The Anand Files: The World Championship Story 2008-2012

by Michiel Abeln

The Anand Files offers a detailed insight into the strategies Viswanathan Anand used to win three World Championship matches in a row. It takes the reader behind the scenes to show the inner workings of Team Anand, including pre-game planning and preparing opening novelties, some of which have yet to be used. Meticulously researched over several years, during which the author conducted numerous interviews with members of Team Anand, this book follows Anand and his team of seconds for his dramatic matches against Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand. The reader will gain a deep understanding of how top chess players work on their game and deal with the stress of elite competition. Over a hundred colour photographs illustrate the story. Michiel Abeln is a FIDE Master from the Netherlands with extensive experience as a chess trainer and as a leadership coach in the corporate world. From the Foreword by Viswanathan "I love this book. The level of detail is fabulous, and as I read it I felt I was reliving the entire five-year period during which these three matches happened... This is the definitive book on those three matches."

Genres: Chess

512 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 2019

Reviews

[Sethuraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights into the WC matches by the seconds .Thanks to the author for compiling this work and it is very rare to witness this kind of genre where you happen to see what takes place behind the stage .The emotions ,opening ideas and the mood before each game was beautifully portrayed .In the Lines of London to Elista book ,this is my recent favorite.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent in-depth look on Anand's 3 world championship matches in 2008-12, covering all the games and the inside perspectives, decision making, preparation, ups and downs. This is a dream book for chess fans, I highly recommend it. I wish there are more books like this covering many historic world championship matches. The level of detail and the stories are so entertaining to read. I'm too lazy to follow all the lines and variations but the many diagrams made it easy to follow.

[Rafael Leitão · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book (both the content and also the physical, hardcover with nice photos) with insights of the preparation for the matches. Anand is one of the greater players ever and I had the honor to meet him in person. The stress, the drama, the colossal amount of work, the great games and some not so great. An amazing read.

[DropOfOcean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite unique book as there really hasn’t been such books about world championship matches where its preparation is revealed so broadly to the reader. There are plenty of variations and ideas about various openings and the stress of team trying to outprepare the other is very well described.