Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was the elected Deputy President of FIDE. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players in the history of the game and has had an important role in popularizing it in India.

Anand defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, a title he held until 2002. He became the undisputed world champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, Veselin Topalov in 2010, and Boris Gelfand in 2012. In 2013, he lost the title to challenger Magnus Carlsen, and he lost a rematch to Carlsen in 2014 after winning the 2014 Candidates Tournament.

In April 2006, Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Kramnik, Topalov, and Garry Kasparov. He occupied the number-one position for 21 months, the sixth-longest period on record.

Known for his rapid playing speed as a child, Anand earned the sobriquet "Lightning Kid" during his early career in the 1980s. He has since developed into a universal player, and many consider him the greatest rapid chess player of his generation. He won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and 2017, the World Blitz Chess Cup in 2000, and numerous other top-level rapid and blitz events.

Anand was the first recipient of the Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award.

Early life

Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India . He later moved to Chennai, where he grew up. His father Viswanathan Iyer was a general manager in the Southern Railways who had studied in Jamalpur, Bihar; and his mother, Sushila, was a housewife, chess aficionado, and an influential socialite.

Anand is the youngest of three children. He is 11 years younger than his sister, and 13 years younger than his brother. His brother, Shivakumar, is a manager at Crompton Greaves in India. His sister, Anuradha, is a professor at the University of Michigan.

Anand started learning chess from age six from his mother, but he learned the intricacies of the game in Manila, where he lived with his parents from 1978 through the 1980s while his father was contracted as a consultant by the Philippine National Railways.

Anand was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai, and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.

Personal life

Anand married Aruna in 1996 and has a son, born on 9 April 2011, named in the traditional patronymic way Anand Akhil.

Anand is a Hindu and stated that he visits temples to enjoy the tranquility and joy they symbolize. He has credited his daily prayers with helping him achieve a "heightened state of mind" that helps him focus better when playing chess.

In August 2010, Anand joined the board of directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation for promoting and supporting India's elite sportspersons and potential young talent. On 24 December 2010, he was the guest of honour on the grounds of Gujarat University, where 20,486 players created a new world record of simultaneous chess play at a single venue.

His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music.

Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game. This has made him a well-liked figure throughout the chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen, all of whom were rivals for the world championship during Anand's career, each aided him in his preparations for the 2010 World Chess Championship. Anand is sometimes known as the "Tiger of Madras".

Anand was the only sportsperson invited to the dinner Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted for US President Barack Obama on 7 November 2010.

Anand was denied an honorary doctorate from University of Hyderabad because of confusion over his citizenship status; India's Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal later apologised and said, "There is no issue on the matter as Anand has agreed to accept the degree at a convenient time depending on his availability". According to ''The Hindu'', Anand finally declined to accept the doctorate.

On 26 May 2015, Anand's mother died at age 79. On 15 April 2021, Anand's father died at age 92.

Early chess career

Anand's rise in the Indian chess world was meteoric. National success came early for him when he won the sub-junior championship with a score of 9/9 points in 1983, at age 14. In 1984 Anand won the Asian Junior Championship in Coimbatore, earning an International Master (IM) norm in the process. Soon afterward, he participated in the 26th Chess Olympiad, in Thessaloniki, where he made his debut on the Indian national team. There, Anand scored 7½ points in 11 games, gaining his second IM norm. In 1985 he became the youngest Indian to achieve the title of International Master, at age 15, by winning the Asian Junior Championship for the second year in a row, this time in Hong Kong. At age 16, he became the national chess champion. He won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. In 1988, at age 18, he became India's first grandmaster by winning the Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India. One of his notable successes in this tournament was his win against Russian grandmaster Efim Geller. He was awarded Padma Shri at age 18.

In the 1993 World Chess Championship cycle, Anand qualified for his first Candidates Tournament, winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarterfinal match to 1990 runner-up Anatoly Karpov.

In 1994–95, Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated the qualifying cycles for the rival FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle, Anand lost his second round (Candidates semifinal) match to Kamsky after leading early. Kamsky lost the 1996 FIDE championship match to Karpov.

In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand won matches against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Kamsky in the Candidates final. In 1995, he played the PCA World Chess Championship against Kasparov at New York City's World Trade Center. After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match until 21 November 2018), Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10½–7½.

In the 1998 FIDE cycle, FIDE granted Karpov, the reigning champion, direct seeding into the final against the winner of the seven-round single-elimination Candidates tournament. The psychological and physical advantage Karpov gained from this decision caused significant controversy, leading to Kramnik's withdrawal from the tournament. Anand won the tournament, defeating Adams in the final, and immediately faced Karpov for the championship. Despite this disadvantage for Anand, which he described as being "brought in a coffin" to play Karpov, the regular match ended 3–3, which led to a rapid playoff, which Karpov won 2–0. Karpov thus remained the FIDE champion.

