Biography of Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. In the July 2005 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand has a rating of 2788, tying him and Veselin Topalov for number two in the world (behind Garry Kasparov). He has been the strongest non-Soviet player since Bobby Fischer, although recently Peter Leko has rivalled him.
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, earning 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. In 1988, at the age of 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 tournaments as the Reggio Emilla 1991 (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov). Playing at such a high level did not slow him down either, and he continued to play games at blitz speed. In 1991, he lost in a tie-breaker to Anatoly Karpov in the quarter finals of the world chess championship.
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 using a splendid sacrifice on the queen side, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10.5 – 7.5.
Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon, Spain after Garry Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognized as the world’s best Advanced Chess player.
His recent tournament successes include the prestigious Corus chess tournament in years 2003 and 2004 and Dortmund in 2004. He has won the annually held Monaco Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championships in years 1994, 1997, 2003 and 2005.
Anand has won the Chess Oscar in 1997, 1998, 2003, and 2004. His four Oscars ties him with Kasparov for the most ever, one better than Fischer’s three. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year’s best player according to a world-wide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64.
His game collection, My Best Games of Chess, was published in the year 1998 and was updated in 2001.
World Chess Champion
After several near misses, Anand finally won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5 – 0.5 in the final match held at Teheran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title.
World Rapid Chess Champion
In October 2003, the 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.
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, 2003 and 2004)
Further reading
Viswanathan Anand, My Best Games of Chess (Gambit, 2001 (new edition)