Popularly known as ‘Vishy’, Vishwanathan Anand is often referred to as ‘The Lightning Kid’ for his expertise in quick play chess. Kasparov once referred to his victory as “A great result for Anand and for chess. Vishy deserved the win in every way and I’m very happy for him. It will not be easy for the younger generation to push him aside... Anand out-prepared Kramnik completely. In this way it reminded me of my match with Kramnik in London 2000. Like I was then, Kramnik may have been very well prepared for this match, but we never saw it”.

Vishwanathan Anand was born in the year 1969 on the 11th of December in Chennai. His father worked as the General Manager with Southern Railways and his mother was a renowned socialite. He has a brother and a sister. It was his mother who introduced him to the world of chess when he was just six years old. His mother was immensely happy when he won the World Chess Championship for the first time… “To me, it was like the first chess match he won in a school tournament. It’s just the same, only the degree has changed.” He studied commerce and was known as a brilliant student among his classmates and teachers. Besides his passion for chess, Anand also has interest in reading wide range of books, listening to music and swimming. He is married to Aruna and presently lives in Collado Mediano, Spain with his wife.

His career as a chess player has been very eventful. Interestingly, he along with his mother used to solve chess problems that came up on chess shows on the television when he was just a kid. He won series of prizes by sending back his solutions to the television channel. There was a time when they asked him not to send any more entries as that left very little chance for others to win prizes. Later his career Anand was awarded with several accolades and honors for his brilliant performance in chess. He is the winner of awards like Arjuna award for being an ‘Outstanding Indian Sportsman’ in Chess in the year 1985, Padma Shri, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in the year 1987, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in the year 1991, British Chess Federation ‘Book of the Year’ Award in the year 1998, Padma Bhushan in the year 2000, ‘Jameo de Oro’, the highest award in Spain in the year 2001, Sportstar Millennium Award in the year 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in the year 2007.

Early Career

Vishy was just 15 when he won the title of an International Master. He was just 14 when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9 to 9 at the age of 14. He became Indian Champion when he was 16. It was in the year 1987 that he won the World Junior Championship. He was the first Indian ever to win this title. Anand was the first chess player is India who won the title of Grandmaster at the age of 18. He won Padma Shri, one of the most respected titles in India soon after he won the Grandmaster title.

His victory at different levels and at different tournaments was vivid throughout the 1990s. He won the Reggio Emilia tournament against Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in the year 1991. He qualified for his first Candidates Match though he lost it in the quarter final against Anatoly Karpov. One of his notable wins came in the year 1998 with his victory at the Linares tournament where his rating touched 2752. It is said that the tournament was one of the strongest that was every played in the history of Linares. Anand has won series of matches playing under the banner of PCA. He won tournaments against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without losing a single game. In the 1995, Anand played the PCA World Chess Championship against Kasparov at the World Trade Center in the New York City. He won the FIDE World Chess Championship for the first time in the year 2000. Anand was the only player after Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov who crossed the Elo rating of 2800. He is the winner of Chess Oscar for the years 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, and 2007.

World Chess Championship:

Vishwanathan Anand won the World Chess Championship in three different formats. He won it in the year 2000 against Alexey Shirov for the first time. The format of the tournament was of a knockout tournament. He won it for the second time in the year 2007 against Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. He defended his title successfully and won the World Chess Championship 2008 against Kramnik.