Other results

Anand has won the Mainz Chess Classic, a Category 21 Championship, a record 11 times. In 2008, he defeated Carlsen en route to his 11th title in that event.

Anand is the first player to have won five titles of the Corus chess tournament. He is the first player to have won each of the Big Three supertournaments at the time: Corus (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006), Linares (1998, 2007, 2008), and Dortmund (1996, 2000, 2004).

Anand has a stellar record at the annual Melody Amber Tournament (2 separate and unique Blindfold and Rapid Chess supertournaments played): he has 5 overall prizes (winning in 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005, and 2006), and has the most "rapidplay" titles, winning 9 times. He is also the only player to win the blind and rapid sections of the tournament in the same year (twice, in 1997 and 2005).

Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon, Spain, after Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognised as the world's best Advanced Chess player, where players may consult a computer to aid in their calculation of variations.

Anand's collection ''My Best Games of Chess'' was published in 1998 and updated in 2001. His individual tournament successes include the Corus chess tournament in 2006 (tied with Topalov), Dortmund in 2004, and Linares in 2007 and 2008. In 2007 he won the Grenkeleasing Rapid championship for the tenth time, defeating Levon Aronian. Just a few days before, Aronian had defeated Anand in the Chess960 final.

In March 2007, Anand won the Linares chess tournament and it was widely believed that he would be ranked world No. 1 in the FIDE Elo rating list for April 2007. But Anand was No. 2 on the initial list released because the Linares result was not included. FIDE subsequently announced that Linares would be included, pushing Anand to number one in the April 2007 list.

World Chess Championships

1995

In 1993, the newly formed Professional Chess Association (PCA) held a 54-player, 11-round Swiss-style qualifying tournament in Groningen on 19–30 December, an equivalent of FIDE's Interzonal. Anand scored 7½/11 to finish tied for first and secure a berth in the 1994 Candidates' Tournament. In the single-elimination tournament, Anand handily dispatched Adams and Oleg Romanishin in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches, held in New York City and Linares. Facing Kamsky in a 12-game final match held at Las Palmas, Anand lost Game 1 on time in a winning position but recovered with wins in Game 3, 9, and 11 to secure a 6½–4½ victory and a match against reigning champion Kasparov for the world chess championship. It was the first Candidates' Tournament victory of Anand's career.

The 20-game championship match was held from 10 September to 16 October 1995 on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in New York City. The match started with a then-record eight consecutive draws before Anand broke open the match in Game 9, pressing and eventually breaking through Kasparov's Sicilian Defense with a powerful exchange sacrifice. But Anand scored just half a point in the next five games, losing twice to Kasparov's Sicilian Dragon defence, and eventually conceded a 10½–7½ loss. Afterwards, Kasparov commented on Anand's psychological approach to the match:

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1998

In a radical departure from previous years, the 1998 world championship was a 100-player knockout tournament, with each round consisting of two-game matches and ties resolved by rapid and blitz games. Controversially, Karpov, the defending champion, was seeded directly into the final, held just three days after the conclusion of the three-week tournament. This format gave Karpov a significant advantage in rest time and preparation; Kasparov and Kramnik both declined to participate as a result. The latter explained his absence bluntly: "Is it fair to expect Sampras to only play one match and defend his Wimbledon title?"

As a result of Kasparov's withdrawal, Anand entered the tournament in Groningen, Netherlands as the #1 seed. After dispatching future FIDE champion Alexander Khalifman in the third round, he scored quick victories over Zoltán Almási, Alexei Shirov, and Boris Gelfand to advance. In the final against ninth-seeded Michael Adams, held on 30 December, both players drew their first four games. A visibly tired Anand, having played 21 games in 23 days, eventually prevailed in a sudden-death blitz game to secure a 3–2 victory.

Immediately after defeating Adams, Anand arranged a flight with his team to the International Olympic Committee museum in Lausanne, Switzerland to play Karpov in a six-game match for the FIDE world title. With just four hours of pre-match preparation, Anand lost Game 1 after Karpov surprised him with a bold queen sacrifice on the 31st move. But he won Game 2 in 42 moves from a disadvantaged position after accepting a sharp exchange sacrifice and outplaying Karpov in the resulting endgame. After losing Game 4, Anand entered the final game of the match needing a win to force the match into a playoff. Playing white, he opened with the Trompowsky Attack. Karpov defended well until 28...Qd8?, a critical mistake that lost him a piece and the game.

In the first rapid playoff game, Anand secured a significant advantage on the board before a calculation mistake (40...a4?) cost him the game. Karpov then won the second game with black to seal a 5−3 victory and retain the FIDE title. After the match, Anand reiterated his concerns with the unfairness of the tournament format.

Karpov, meanwhile, questioned Anand's temperament and remarked that he "doesn't have the character" to win big games. For his part, Kasparov dismissed the match as between "a tired player and an old player".

