Viswanathan Anand

Biography

Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, and grew up largely in Chennai (then Madras). He became the youngest Indian to earn the International Master title in 1985, at age 15, then won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1987 before becoming India's first grandmaster in 1988, at age 18. Nicknamed the "Lightning Kid" for the speed of his play, he built his early reputation as one of the fastest and most instinctive calculators in the game.

Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, beating Alexei Shirov 3½–½ in the final of a knockout event held in Tehran and New Delhi. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 by winning an eight-player double round-robin tournament in Mexico City, then defended the classical title in three successive matches — against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 (6½–4½), Veselin Topalov in 2010 (6½–5½), and Boris Gelfand in 2012 (winning a rapid tiebreak after the match finished 6–6) — before losing the title to Magnus Carlsen in 2013. He reached his peak FIDE rating of 2817 in March 2011.

Away from classical chess, Anand has long been one of the sport's strongest rapid players, winning the inaugural World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and a second title in 2017 in Riyadh. He was a five-time winner of the Wijk aan Zee tournament (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006) and won Linares three times (1998, 2007, 2008). He received India's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1991–92 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2007, and in later years has mentored India's Chess Olympiad teams, including the squad that won the men's gold medal at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest.

Key achievements

• World Chess Champion: 2000 (FIDE knockout), 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 (undisputed classical title)
• Peak FIDE rating of 2817 (March 2011)
• First grandmaster from India (1988)
• World Rapid Chess Champion: 2003 and 2017
• Five-time winner of the Wijk aan Zee tournament (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006)

Ratings

Titles

Classical Tournaments

Team Events

Source: OlimpBase (olimpbase.org) individual Olympiad records, cross-checked with Wikipedia. Anand did not play in every intervening Olympiad (e.g. 1994–2002, 2008–2022) due to World Championship commitments; only appearances confirmed in primary sources are listed.

Read more on Wikipedia or view his FIDE profile.