94 Quotes by Viswanathan Anand

Confidence is very important – even pretending to be Confident. If you make a Mistake but do not let your Opponent see what you are thinking then he may overlook the Mistake.

I think an important lesson from the game is that once you have made a move, you cannot take it back. You really have to measure your decisions. You think a lot. You evaluate your choices very carefully. There’s never any guarantee about what’s going to follow once you have made a decision.

Just before a game, I try to keep a clear mind so that I can focus better. I’m the kind of person who plays fast and relies a lot on intuition, so being at peace with myself is vital. Saying my daily prayers helps me achieve this heightened state of mind.

My parents were very supportive of my chess. When I got home after a game of chess, having missed school or something, they always made me feel very welcome; I didn’t feel guilty at all about pursuing chess with such fervour. They never, for instance, perceived sports as a rival to academics.

Nowadays, when you’re not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it.

I’ll take my five positions per second any day, thank you.

My hand was unwilling to move until my mind found a path.

I don’t know how many calories an average chess player burns per game, but it often exceeds that of a player in ball games. It is not only the chess as such: You need to be fit and undergo complicated preparation.

In the knockout tournaments, it’s futile to prepare for a grand finale. You may have worked out many strategies for the final. But you may lose in the first round itself.