When Viswanathan Anand’s dominance made Magnus Carlsen realise he was ‘delusional’ about his recreation

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen has heaped huge reward on former world champion and present FIDE Deputy President Viswanathan Anand. This comes over a month after Carlsen had criticised Anand over the
‘jeansgate’ controversy throughout the World Fast and Blitz Championships 2024 in New York.

Talking on the Joe Rogan Expertise podcast,
Magnus Carlsen recalled an intense coaching camp with Vishy Anand in 2008, throughout which he was left in awe of the five-time world champion’s skills.

Carlsen recollects attention-grabbing anecdote involving Anand

At the moment, Anand was making ready for his World Championship title match towards Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik, and Carlsen was invited to coach with him in Spain.

The Norwegian admitted that Anand’s dominance of their coaching video games made him realise that he had been “delusional” about his personal energy. He described how Anand’s method to the coaching camp in Madrid was on a very totally different stage. Carlsen stated that the 2008 coaching camp turned out to be a actuality examine for him.

“I’ve been very lucky to check with Garry Kasparov and (Viswanathan) Anand, who was a world champion earlier than me. It’s solely whenever you research with them, whenever you speak to them, that you simply perceive how good they are surely and the way a lot they grasp the sport. For example, with Anand, I had a coaching session in 2008,” Carlsen recalled.

“We had each performed a event the place I had carried out decently, whereas he had form of switched on towards the tip. However as quickly as that coaching camp began, he was so centered. We performed a bunch of coaching video games, and from being this man who appeared utterly disinterested in that event, instantly, he was crushing me. He had an enormous plus rating in our video games. It felt like every part we analysed, he simply had a a lot deeper understanding of the sport. He was quick tactically and every part. And it made me respect like how good he truly was.”

“At that time, I had a yr of roughly fixed rise. I used to be profitable tournaments. Each time I misplaced a recreation, I believed I might strike again instantly. However I realised then that I used to be simply delusional. I assumed I used to be quite a bit higher than I truly was. That was in all probability why I used to be having such good outcomes – due to my confidence. However having a actuality examine, I feel, helped me later to truly perceive the sport higher,” Carlsen admitted.

Anand went on to defeat Kramnik within the 2008 World Chess Championship, additional cementing his legacy as one of many biggest gamers in chess historical past. In the meantime, Carlsen, who discovered precious classes from that coaching camp, turned the world champion in 2013 by defeating Anand.