We at chessbazaar.com admire chess and chess players around the world, and we love to write about them so that one day one might seek motivation and follow them if one wants to pursue a career in chess. Indeed, the life of this player revolves around chess from a very young age.
Born on 11th December 1969, in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India. Mr. Vishwanathan “Vishy” Anand is an Indian chess Grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. He became India’s first grandmaster in 1988.
He first won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 and held it till 2002, thus becoming the first Asian to do so. After that, he won the FIDE Championship in the years 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
(Vishy with his mother)
His first chess mentor was his own mother who also played very good chess & Vishy followed and the interest was created at an early age of 6.
Vishwanathan is also known as “Tiger of Madras” because of his sheer domination in chess over the years. He is a bachelor of commerce which he completed from Loyola College, Chennai, India.
He became the youngest international master at age of 14 by winning the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship in 1983. In 1987, Mr. Anand became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship.
In 2000, Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship defeating Alexei Shirov (a Latvian and Spanish) player which also made him the first Indian to do so.
Did you know
Anand wrote a book titled ‘My Best Games of Chess,’ in which he shared his journey of chess (if you want to know more about him, a must-read). In 1998, the British Chess Federation gave the ‘Book of the Year’ award for his book.
Awards are bound to come when one is such a splendid player.
At the age of 18, Anand was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri (the fourth highest civilian award in India). Viswanathan was the first Indian sports player in history to get the Padma Vibhushan award in 2007. He also received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92(India’s highest sporting honor).
Not only he won the Indian awards but he also got rewarded with many International awards all over the world.
In April 2006, he passed the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list and became the fourth player to do so; after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov.
On November 7, 2010, when the then US President Barack Obama was on a visit to India, Anand was the only sportsperson to be invited for the dinner hosted by the then Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
In the words of Lubomir Kavalek, a Czech-American chess player, Anand is the only player to have won the world chess championship in the tournament, match, and knockout format, as well as rapid time controls.
Anand has endorsed brands such as NIIT and has a net worth of around $3 million.
For his swift and fast way of playing his moves in the game of Chess, he got the nickname “Lightning Kid”.
Anand has a large assortment of hobbies and interests apart from Chess. Apart from Tamil, Hindi and English, he is also fluent in French, German, and Spanish languages. He also has a keen interest in Astronomy and a book on astronomy written by Carl Sagan from the United States is his all-time favorite.
*Playing with white pieces, Viswanathan Anand drew the first game of the 2014 World Chess Championship against 23-year-old defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
Did you know?
Anand has a minor planet named after him named “(4538) Vishyanand” which was discovered in 1988.
He is a huge history buff too. Nowadays, he is also fascinated by statistics.
Call it intuition, a hunch, or a gut feeling- if we followed it, we just might be happier or a champion in Anand’s case. Vishwanathan Anand has admitted that intuition is his best trait.
In the latest events, Vishy is seen with Carlsen at Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2019.
We at chessbazaar.com wish Vishy a fruitful career ahead and we wish him more success. He is a living legend in the game of chess.
Also Read: Benefits of Chess!!!
More to Read: HOW TO CASTLE IN CHESS
Gary Kasparov – Gary started learning his training at the age of 10 at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. In 1979, he accidentally entered into a professional tournament which he won. Started ruling the chess kingdom at the age of 22, youngest ever undisputed champion in 1985, he remained #1 until his retirement in 2005.
Master (age 15), World junior chess champion in 1969, defeated Korchnoi and Spassky in 1974 and challenged Fischer for the World Title. He won the 1995 Linares tournament which is considered to be the strongest tournament in history.
EMANUEL LASKER – The longest ever(27 years) to dominate the chess world. Emanuel Lasker began his reign in 1894 by defeating Steinitz by 10 wins, 5 losses and 4 draws to win the World Title. Later in 1907 he defended his title against Marshall and won flawlessly.
1866 he defeated Adolf Andersson, then he became the strongest active player in the world. 1873-1882, the period when he only ended up playing one match, against Blackburne but won it flawless 7-0.
Jose Capablanca – Capablanca, the undisputed master of the Blitz chess, he began his chess at the age of 4. At 13 defeated the Cuban champion, at 18, defeated the US Champion Frank Marshall 15-8. Finally, in 1921, he won the World Championship and ended the Lasker reign and set up himself as the new World Champion which he successfully defended for next 6 years.
Alexander Alekhine – Alexander Alekhine, one of the strongest players of Russia by 16, and strongest player in the world by 22, as mentioned earlier, began his reign by defeating Capablanca in 1927.
continued till 1963. He retired in 1970 and devoted himself to development of chess programs and training young 
Paul Morphy – He is considered to be the most gifted chess player. Morphy participated in the first American Chess Congress which he won to become the champion of United States.
world and World Chess Champion, he held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000-2002. Anand is one of the six players to cross the 2800 mark. He officially gained the #1 on November 1, 2010. Anand is the most versatile player as he is the only one to win the world championship in many formats including Knockout, Tournament, Match, Rapid, and Blitz.