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2000

From 25 November to 27 December 2000, the FIDE World Chess Championship was a 100-player single-elimination tournament in New Delhi, India and Tehran, Iran. After winning the 2000 FIDE World Cup, Anand entered the event as the #1 overall seed and one of the favourites to win alongside Topalov, Gelfand, and Shirov. Anand decided to join the event after skipping the 1999 edition, due to ongoing negotiations for a title match with Kasparov that ultimately fell through. Kasparov and Kramnik, who defeated Kasparov in a match for the lineal world title earlier in the year, did not participate in the event. Anand's second and preparation partner for the tournament was Spanish grandmaster Elizbar Ubilava.

Enjoying boisterous home-crowd support, Anand moved through the early rounds with relatively little difficulty, notching quick wins against Viktor Bologan, Smbat Lputian, and Bartłomiej Macieja. In the quarterfinals, he had four consecutive draws against defending champion Alexander Khalifman before winning a 15-minute tiebreak game to progress. Against Adams in the semifinals, Anand quickly drew Game 1 and took advantage of a positional blunder by Adams (20...c5?) to win Game 2 in 36 moves with white. Quick draws in games 3 and 4 then saw Anand through to the final match.

The final match played from 20 to 26 December 2000 in Tehran, pitted Anand against fourth-seeded Shirov, who was denied a chance to play Kasparov for the world title two years earlier. After a draw in Game 1, Anand entered a sharp line in the Ruy Lopez in Game 2, ultimately converting a passed pawn into a winning endgame after placing Shirov in zugzwang on move 41. Anand then seized control of the match with a 41-move win in Game 3 after neutralizing a rook sacrifice by Shirov on move 19, and sealed victory in the match with another win in Game 4.

Anand's run to his first world championship saw him go unbeaten through the entire tournament, with eight wins and 12 draws. With the win, he became the first world champion from east Asia and the first world champion from outside the ex-Soviet Union since Bobby Fischer. In addition to the title of FIDE world champion, Anand received a $528,000 cash prize. Upon returning to India, Anand was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in recognition of his victory. Later, he gave his thoughts on his matches against Khalifman and Shirov:

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2005

In 2005, Anand finished in a tie for second place at the 2005 FIDE World Chess Championship, won by Topalov.

2007

The finish of the 2005 World Chess Championship qualified Anand for the 2007 championship, an eight-player double round-robin tournament held in Mexico City from 12 to 30 September 2007. In 2006, Kramnik took Topalov's place in the event after his victory over the latter to reunify the world title. Anand entered the tournament as the world's top-ranked player, and was considered a favourite to win alongside the defending champion Kramnik.

After a Round 1 draw, Anand drew first blood in the tournament, handily defeating Aronian with black in Round 2. After the fourth round, Anand and Kramnik were tied for the lead with 2½ each. But in the next three rounds, Anand separated himself from the pack with wins over Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk, taking the lead. He then held Kramnik to a draw in Round 10, and extended his lead to 1½ points with a 56-move win over Alexander Morozevich. In Round 13, Anand played precise defence and salvaged a lost rook endgame against Grischuk with black to retain his lead, and sealed the championship in the final round with a 20-move draw against Peter Leko. Anand's performance in Mexico City saw him pick up four wins and 10 draws, and he finished as the only undefeated player in the tournament with a 2848 performance rating. This was his second world chess championship, and first since the reunification of the title in 2006. As a result, he gained nine rating points to break the 2800 Elo rating barrier for the second time in his career in October 2007. In the post-event press conference, Anand commented on his final game and his feelings on winning the tournament:

With the win, Anand became the first undisputed world champion to win the title in a tournament, rather than in match play, since Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948. In addition to the world title, Anand received a $390,000 cash prize.

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Key: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = Neustadtl score

2008

Anand convincingly defended the title against Kramnik in the 2008 World Chess Championship held on 14–29 October in Bonn, Germany. The winner was to be the first to score 6½ points in the 12-game match. Anand won by scoring 6½ points in 11 games, winning three of the first six games (two with black). After the tenth game, Anand led 6–4 and needed only a draw in either of the last two games to win the match. In Game 11, Kramnik played the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Once the players traded queens, Kramnik offered a draw after 24 moves since he had no winning chances in the endgame.

:Anand (2783) vs. Kramnik (2772), Wch Bonn GER (11); 29 October 2008 (final game)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qc7 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.f5 Qc5 10.Qd3 Nc6 11.Nb3 Qe5 12.0-0-0 exf5 13.Qe3 Bg7 14.Rd5 Qe7 15.Qg3 Rg8 16.Qf4 fxe4 17.Nxe4 f5 18.Nxd6+ Kf8 19.Nxc8 Rxc8 20.Kb1 Qe1+ 21.Nc1 Ne7 22.Qd2 Qxd2 23.Rxd2 Bh6 24.Rf2 Be3 (diagram)

Of Anand's win, Kasparov said, "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." In 2010 Anand donated his gold medal to the charitable organisation The Foundation to be auctioned off for the benefit of underprivileged children.

