Viswanathan Anand lends support to include chess at Olympics

“It would be wonderful for chess. Definitely we can fit into either Games; Winter or Summer. And I believe it’s probably one of the least complicated sports. So it should be a fairly easy sport to get in. So I hope it will happen. It will impact chess in a lot of countries, at a lot of levels, being part of the Olympics. That would be a big leap for chess. Very enthusiastic if that happens,” Anand told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The five-time World Champion was in Kolkata to participate in the Tata Steel Chess which will be played in Rapid and Blitz formats, with 11 top-ranked players from around the world. Anand returned to the city of Kolkata, 26 years later to play a chess tournament. The Last time he visited the city was back in 1992, as a 23-year-old and the country’s first-ever GM.

“Many people do not consider chess as a sport, because they don’t see any physical activity happening. But chess is much more difficult than any other physical sports. To be able to compete in chess at a high level requires a lot of stamina and mental strength. With the amount the energy that a chess player spends during a classical chess game, it’s comparable to any other physical sport, say basketball or tennis. So I think chess should be included (in the Olympics) to make chess much more prestigious,” America’s Wesley So also added.