Despite having not qualified for the chess World Championship this year, Indian legend Vishwanathan Anand on Sunday said he wishes to continue and come back harder next time around.
For the first time in 10 years, there will be a World Championship without Anand, who has won the crown as many as five times.
On March 28, Anand played out a thrilling draw with Anish Giri of Holland but bowed out of contention to win the Candidates after the 13th and penultimate round.
“I do not wish to retire now. If I stop having fun, then I might consider it. But not now. When I eventually will, it will be a kind of a shock because this is what I have been doing throughout my life,” Anand told reporters here at an event where he was awarded the P.C Chandra Puraskaar. Asked what went wrong this year at the Candidates, Anand said: “I don’t know, it was strange. I was having highs in the tournament. I defeated (Levon) Aronian and (Sergey) Karjakin. But at the same time I was losing games. We prepared a pretty strong line, but somehow some details went missing and both my opponent targeted that.