still brings some dividends for the country, so… The Dutch Chess Federation and top-level chess in the Netherlands are solely and single-handedly supported by the Olympic Committee; I hope that in the near future, next to that, our chess federation will also be able to find commercial sponsorship as well, because, from what I’ve seen, it’s easy to find it for the children, as benefits of chess for children are very obvious. It’s harder to find funds for top-level chess, but I think that, with correct leadership and competent people, it should be possible.

-          Two weeks ago, in your absence, 17-year old Jorden Van Foreest became Dutch champion; do you think he should have earned a spot in the Olympic team? Perhaps also a comment about his potential?

Yes, I know that the last participant can be picked by the trainer (ed: the other four are determined by a specific system) and I am pretty sure our trainer has considered him. He chose Benjamin Bok instead, who is also a young and talented player, a little bit older, a little bit more predictable in a way. Jorden has made a little jump, I think, in the recent few months, just after the selection of the team, so this is why he didn’t make the cut, I guess. Back then it would have been a somewhat strange decision to take him instead, when he as 50 rating points below Benjamin Bok; right now it seems that he should have been in the team, although Benjamin is doing very well and I think today he might bring us the crucial point against England (ed: he did, though it was not so crucial; Netherlands won 3.5-0.5). Jorden is a very normal, talented guy; I have met him once at a Bundesliga weekend, spent two days with him, and to me he seemed reasonably promising, but I think the crucial steps are yet to be made for him. He impressed me a lot in the Dutch Championship; of course, it is yet to be seen how big his talent is, because at some point you need to evolve, you cannot play the same way and crush everybody at the top. Everybody evolves in a different way – or doesn’t evolve at all; at the beginning everybody is doing the things he does, but then people change – strong opponents make you change. I’m curious to see how he will adjust to strong players, but for now he definitely looks promising.

-          You were part of the SOCAR team, where Vladimir Tukmakov was captain; he is now captain of the Dutch national team. What can you tell us when you compare his role as captain in these two teams?

Well, I think the crucial difference between SOCAR and the Netherlands is that SOCAR has always been the favorite to win their event (ed: the European Club Cups), whereas the Netherlands are quite the underdogs! It always has to do with the fact that, in the European Club Cup, a team like SOCAR can easily hire players, whereas the national team… - if you want to hire players, there is quite a lot you have to go through. Still, you can see that the United States of America and Azerbaijan have done that. When it comes to the leadership of Vladimir Tukmakov, it’s a difficult job for a trainer – and easy at the same time. He cannot make his students play well, while choosing the line-up is partly a guessing game… So I guess that the qualities of a good trainer are not so visible in the event like that, but more in long-term work with people, when you can really teach people some chess, work on their weaknesses. And I think in an event like this (ie: a team tournament), SOCAR will always be favorites and the Netherlands will never be one, just because the teams are different. Of course, Vladimir is a very good trainer – his record is fantastic, he led Ukraine to gold in a couple of Olympiads and, while Ukraine is a good team, they never were the real favorites. So, if we fail to win this Olympiad, it will not be his fault, I’m sure there will be other reasons for that!

-          Thank you very much Anish! We wish you best of luck, to you personally as well as the Dutch team!

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