It was like taking a kid to a candy store: Viswanathan Anand
By Rajagopalan   |   Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 21:52 IST   |    1 Comments
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Bangalore: "It is very important to make the right decisions by leveraging from the options available. I just made sure that I acquired an AMD," said Viswanathan Anand, recently crowned chess champion, where Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) presented him a quad-core Phenom processor powered gaming computer. "It was like taking a kid to a candy store", said Anand on his association with the processor manufacturer. A quad-core processor, named Phenom, and a 1 tera-flop ATi Radeon 4870x2graphics card in a futuristic looking Asus chassis powers the gaming computer. According to AMD, Anand is someone who can guide the computer buyer to make a well-informed decision, bringing higher awareness and familiarity for AMD in India. "I did not have much contact with computers. The first chess database was published in 1987 with about 20,000 games. It was only after I became a Grandmaster that I obtained a computer. Today, I use a 12-million game database," said Anand on his tryst with computers. "The learning curve becomes good if one gets associated with computers at an early stage and it is impossible to become skilled in chess without a computer. It was possible then, but not now. Players like Bobby Fischer would not be able to compete with the present generation," emphasized Anand on the computer�s role in learning chess. He also felt that the field is heavily tilted in favor of machines and competing against computers will become impossible in the future, given the rate at which developments are happening. Does this mean Anand plays chess round the clock? "Not at all," he laughed. "I follow tennis, the Formula1 and football. I enjoy following the exploits of Real Madrid. Computer games are excellent stress-busters. I also ensure that I maintain a physical exercise regimen," he said. "However, if it means preparing for a match, I spend 9-10 hours a day practicing. There are days when I don�t play chess at all," said Anand on his daily routine and interests.

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