NEW DELHI, November 27: Peter Leko is only 21, but he gives the impression that he has already been in the business for ages. Having started his international career 10 years ago, Leko became the youngest Grandmaster in chess history at 14 and has been top flight chess for almost seven years now.This distinction remained with Leko for nearly two years before prodigies Etienne Bacrot (France), Ruslan Ponnomariov (Ukraine) and Bu (China) erased the mark in quick succession.One of the strong favourites to win the knock-out World chamionship in New Delhi, Leko, however, would like to pick his friend Viswanathan Anand as the hot man to succeed this time. ‘‘He has the home advantage, but I would also like to turn the spotlight on him so that I don’t have any pressure,’’ said the modest Hungarian.Interestingly, the tag of the youngest GM was more of a burden to him than it was a symbol of recognition. ‘‘ I was relieved when that tag was taken away from me,’’ said Leko. ‘‘Because, many organisers told me they invited me because I was the youngest GM in the world and I felt I was not being invited because I was strong. This went on for two years and even when I was very strong, they kept telling me the same.’’Leko said he could have become a GM at the age of 13 but because of some problem in the Hungarian federation he could not play in tournaments for nearly six months. ‘‘I had two GM norms by May 1993, but after that there was a big gap’’ he explained.Leko, who helped Anand in his title match against Anatoly Karpov in 1998 in Lausanne, did not have a good time in the World Knockout Championship both in Groningen and Las Vegas. ‘‘I had a terrible fall against Movsesian in Las Vegas in the third round. Tow draws in the regular games and then I played some twenty moves in the first mini game and all of them were horrible. Then in the second, I had a winning position and messed it up. Somewhat like Vishy Anand’s tiebreaker experience against Karpov in Lausanne,’’ he recalled.Leko agrees that the knock-out championship is not foolproof but this ‘‘was already agreed by Fide. It will force mistakes from the players. But then the counting system is different and best moves are not possible in this framework,’’ he philosophised.Leko, currently ranked seventh in the Elo list and fifth in this event, trounced world champion Alexander Khalifman 4.4-1.5 in a match in January, 2000 and could have easily claimed being the World champion.He is slated to meet Kramnik in January in a speed series of 12 games and could still claim that he is world champion if he wins the event, though it is a speed series. ‘‘But I don’t like to take the title by unfair means, though I have a sponsor for this series,’’ he said.Leko felt Kasparov was strategically outprepared by Kramnik in their match in London. But according to him Kramnik is not the World champion. ‘‘He has beaten the best player in the world,’’ he remarked.
