Viswanathan Anand began trying his hand at the game of chess at the age of six. As a child, he won his first national title in the junior category with a record score of one hundred percent (nine out of nine) in 1983-84. Since then, the race started without looking back.
In the year 1984, he became the Asian Junior (under-19) champion placing second in 1983-84 and was awarded the bronze medal at the World Under-junior Championship. At the age of 15 he also became the youngest Asian to achieve the distinction of International Master. Anand was crowned the youngest national champion at the age of 16 in 1986 and in 1987; he became the first Asian to win the World Junior Championship when it was held in Baggio City in the Philippines. It was mere coincidence that Anand spent some time in the Philippines when he was a child when his father worked there.
In 1987, after taking two fast time GM norms in India itself, he was awarded the title of Grandmaster. The country was heating up with extraordinary chess talent and the first Grandmaster to 700 million at the time. His impressive profile continued to grow as he became the first Asian to play in the World Championship and reached the world number 2 position on the PCA ranking list in 1995.
Anand reached number two in the world ranking in 1998 and also won his first Linares title, the strongest tournament in chess history in the same year. He also holds the record for winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament five times. In 2000 he managed to defeat Alexey Shirov in Tehran and ended the Russian domination of the game. This made him the fifteenth world champion when he reached the pinnacle of his career. Anand also won the first and second FIDE World Cups, which is a mind-blowing series of knockout tournaments, in 2000 and 2002.
Known for his ease on the board, Anand is also known as the master of rapid chess with victories at the Melody Amber tournament. He won the 2003 world rapid title at Cap De Agde (France), the Eurotel Trophy in Prague in 2002 and is an 11-time winner of the Mainz Chess Classics. His other great achievements have come in Dortmund, Wijk Aan Zee, Leon and Corsica Masters. Anand also has the distinction of playing six computers simultaneously and winning (4-2) in an exhibition at the Aegon Man Vs Computers chess event. In 2004, Anand returned to play in the Chess Olympiad after a lapse of 12 years. He became captain of an Indian grandmaster team and emerged as the event’s top scorer. The team obtained its best result in sixth place.
Anand has been honored with many prestigious titles such as the Chess Oscars for three consecutive years. He is the only non-Russian other than Bobby Fischer to win the award.
He also received the inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour, in 1991, in addition to the Arjuna Award, the Padmashri (the youngest ever winner of the title), Padma Bhushan, the Soviet Land Nehru Award, the BPL Achievers of the World, Sportsstar, Sportsworld Award “Sportsman of the year 1995”.
2007 was a year of two unforgettable milestones for Anand. First, he finally achieved his longtime goal of becoming world number 1 in ratings. After winning the Linares-Linares-Morelia tournament (2007), he edged out Topalov to claim first place on FIDE’s April list. The second big success of his came in the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Leading throughout the event, Anand captured the unified World Chess Champion title with an unbeaten score of +4. A few months later, he again won the Morelia-Linares (2008) outright for the third time in his career. In October 2008, Anand successfully retained his World Champion crown by beating challenger Vladimir Kramnik in a twelve game match 6.5-4.5, winning three, losing one and drawing seven.
Anand has written a book, ‘My Best Chess Games’, which has been published in English and German. Having revolutionized chess in India, Anand, who has a business degree, promotes chess through NIIT, for which he is a brand ambassador.
Here is more information on the origins of chess.
