I find myself today in the position of a sports writer who has to file two minutes before the final whistle. The lead is enormous and surely nothing can go wrong: but if it does then he will look exceedingly foolish. In any case, let us begin by hailing the new World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, who completed victory at the Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City last night by a margin of, oh, say, 1.5 points. In a chess tournament in which wins have been at an absolute premium, Anand has been totally dominant and as I write on Wednesday - the final rest day with just three rounds to go - he leads Boris Gelfand by 1.5 points and the pack by 2: though he does have a double Black against Peter Svidler then Alexander Grischuk in ...
More...