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Viswanathan Anand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In 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 Anand VishyAnand09.jpg Full name Viswanathan Anand Country India Born 11 December 1969 (age 44) Mayiladuthurai,[1] Tamil Nadu, India Title Grandmaster (1988) World Champion 2000–02 (FIDE) 2007–13 FIDE rating 2785 (September 2014) [2] Peak rating 2817 (March 2011) Ranking No. 3 (April 2014) Peak ranking No. 1 (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012) Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess Grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. Described by grandmaster and chess commentator Lubomir Kavalek as one of the most versatile world champions ever,[3] Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times[4] (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), and was the undisputed World Champion from 2007 to 2013. Anand was the World Blitz Chess champion in 2000.[5] Anand was the FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion in 2003, and is widely considered the strongest rapid player of his generation.[6][7] He is one of the two world champions who won the Classical, Rapid and Blitz world championships.[5] Anand has won the Chess Oscar six times (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008). Anand is the only world champion who won the world championship playing in all different formats (Match, Tournament, and Knockout). Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988.[8] He 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 in Indian history. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, at a time when the world title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. He then successfully defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in the World Chess Championship 2012[9] against Boris Gelfand. In the World Chess Championship 2013 he lost to challenger Magnus Carlsen. He won the right to face Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2014 by winning the 2014 Candidates Tournament.[10] Anand is one of six players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He occupied the number one position in several rating lists between 2007 and 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Personal life 3 Chess career 3.1 Early career 3.2 World Chess championships 3.2.1 FIDE World Champion 2000 3.2.2 World Champion 2007 3.2.3 World Champion 2008 3.2.4 World Champion 2010 3.2.5 World Champion 2012 3.2.6 World Championship 2013 3.2.7 World Championship 2014 3.3 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003 3.4 2013 3.5 Other results 3.6 Rating 4 Assessment 5 Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters 6 Notable tournament victories 6.1 Rapid/exhibition tournaments 6.2 Classical tournaments 7 Tabulation number of wins in major recurring chess tournaments 8 Awards 8.1 Indian national honours 8.2 Other honours 9 Sample game 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Early life[edit] Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 at Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu in a Brahmin family.[11][12] Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Chennai (formerly Madras), where he grew up.[1] His father, Viswanathan Iyer, is a retired General Manager of Southern Railways, and his mother Susheela, housewife and chess/film/club aficionado and an influential socialite. He has an elder brother, Shivakumar who is a manager at Crompton Greaves in India and an elder sister Anuradha who is a professor at the University of Michigan.[13][14] Anand is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother. He was taught how to play chess by his mother and a close family friend named Deepa Ramakrishnan. He described his start in chess thus: I started when I was six. My mother taught me how to play. In fact, my mother used to do a lot for my chess. We moved to the Philippines shortly afterward. I joined the club in India and we moved to the Philippines for a year. And there they had a TV program that was on in the afternoon, one to two or something like that, when I was in school. So she would write down all the games that they showed and the puzzles, and in the evening we solved them together. Of course my mother and her family used to play some chess, and she used to play with her younger brother, so she had some background in chess, but she never went to a club or anything like that. So we solved all these puzzles and sent in our answers together. And they gave the prize of a book to the winner. And over the course of many months, I won so many prizes. At one point they just said take all the books you want, but don't send in any more entries.[15] Anand was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School,[16] Egmore, Chennai and holds a degree of Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.[17] Personal life[edit] 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.[18][19][20] On 24 December 2010 Anand was guest of honour on the grounds of Gujarat university, Ahmedabad, where 20,486 players created a new world record of simultaneous chess play at single venue.[21] His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music. He is married to Aruna Anand and has a son born on 9 April 2011.[22] Anand's son is named Akhil and in the Tamil tradition will be called "Akhil Anand" (no surname). Anand lives with his wife Aruna in Madrid, Spain.[23] Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game.[24] 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 former two were rivals for the World Championship throughout Anand's career, each aided him in preparing for the World Chess Championship 2010.[25][26] Anand is sometimes known as the "Tiger of Madras".[27] Anand was the only sportsperson to have been invited for the dinner hosted by the Indian PM Manmohan Singh for US President Barack Obama on 7 November 2010.[28] 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".[29] According to The Hindu, Anand finally declined to accept the doctorate.