Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He has been the undisputed world champion four times, also held the FIDE world title, and has won the World Rapid Championship 13 times plus the World Blitz Championship once. In 1988, he became India’s first grandmaster, and his peak FIDE rating is the eighth-highest ever. In August 2022, he was elected deputy president of FIDE, and after Arkady Dvorkovich was added to international sanctions lists in July 2026, Anand became acting president. He is widely credited with making chess popular in India.

Anand won the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship by beating Alexei Shirov in a six-game match, holding the title until 2002. He became undisputed champion by winning the 2007 tournament, then defended it in matches against Vladimir Kramnik (2008), Veselin Topalov (2010), and Boris Gelfand (2012). In 2013, he lost the title to Magnus Carlsen, and after winning the 2014 Candidates Tournament, he lost a rematch to Carlsen that same year.

In April 2006, Anand became the fourth player ever to cross 2800 Elo on the FIDE rating list, after Kramnik, Topalov, and Garry Kasparov. He spent 21 months as world number one, the sixth-longest such stretch on record.

As a child, Anand played very fast, earning the nickname "Lightning Kid" in the 1980s. He won the FIDE World Rapid Championship in 2003 and 2017, the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship 11 times, and the Amber rapid event 9 times. He is often called the greatest rapid player of all time. He also took the World Blitz Chess Cup in 2000, the Chess World Cup in 2000 and 2002, and many other top rapid and blitz titles.

Anand was the first recipient of the Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India’s highest sporting honor. In 2007, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, becoming the first sportsperson to do so.

**Early life**

Anand was born on 11 December 1969 into a Tamil Hindu family in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu. His father, Krishnamurthy Viswanathan, was a general manager at Southern Railways and had studied in Jamalpur, Bihar. The family later moved to Chennai, where Anand grew up. His mother, Sushila, was a housewife, a chess enthusiast, and an influential socialite. Anand is the youngest of three children, 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother. His brother, Shivakumar, works as a manager at Crompton Greaves in India; his sister, Anuradha, is a professor at the University of Michigan.

Anand learned chess at age six from his mother. He honed his skills while living with his parents in Manila from 1978 to the early 1980s, where his father worked as a consultant for the Philippine National Railways. He attended Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Chennai and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Loyola College, Chennai.

**Early chess career**

Anand’s rise in Indian chess was rapid. At 14, in 1983, he won the sub-junior championship with a perfect 9/9. In 1984, he won the Asian Junior Championship in Coimbatore, earning his first International Master (IM) norm. He then played at the 26th Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, debuting for the Indian national team and scoring 7½/11 for his second IM norm. In 1985, at age 15, he became the youngest Indian to become an International Master by winning the Asian Junior Championship again, this time in Hong Kong. At 16, he became national champion, a title he won two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. That same year, at 18, he became India’s first grandmaster by winning the Shakti Finance International tournament in Coimbatore, which included a notable win against Russian grandmaster Efim Geller. He was awarded the Padma Shri at age 18.

In the 1993 World Championship cycle, Anand qualified for his first Candidates Tournament, winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarterfinal to 1990 runner-up Anatoly Karpov. During 1994–95, Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated the qualifying cycles for both the FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle, Anand lost his semifinal match to Kamsky after leading early; Kamsky then lost the 1996 FIDE title match to Karpov. In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand beat Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Kamsky in the Candidates final. That year, he faced Kasparov for the PCA World Championship at New York’s World Trade Center. After a record eight straight draws to open the match, Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice, but then lost four of the next five games, losing the match 10½–7½.

In the 1998 FIDE cycle, FIDE gave reigning champion Karpov a direct spot in the final, a controversial decision that led Kramnik to withdraw. Anand won the seven-round knockout Candidates tournament, beating Adams in the final, then faced Karpov. Despite the disadvantage—Anand said he was “brought in a coffin” to play—the regular match ended 3–3, but Karpov won the rapid playoff 2–0, keeping the title.