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2010

Before the 2010 World Chess Championship match with Topalov, Anand, who had been booked on the flight Frankfurt–Sofia on 16 April, was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull. He asked for a three-day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on 19 April. Anand reached Sofia on 20 April after a 40-hour road journey. Consequently, the first game was delayed by one day.

The match consisted of 12 games. In Game 1, Topalov defeated Anand in 30 moves with a very sharp attack that broke through Anand's Grunfeld Defence. It was revealed afterwards that Topalov had found the line during his opening preparation with the help of a powerful supercomputer loaned to him by Bulgaria's Defense Department. Anand quickly responded with a win in Game 2, employing a novelty out of the Catalan Opening that was not easily recognized by computers at the time (15. Qa3!?, followed by 16. bxa3!). Anand won with the Catalan again in Game 4, only to drop Game 8 and leave the score level once again. After 11 games the score was tied at 5½–5½. Anand won game 12 on the Black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined to win the game and the match. Topalov chose to accept a pawn sacrifice by Anand, hoping to force a result and avoid a rapid chess tiebreak round. But after Topalov's dubious 31st and 32nd moves, Anand used the sacrifice to obtain a strong attack against Topalov's relatively exposed king. Topalov subsequently resigned, allowing Anand to retain the world championship.

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2012

As a result of Anand's victory in 2010, he defended his title in the 2012 World Chess Championship at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. His opponent was Boris Gelfand, the winner of the 2011 Candidates Matches. After losing Game 7 to Gelfand, Anand came back to win Game 8 in only 17 moves, the shortest decisive game in World Chess Championship history. The match was tied 6–6 after regular games with one win each. Anand won the rapid tiebreak 2½–1½ to win the match and retain his title. After the match, Russian president Vladimir Putin greeted Anand and Gelfand by calling both to his official residence.

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2013

Anand lost his title in the 2013 World Chess Championship in Chennai. The winner was Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the 2013 Candidates Tournament. The first four games were drawn, but Carlsen won Games 5 and 6. Games 7 and 8 were drawn, and Carlsen won Game 9. On 22 November, Game 10 was drawn, making Carlsen the new world champion.

2014

Anand won the double round-robin FIDE Candidates tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk (13–30 March) and earned a rematch with Carlsen. He went through the tournament undefeated, winning his first-round game against Aronian, his third-round game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and his ninth-round game against Topalov. He drew all his other games, including his 12th-round game against Dmitry Andreikin, where Anand agreed to a draw in a complex but winning position. He faced Carlsen in the world championship match in Sochi, Russia, in November. Carlsen won the match 6½ to 4½ after 11 of 12 scheduled games.

FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003

In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organised 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 ten seconds after each move. Anand won this event ahead of ten of the top 12 players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final. His main recent titles in this category are at Corsica (six years in a row from 1999 through 2005), Chess Classic (nine years in a row from 2000 through 2008), Leon 2005, Eurotel 2002, Fujitsu Giants 2002 and the Melody Amber (five times, and he won the rapid portion of Melody Amber seven times). In the Melody Amber 2007, Anand did not lose a single game in the rapid section, and scored 8½/11, two more than the runners-up, for a performance rating in the rapid section of 2939. In most tournament time control games that Anand plays, he has more time left than his opponent at the end of the game. He lost on time in one game, to Kamsky. Otherwise, he took advantage of the rule allowing players in time trouble to use dashes instead of move notation during the last four minutes only once, against Peter Svidler at the MTel Masters 2006.

FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2017

Anand won the 2017 World Rapid Chess Championship, defeating Vladimir Fedoseev 2–0 in the final tiebreak after he, Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi tied for first with 10½/15 points. He won the tournament ahead of Carlsen, his first victory in a world championship since losing the classical championship to Carlsen in 2013.

Post-2010 chess career

2010

* ''2010 Sofia World Chess Championship'': From 24 April – 11 May 2010, Anand participated in a World Championship match against Topalov. Topalov gained direct entry into a challengers match against Kamsky as compensation from FIDE for not gaining entry into the 2007 World Chess Championship cycle. Because Topalov defeated Kamsky, he earned the right to challenge Anand for the World Chess Championship title. The match was level after 11 games, with 2 wins apiece in Rounds 1, 2, 4, and 8. In Game 12, Anand defeated Topalov with Black and retained his title.

2011

* ''73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament'': From 14 to 30 January 2011, Anand participated in the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands. He finished 2nd overall in the tournament, scoring 8½ points out of 13 (+4−0=9), just behind the winner, Hikaru Nakamura