Vishy Anand after winning Groningen in 1998

In December and January (98-99) FIDE staged its world championship, with a hundred of the strongest players in the world gathered in Groningen to determine who would play against Karpov in the finals. It was also a long affair, going on for weeks and draining the strength of the participants who went on to the end. After the game Anand and Aruna face the photographers. You can hear them talking to Arvind Aaron. Then they turn to Emmanuel Omuku (FIDE Rep.)and ask about arrangements for transport to Lausanne. There are none, no plane reservations or anything. A Dutch organiser and some Indian friends try to help out with constructive suggestions. Anand and Aruna ended up making all arrangements themselves. There the hotel just barely had rooms for them and Ubilava, and Anand’s suite was about $500 a night. All this was quite disturbing, since there were going to be more people coming (Jussupov and Leko). Fortunately the next day the hotel told them that FIDE was receiving special prices and they could take advantage of that. So they ended up paying 220 SFr, around $150, per room. After they had solved all problems and settled down Anand discovered that he had just three hours left for preparation for his opponent in the world championship final!