5 GATHERING THE TROOPS How to Make Preparation Count and Tactics Work

Success can often lull you into believing in what is non-existent – that you have no chink in your armor; that your occasional wins make you invincible; that there is nothing for you to improve upon. Life does not raise red flags unprompted. Look for the cues – they will ask you to identify and w...

It also became evident to me that the transition from being a strong player to becoming a champion wasn’t going to happen on its own. I had to want it ardently enough. Doing everything admirably well matters very little if you can’t finish the job.

The lead this game gave me was a luxury, but I restrained myself from celebrating too quickly. I’d suffered from the consequences of doing that earlier – relaxing when I should have been focused, or letting the excitement of an anticipated win take over. There is a difference between having an ov...

The match against Kasparov in New York in 1995 changed my attitude from being content playing good games and winning occasionally to being completely driven to becoming the World Champion. In the years that followed, I realized how that single match had distilled every aspect of what I lacked – t...

As a long-term strategy, being predictable is not of much advantage – for your career or business or even for yourself. Once in a while, you’ve got to take the counter-intuitive path, but not without owning responsibility for the consequences – and certainly not without preparation. In such situa...

When I played this game with Manuel Aaron, my obsession with winning the Grandmaster title was still some years away. At the same time, my win was a culmination of everything I had learnt and worked for until then, with little else weighing on my mind. There’s something to be said about working t...

Emotions tend to get in the way of clear thinking. Whether it’s impatience, frustration, fury, self-loathing or even premature elation – allowing these to consume the mind results in a loss of focus and distraction from learning, and keeps you from taking the right decisions and achieving your go...

In life, as in chess, learning must be constant – both new things and fresh ways of learning them. The process will invariably involve a certain degree of unlearning, and possessing the readiness to do that is utterly important. If your way of doing things isn’t working, clinging to your conclusi...

In any situation in life, being adaptable is the only way to grow and

succeed. You may have skills that you’ve perfected, a certain worldview that worked for you at a particular stage – but the reality is that circumstances change, and you can’t be prepared for everything. Lowering your res...

In Mind Master, Vishy looks back on a lifetime of games played, opponents tackled and circumstances overcome, and draws from its depths significant tools that will help every reader navigate life’s challenges:

• What role do tactics and strategy play in the preparation for
• achiev...

From the time he learnt to move pieces on a chessboard as a six-year old, Vishy – as Anand is fondly called – has racked up innumerable accolades. The first World Chess Champion from Asia, he emerged onto the world stage when chess was largely a Soviet preserve, climbed the ranks to become World ...

Here’s a lesson in serendipity and limitless learning. Nothing you do, however unconnected it is to your livelihood or your life’s goal, goes waste. You never know when an idea that you’ve read about or heard of, or an activity you’ve dabbled in, will pay off. It’s wise, then, to keep your intere...

Resilience is the only answer to adversity. When tough situations arise – and they sometimes arrive like a hailstorm – your primary focus should be on accepting that although it is not the way you would want things to be, it is what you have to deal with, and then tackle it with practicality. It’...