THE KING OF 64

SQUARES
VISHWANATHAN
ANAND
❏ From the time he learnt to move pieces
on a chess board as six year old, Vishy -
as Anand is fondly called has racked up
innumerable accolades.
❏ The first World Chess Champion from
Asia, he emerged onto the world stage
when chess was largely a Soviet preserve,
climbed the ranks to become World No.
1, bagged five World Championship
titles and won tournaments across all
formats of the game.
❏ A peerless ambassador of chess, his is
one of the most revered names in the
sport
 Early Life

❏ Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 at Chennai,

Tamil Nadu, India where he grew up.
❏ His father Krishnamurthy Viswanathan, a retired general manager of
Southern Railways, had studied in Jamalpur, Bihar, and his mother
Sushila was a housewife, chess enthusiast and an influential socialite.
❏ Anand started learning chess from age six from his mother Sushila, but
learned the intricacies of the game in Manila where he lived with his
parents from 1978 up to the '80s while his father was contracted as a
consultant by the Philippine National Railways.
❏ Anand was educated at
Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Egmore, Chennai and
holds a degree of Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.
 Early Chess Career

❏ Anand's rise in the Indian chess world was meteoric.

❏ National-level success came early for him when he won the national
sub-junior championship with a score of 9/9 points in 1983, at the age
of fourteen.
❏ In 1984 Anand won the Asian Junior Championship in Coimbatore
earning a norm for the title International Master (IM) in the process.
❏ He became the youngest Indian to achieve the title of International
Master, at age 15, in 1985 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.
❏ 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.
❏ He was awarded Padma Shri at age 18.
 Professional Chess Career

❏ Vishy Anand is a five-time world chess champion.

❏ He defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the
2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, a title he held until 2002.
❏ He later became the undisputed World Champion in 2007, and
successfully 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 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 Garry Kasparov,
Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov.
❏ He occupied the number one position for 21 months, the sixth
longest on record.
❏ Vishy Anand is considered by many to be the greatest rapid chess
player of his generation.
❏ He won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and
2017, the World Blitz Cup in 2000, and numerous other top-level
rapid & blitz events.
❏ Anand was 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
Thank You