Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand was born in Chennai on 11th December 1969. Even from his childhood he showed interest in chess. In fact, he picked his early lessons in chess from his mother Susila Viswanathan at the age of six. He learnt the subtle points of the game quickly and started playing tournaments even when he was a schoolboy. Because of his special ability to move the coins quickly he was called the 'lightning kid'. At the age of 14, he won the National Sub-Juniors Championship.

He emerged as the youngest Indian National Champion at the age of 16. He was called the 'Boy Wonder' and became a Grandmaster at the age of 17 and no Indian had ever achieved that till this time. Victories started knocking at his door and there was no looking back. In 1987, he became the first Asian to win the World Junior Championship at Baguio city in Philippines and also became the first Indian to earn the coveted Grandmaster title in the same year.

In 1991, he beat Alexey Dreev in Chennai in the first World Candidates Cycle Match. His reputation grew and in 1991, he won the strongest tournament at that time - Reggio Emilia Chess Tournament in Italy as champion, ahead of the Russian players Kasparov and Karpov. In 1992, he won the Alekhine memorial ahead of Karpov. He attained a 2700 rating and he is the 8th person in the world to achieve this rating. In 1993, he won the PCA interzonal, Groninger championship and it was the strongest Swiss tounrament ever played. In 1994 he became the champion in the World Championship Candidates Cycle tournament in New York beating Ramanishiri. In the same year he won the PCA Grand Prix tournament and edged ahead of Kasparov.

In 1995, he beat Gata Kamsky in PCA World Candidates Finals in Las Palmas and qualified for the final against Kasparov. He attained the World No.2 position in the Ranking list. In 1996, he won the Credit Swiss Chess Grand Prix in Geneva defeating Kasparov in the final. In 1997, he won the chess classic Rapid tournament at Frankfurt beating Karpov in the final. In the same year he won the Knock Out Championships in Groningen, which was the qualifying tournament for the World Championship finals.

The year 1998 can be said as the star year for Anand when he won the Chess Oscar for the first time. In 1999, he won the Forneo Magistral de Ajedrez in Leons, France beating Anatoly Karpov. To cap this, he won the Chess Oscar for the second year too. In the same year, he won the 1999 Wydra Memorial Rapid Chess in Haifa. He was ranked as World No.2, second only to Garry Kasparov, a very senior player. In 2003, he was again awarded the Chess Oscar. He became the first non-Russian to win the Oscar three times. In 2000 he won the FIDE world's final in Tehran. He won the Forneo Magistral at Leon. It is an advanced tournament where players can use computers. He was the runner-up to Kasparov in the Corus chess tounament in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. He won the Plus GSM World Blitz Cup in Warsaw, Poland.

In November 2001, he won the Corsica Masters title in Bastia. He also won the Meridian International tournament in Mexico. Winning the Rapid play even in Villarrohledo in Spain and winning the Torneo Magistral, an advanced chess tournament in Leon are his other achievements. In 2002, he won the Corsica Masters championship, three times in a row. He was the winner of the World Cup Championship in Hyderabad, India. He successfully led the "Rest of the world" team against Russia in the new match of the century at Moscow. He won the chess classic championship in Mainz, Germany.

In 2003, after Anand won the Corsica Open Rapid chess championship for three years consecutively and won the World Rapid chess championship in Cape d' Agde, he became known as the world's best rapid chess player for having won the chess classic tournament at Mainz, Germany. In that year, he was the highest scorer in the German League. He won the Melody Amber Blind and Rapid Chess Championship for the third time. With all this honours, he took time to complete his degree in commerce.

The Nation honours a brilliant Chess Champion. Anand has been awarded many prestigious titles. The Government of India conferred the Arjuna Award in 1985. He was awarded the Padmashri in 1988 and he was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest awards of the Government of India. He was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1992. He also received the Soviet Land Nehru Award. He was given the 'Sportsman of the Millennium Award' by the Sportstar. He also received the Birla's 'Living Legends' Award'.