World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand has said playing at the Olympics would not happen during his career. Anand told media here that with chess not being an Olympic sport, and the process of getting it included being a very lengthy one, his playing days would be over when that happens. "Not really. At the moment, it is pretty remote, and anyway, due to the lag, from acceptance till the day it finally becomes a medal sport; I mean, first you become a demonstration sport, then a medal sport, so there is a huge lag. It essentially does not apply to me anymore. I will not play in the Olympics. It will be well into the future before that happens," Anand said. Known to his fans as “Vishy”, Anand also expressed optimism about the current crop of young Indian chess players. He predicted that they would eventually establish themselves among the top players in the world. "I think it will inevitably follow. We have many people doing it occasionally. I believe eventually somebody will break that thing and just be a stable top-10 player. The nice thing is, it’s happening both in the men`s game and the women`s game. So Koneru Humpy, for instance, is quite stable as number two-number three in the world among women," he said. Anand further said he was committed to taking his sport to as many schools as possible, in order to increase the existing pool of young chess players, as well as empowering students with skills that would help them in their studies. Source: The Hans India: ***
