Viswanathan Anand was helped by break before Candidates Tournament

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS): Indian chess great Viswanathan Anand Wednesday said the break following his World Championship loss helped him win the Candidates Tournament to qualify for a rematch against Magnus Carlsen.

“After the November World Championship I avoided chess. The three-month break was good as I spent time with my family. It was more about recovering emotionally. It was important to get back the desire and hunger. By February, I started feeling much lighter,” said the five-time World Champion, who was here for a promotional event for his sponsors NIIT.

Anand, 44, won the right to challenge Norwegian Carlsen for the World Championship rematch, most likely to be held in November. Anand said the victory was one of his best results in recent times.

“The Candidates Tournament was one of the best results in recent times. I did not really work on anything. I had not prepared much though I had some short training camps in February. In the first match I beat Levon Aronian and it really took off from there,” said India’s first Grandmaster.

The Tamil Nadu legend sounded confident about the rematch, saying that he will be changing his course for the tie.

“I have a fairly good idea what I want to change regarding what went wrong. The previous tie will influence the match but it will be different altogether and new things will happen,” added the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee.

Talking about his plans this year, Anand said that he will be playing a lot of rapid tournaments before the Worlds.

“I will be playing in an exhibition match in Corsica in May followed by the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Dubai and another Rapid event at Geneva in October. So I am playing a lot of rapid events assuming the World Championship is held in November,” concluded Anand, who is the only person in chess history to have a World Championship in all formats — match, knockout and tournament.