New Delhi, June 10: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand today said there was no need for dope testing in chess simply because there was no place for performance enhancing drugs in the sport. "It is a pity that dope testing is being introduced in chess. There is no doping in chess. I do not see any need for it. In chess you would not see any player complaining about other's performance," he said.

"There is no need to introduce dope testing just to make chess an Olympic sport," Anand said reacting to fide's move to adopt dope testing measures.

"I am happy that all the private tournaments have said no to it to test for steroids and to test for the presence of minute quantities of caffeine."
Looking at his schedule for the rest of the year, Anand, who is enjoying his holidays with wife Aruna braving the unbearable summer but relishing the alphonso mangoes, said "end of July I will be playing in the Dortmund chess tournament (classical chess)and then will defend my crown at the Mainz Rapid chess."

"In October I will play in France. And I will be training for the whole month of July," said the former world champion whose next target is to cross the magical ELO mark of 2800, a barrier broken only twice in history by Kasparov and Kramnik.

"I still have a lot to learn," said the 32-year-old who has 2775 points according to the latest world ranking.
Anand said that it would be nearly impossible to scale the peak this year. "This year I am playing in only one more classical chess tournament (Dortmund) and to get 25 points from one championship is very difficult."

"I hope to cross the mark some time next year."

Bureau Report