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In a three-week tournament that starts in London on Thursday, Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen and seven other top grandmasters will compete for the right to challenge Anand for his crown later in the year, says an article in The Guardian. 

The so-called Candidates tournament is the strongest ever, and the Norwegian will be warm favourite.

Carlsen sees the Armenian world No 3, Levon Aronian, as his most dangerous opponent in London. "He has supreme confidence and belief in himself, is very well prepared, can evaluate non-standard positions very well and never backs down," says Carlsen in a tribute to a fellow chess optimist.

Would Carlsen be disappointed if he failed to make it through to the world championship match? "It would depend on the performance," he says. "If I score plus four and Aronian scores plus six, I will probably have had a quite good tournament and there's not much I can do. If I feel I haven't been able to show my best, then I will be disappointed. But life goes on, and whether I win or lose I will still be 22 with most of my career ahead of me."

"My peak should last into my mid-30s," he says. "I probably wouldn't be as sharp then as I am now, but I will have more experience and know more, and if I'm in good shape I would still be able to endure long tournaments. But for my rating to go under 2,700 [it is currently a stratospheric 2,872], I don't think that would ever happen. I'll retire before that. I can't picture myself playing that far from my peak."