 "Viswanathan Anand dismisses Magnus Carlsen without hesitation in FIDE’s 'Choose Your Favourite' chess player challenge")
Viswanathan Anand has picked American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer as the greatest chess player of all time as he snubbed current world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and Russian greats like Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov. Five-time world champion Anand was forced to pick the best chess player while taking part in the trending ‘Choose Your Favourite’ game for FIDE’s social media handle.
Anand was given multiple options—all legendary chess players—to choose from. The list included Cuban great José Raúl Capablanca, French legend Alexander Alekhine, Russia’s Boris Spassky, as well as Kramnik, Kasparov and Carlsen. However, the Indian chess icon picked Fischer over all of them.
In fact, he even chose Fischer over himself. When asked to pick between the American chess legend and himself, Anand said, “Well, right now, I have to say Fischer.”
Viswanathan Anand wastes no time in snubbing Magnus Carlsen
However, what caught everyone’s attention was the speed at which Anand picked Fischer when matched against Carlsen. For every other name, he took a moment to decide, but he showed no such hesitation with Carlsen.
"Choose Your Favourite" with 5-time World Champion Vishy Anand (@vishy64theking) 🇮🇳♟️👑 pic.twitter.com/kIUH8mduzC
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) March 23, 2025
Could it be because Carlsen had labelled FIDE deputy president Anand "not ready" for the job after the 34-year-old chess star was disqualified from the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in December 2024?
Carlsen was disqualified for wearing jeans and violating the dress code. He, however, returned to share the Blitz title with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in a controversial style but not before taking a dig at Anand.
While complaining about how the arbiter failed to do his job, the Norwegian had criticised Anand’s role and his lack of decision-making in the controversy.
“So I’m not even sure I broke any rules. But anyways, they decided to take that opportunity to pursue a very narrow interpretation of a rule. Apparently, there was no room for discussions or anything,” he said while reflecting on how FIDE dealt with the matter and showed no flexibility.
“Anand said very clearly that he didn’t know that he had any opportunity to do anything past, you know, go with the arbiters’ honestly draconian decision of not pairing me. And that means that he was, for all his good qualities, he was not ready for this job. That’s what I feel."
It is worth noting that Carlsen defeated Anand twice in the World Chess Championship matches. First, in 2013, when he won his maiden world title, and then again in 2014 to successfully defend it
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