It's long journey ahead for young Nihal: Chess great Anand

Indian chess great Viswanathan Anand sees signs of greatness in Nihal Sarin but says it's a long journey ahead for the impressive 14-year-old since there has been a trend of players struggling to replicate success as they age.

Sarin did exceedingly well by forcing a draw with five-time World Champion Anand in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Chess Rapid tournament here.

Currently ranked world number one in the U14 category, Sarin finished the rapid section of the tournament with just three points with six draws and three defeats but impressed with the calm manner in which he tackled the pressure of playing some of the biggest stars of the game.

"Going by the evidence so far, I would not rule it out (Nihal becoming a world champion in future). It's a long journey forward," Anand told PTI in an interview.

"At the end, he is just 14. I felt that he would really struggle in this tournament and he would be a bit out of place. It seemed the opposite. He seemed quite comfortable here. Not fully there, but he's a huge talent what I've seen of him."
"I think what we have already is a movement. It's steadily producing lots and lots of players, and slowly the movement is taking the game of chess forward in India. I'm very happy with the steady growth that we have had."
Asked if a parallel can be drawn between Sarin and the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, Anand said, "Some results are comparable but Magnus was ahead at this stage. But his (Nihal's) understand in everything seemed to very high at the moment. But it's a long journey."
"Magnus was playing amazing things when he was 14. He won the C group when he was 13 and then progressed into the B group and so on."
"I should have played something else with black but the problem I was not feeling very comfortable. I didn't know what to aim for."
"My results have fluctuated much more than I would have liked. Over long stretches, it's basically I like playing chess. I like studying chess. You just realise that a result here or there does not matter. You keep doing what you have always done -- to keep working and to keep learning new things."
"I'm disappointed but there there comes a time when you have to stop explaining and simply focus on playing chess. One loss you can try to explain it, but if it becomes a pattern, just keep playing hoping that you will comeback."