Anand to bolster World No 1 status with good show in Mexico

New Delhi, May 31 (UNI) Indian Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand today said he was focussing on doing well in World Championship in Mexico later this year to bolster his world number one status.

''I can't say which particular area of my game to improve upon. I am working on all aspects of my game. At the moment I am not thinking beyond World Championship in Mexico. I am concentrating on it and hope I do well there,'' he said.

''You have to constantly keep on improving. If everybody is improving and incorporating new things, you can't be lagging behind,'' he said while fielding questions of journalists from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad -- via NIIT Imperia's remote sensing technology.

Anand and three other Russians, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich have qualified for the World Championship in Mexico City from September 11 to October 1 as top four finishers of the earlier edition of the tournamnet in San Lious in 2005.

They will be joined by four top finishers in Candidates Matches which is underway in Elista in Russia from May 26 to June 14.

Anand, who spoke from Kolkata NIIT Centre , said he would not take any of the eight participants in Mexico event lightly.

''There will be no favourite in Mexico. Anybody can win the tournament. You dismiss anybody at your peril.

What matters is who played his best on a given day,'' he said.

He also termed the non-participation of Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov from the Mexico event as ''unfortunate''.

''It is not a question of fair or unfair. I would say it is unfortunate and unlucky not to have Topalov there. But that is the format,'' he replied when asked on the non-participation of the former World number one whom he dethroned recently.

UNI