Vishy Anand's twelve game win with Black secured his World Chess Championship title for another 2 years till 2012. Flashback 1991 when he first visited Singapore and gave a 6 year old girl a draw at a simul at Cairnhill CC. That was 19 years ago. We had a meal with some chessplayers and talked a bit. Till this day, he has not lost the friendly, cordial manner at all. What are some lessons we can learn from the way he approached this match? If I may use the Art of War from Sun Tzu to help illustrate, the following maxims were deemed useful: KNOW THY ENEMY Anand's wise choice of openings steered clear of his opponent's theoretical preparation and avoided playing into the strengths of Topalov - great imagination in unbalanced positions, a strong tactical flair (witness his 1st game win), willing to take risks in order to win. In many ways Topalov resembles Fischer, but one quality he lacks is patience. Playing the Slav is a little dicey for Anand who had to doggedly defend an ...