Would be interested in trying out more No-Castling chess, says Anand
Five-time World champion found the new variant richer and more complex than he expected
The last time Viswanathan Anand was in Germany, the world was slowly waking up to the reality of a pandemic. He was stuck there for three months before he could finally fly home to Chennai.
It was a pleasanter Germany he found when he landed in Dortmund last week for his No-Castling chess match for the Sparkassen Trophy with Vladmir Kramnik. He won the four-game event in convincing style.
Less predictable
The match was Kramnik’s idea. By doing away with castling — a single move by which you can take your king to safety even as making the rook more active — the Russian wanted to make the game less theoretical and predictable. If the chess played by the two former World champions is anything to go by, the new variant holds promise.
“I was surprised to find that the game was much richer and more complex than I realised while I was studying it before the match,” Anand told The Hindu over phone from Germany.
“Lots of things change with the king stuck in the centre. Many new plans come in. I would be interested in trying No-Castling more at some point of time.”
