Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. In the January 2005 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand has a rating of 2786, making him number two in the world (behind Garry Kasparov).

Chess Career

Anand's rise in the Indian chess world has been meteoric. National level success came early for him when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the International Master's Title at the age of fifteen, in 1984. At the age of sixteen he became the National Champion and won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed, earling him the nickname "Lightning Kid" ("Blitz chess" is known in India as "Lightning chess"). In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. At eighteen, he became India's First Grandmaster.

"Vishy", as he is sometimes called, burst upon the upper echelons of the chess scene in the early 1990s, winning such prestigious tournaments as the Reggio Emilla 1991 (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, who were then in peak form). Playing at such a high level did not slow him down, and he continued to play games at blitz speed.

Anand qualified for Professional Chess Association World Chess Championship final by winning the candidates matches against Michael Adams and Gata Kamsky. In 1995, he played the final against Kasparov in New York City's World Trade Center. After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match), Anand won game nine but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10.5 - 7.5.

World Chess Champion

After several near misses, he finally won the FIDE World Chess Championship, in the year 2000, after beating Alexei Shirov, 3.5 - 0.5, in the final match held at Teheran, there by becoming the first Indian to win that title.

World Rapid Chess Champion

In October 2003, governing body of chess, FIDE, organized a rapid time control tournament in Cap d'Agde and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Each player had 25 minutes at the start of the game, with an additional 10 seconds after each move. Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world with Kasparov being the only missing player.

His recent tournament successes include the prestigious Corus chess tournament in years 2003 and 2004, Dortmund in 2004.

Anand enjoys celebrity status in his home country akin to that of top cricket players. He has been among the top five rated chess players for a decade now, and in the top three for most of that time.

He has, unquestionably, been the strongest non-Russian player since Bobby Fischer. Like Fischer, Anand has also won the prestigious chess oscar 3 times (1997, 1998 and 2003).

His game collection, My Best Games of Chess, was published in the year 1998 and was updated in 2001.

Chess titles

• 1983 National Sub-Junior Chess Champion - age 14
• 1984 International Master - age 15
• 1985 Indian National Champion - age 16
• 1987 World Junior Chess Champion, Grandmaster
• 2000 FIDE World Chess Champion
• 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion

Awards

Anand has received many awards.

• Arjuna Award for Outstanding Indian Sportsman in 1985
• Padmashree, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1987
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
• British Chess Federation 'Book of the Year' Award in 1998 for his book My Best Games of Chess
• Chess Oscar (1997, 1998 and 2003)

Further reading

• Viswanathan Anand, My Best Games of Chess (Gambit, 2001 (new edition))

External links

• Anand's games at chessgames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=12088)
• His rating card on FIDE.com (http://www.fide.com/ratings/card.phtml?event=5000017)