India’s 1st GM

VISWANATHAN ANAND
Viswanathan Anand

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 Jump to navigationJump to searchIn this Indian name, the name Viswanathan is a patronymic, not
a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Anand.
 Viswanathan AnandAnand in 2009
 Full nameAnand Vishwanathan[1]CountryIndiaBorn11 December 1969 (age 49)
Mayiladuthurai, Tamil NaduTitleGrandmaster (1988)World Champion2000–2002 (FIDE)
2007–2013FIDE rating2765 (October 2019)Peak rating2817 (March 2011)RankingNo. 6 (February
2019)Peak rankingNo. 1 (April 2007)Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an
Indian chess grandmaster and a former World Chess Champion.
 Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess
Championship from 2000 to 2002, thus becoming the first Asian to do so. He became
the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008.
He then defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in
the World Chess Championship 2012[2] against Boris Gelfand. In the World Chess Championship
2013 he lost to challenger Magnus Carlsen and lost again to Carlsen in the World Chess
Championship 2014.[3] He won the World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and 2017.
 In April 2006 Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on
the FIDE rating list, after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov.[4] He occupied
the number one position for 21 months, the 6th longest on record.
 Anand was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi 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. He is also regarded as one of
the greatest rapid players of all time.
Early life[edit]

 Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 at Mayiladuthurai, Tamil

Nadu, India[5][6] where he grew up.[7] His father Krishnamurthy Viswanathan, a
retired general manager of Southern Railways, had studied in Jamalpur, Bihar,
and his mother Sushila was a housewife, chess aficionado and an influential
socialite.[8]
 Anand is the youngest of 3 children. He is 11 years younger than his sister and 13
years younger than his brother. His elder brother, Shivakumar, is a manager
at Crompton Greaves in India and his elder sister, Anuradha, is a professor in the
United States at the University of Michigan.[9][10]
 Anand learned chess from age six from his mother Sushila, but learned the
intricacies of the game in Manila where he lived with his parents in 1978 up to the
'80s while his father was contracted as a consultant by the Philippine National
Railways.[11]
 Anand was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary
School,[12] Egmore, Chennai and holds a degree of Bachelor of
Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.[13]
 Personal life
Personal life[edit]

 Anand married Aruna in 1996 and has a son, Akhil, born on 9 April 2011.[14]
 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.[15][16][17] On 24
December 2010, Anand 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.[18]
 His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music.[11]
 Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political
and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game.[19] This has made him a well-liked figure
throughout the chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Garry Kasparov, Vladimir
Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen, of whom the first two were rivals for the World Championship
throughout Anand's career, each aided him in his preparations for the World Chess Championship
2010.[20][21] Anand is sometimes known as the "Tiger of Madras".[22]
 Anand was the only sportsperson to be invited for the dinner hosted by the Indian PM Manmohan
Singh for US President Barack Obama on 7 November 2010.[23]
 Anand was denied an honorary doctorate from University of Hyderabad because of confusion over
his citizenship status; however, later Kapil Sibal, India's Minister of Human Resource
Development 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".[24] According to The Hindu, Anand
finally declined to accept the doctorate.[25]
