Viswanathan Anand drops ‘chess in Olympics’ update, blames Garry Kasparov for delay: ‘When we had two federations…’
Viswanathan Anand is FIDE Deputy President, and is still an active top-20 player in the chess rankings.
It is well-known among fans that FIDE is trying to include chess in the Olympics, and have been in discussion with the IOC over the years. FIDE received recognition from the IOC in 1999, which is recent. Speaking to TV9 Telugu, in a video published on Monday, India legend Viswanathan Anand gave a massive update on the introduction of chess in the Olympics.
Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, and is still an active player in the FIDE rankings, and is also their Deputy President. “It would definitely be great for chess to be in the Olympics because of the stature of the Olympics. We are kind of close. The World Chess Federation is working very closely with the IOC,” he said.
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Explaining why chess is not in the Olympics yet, Anand said, “There are multiple sports. I mean, they have different considerations to include a sport, but they get a lot of sports applying as well. But they have some criteria.”
‘The chaos in chess when we had two federations…’: Viswanathan Anand
Anand also blamed the delay on the Professional Chess Association, co-founded by Garry Kasparov, and the body doesn’t exist anymore. It was a rival to FIDE during its existence. “For a while, the chaos in chess when we had two federations, we lost a lot of time. I think we had a good opportunity 20 years back. But subsequently, for the IOC as well they have to decide how big the games can become, you know how much can expand and so on,” he said.
“So there are multiple criteria but we're working closely with them. Hopefully soon we might be at least in the esports Olympics or perhaps even in the main Olympics and the fact that we are in the Asian Games and have been in the other global events below the Olympics, that might be a platform to get into the Olympics,” he concluded.
India has seen a massive chess boom in recent years, with D Gukesh also positioned as the reigning World Champion. Other than Gukesh, India also have Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa in the top-ten.
