Chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand of India said Sunday he is “quite eager” to begin his defense of his world championship against Russian Vladimir Kramnik, who is also eager to start playing after six months of preparation. “I'm tired of working,” Kramnik said. The 12 game match begins in Bonn on Tuesday for a purse of $2.04 million to be equally divided between the two, regardless of who wins. They both had the same answer for reporters at a news conference when asked what most annoyed them about their respective opponents: “His high level of play.” But both of them have turned in recent subpar performances. At the beginning of the year, they were tied atop the rating list of FIDE, the World Chess Federation. In the new list released Oct. 1, Anand was fifth and Kramnik was sixth. The matches begin on Tuesday and are scheduled through Oct. 31. If tied after 12 games, Nov. 2 is set aside for a series of rapid and, if necessary, blitz games to decide the winner. The matches will be broadcast live on the Internet for the first time. “I shall have to comb my hair better,” Kramnik joked, to which Anand quipped: “We're not in competition with Maria Sharapova.” Anand, 38, and Kramnik, 33, differed on the effects of age on a game increasingly dominated by much younger players. “I don't see why we can't compete,” said Kramnik. “I'm not so old and still have a few more years left on this high level. We can teach them lessons from time to time.” But Anand conceded that “the current generation is the strongest in some time and it's a continuous problem, but right now I'm parking those thoughts.” He was coy about rumors he had recently worked with 17-year-old Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen. “More details will not be forthcoming,” Anand said. Carlsen is now rated fourth in the world. Experts are predicting a close match. The two players are evenly matched and for many years have jostled each other for second and third place on the ratings list behind chess great Garry Kasparov, who retired in 2005. American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan said he expects “a very exciting and tense match.” “I don't see either player walking away with it,” he said. Kramnik took the title away from Garry Kasparov in 2000 and defended it in 2004 against Hungarian Peter Leko, both in match play. He then reunified the title after a long split by beating FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in 2006. Anand won the title from Kramnik at a tournament in Mexico City last year. Still, Anand's last match of this type was a loss to Kasparov in 1995 and he admitted that “Vladimir has much more recent match experience.” The drawing of lots for color will take place Monday at Bonn's old City Hall.