[30] Chess career[edit] Early career[edit] Anand's rise in the Indian chess world was meteoric. National level success came early for him when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the title of International Master at the age of fifteen, in 1984. At the age of sixteen he became the national chess champion and won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. In 1988, at the age of eighteen, he became India's first Grandmaster by winning the Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India. He was awarded Padma Shri at the age of 18. Anand at the Manila 1992 Olympiad, age 22 "Vishy", as he is sometimes called by his friends, burst upon the upper echelons of the chess scene in the early 1990s, winning such tournaments as Reggio Emilia 1991 (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov). Playing at such a high level did not slow him down, and he continued to play games at blitz speed. In the World Chess Championship 1993 cycle Anand qualified for his first Candidates Tournament, winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarter-final match to Anatoly Karpov.[31] In 1994–95 Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated the qualifying cycles for the rival FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle (FIDE World Chess Championship 1996), Anand lost his quarter-final match to Kamsky after leading early.[32] Kamsky went on to lose the 1996 FIDE championship match against Karpov. In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand won matches against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Gata Kamsky in the Candidates final.[33] In 1995, he played the PCA World Chess Championship 1995 against Kasparov in New York City's World Trade Center. After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match), Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10½–7½. In the 1998 FIDE cycle, the reigning champion Karpov was granted direct seeding by FIDE into the final against the winner of the seven-round single elimination Candidates tournament. The psychological and physical advantage gained by Karpov from this decision caused significant controversy, leading to the withdrawal of future World Champion Vladimir Kramnik from the candidates tournament. Anand won the candidates tournament, defeating Michael Adams in the final, and immediately faced a well-rested Karpov for the championship. Despite this tremendous disadvantage for Anand, which he described as being "brought in a coffin" to play Karpov,[24] the regular match ended 3–3, which led to a rapid playoff, which Karpov won 2–0. Karpov thus remained the FIDE champion. World Chess championships[edit] FIDE World Champion 2000[edit] Main article: FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 After several near misses, Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov 3½–0½ in the final match held at Tehran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title. He failed to defend the title in 2002, losing in the semifinals to Vassily Ivanchuk. The 2002 FIDE world championship was ultimately won by Ruslan Ponomariov. Anand tied for second with Peter Svidler in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 with 8½ points out of 14 games, 1½ points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov. World Champion 2007[edit] Anand in 2007 Main article: World Chess Championship 2007 In September 2007 Anand became World Champion again by winning that year's FIDE World Championship Tournament held in Mexico City. He won the double round-robin tournament with a final score of 9 out of 14 points, a full point ahead of joint second place finishers Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. In 2000, when Anand won the FIDE World Championship, there was also the rival "Classical" World Championship, held by Kramnik. By 2007, the world championship had been reunified, so Anand's victory in Mexico City made him undisputed World Chess Champion. He became the first undisputed champion to win the title in a tournament, rather than in matchplay, since Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948. In October 2007, Anand said he liked the double round robin championship format (as used in the 2007 championship in Mexico City), and that the right of Kramnik to automatically challenge for the title was "ridiculous".[34] World Champion 2008[edit] This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. Main article: World Chess Championship 2008 Anand convincingly defended the title against Kramnik in the World Chess Championship 2008 held 14–29 October in Bonn, Germany. The winner was to be the first to score 6½ points in the twelve-game match.[35] Anand won by scoring 6½ points in 11 games, having won three of the first six games (two with the black pieces).[36] After the tenth game, Anand led 6–4 and needed only a draw in either of the last two games to win the match. In the eleventh game, Kramnik played the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Once the players traded queens, Kramnik offered a draw after 24 moves since he had no winning chances in the endgame.[37] Anand–Kramnik, 2008 World Ch. a b c d e f g h 8 Chessboard480.svg c8 black rook f8 black king g8 black rook b7 black pawn e7 black knight f7 black pawn h7 black pawn a6 black pawn f5 black pawn e3 black bishop a2 white pawn b2 white pawn c2 white pawn f2 white rook g2 white pawn h2 white pawn b1 white king c1 white knight f1 white bishop h1 white rook 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h Final position of the match Anand (2783) – Kramnik (2772), Wch Bonn GER (11);[38] 29 October 2008 (final game) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qc7 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.f5 Qc5 10.Qd3 Nc6 11.Nb3 Qe5 12.0-0-0 exf5 13.Qe3 Bg7 14.Rd5 Qe7 15.Qg3 Rg8 16.Qf4 fxe4 17.Nxe4 f5 18.Nxd6+ Kf8 19.Nxc8 Rxc8 20.Kb1 Qe1+ 21.Nc1 Ne7 22.Qd2 Qxd2 23.Rxd2 Bh6 24.Rf2 Be3 ½–½[39] Responding to Anand's win, Garry Kasparov said "A great result for Anand and for chess. Vishy deserved the win in every way and I'm very happy for him. It will not be easy for the younger generation to push him aside... Anand out-prepared Kramnik completely. In this way it reminded me of my match with Kramnik in London 2000. Like I was then, Kramnik may have been very well prepared for this match, but we never saw it."[40] In 2010 Anand donated his gold medal to the charitable organisation "The Foundation" to be auctioned off for the benefit of underprivileged children.[41] World Champion 2010[edit] Main article: World Chess Championship 2010 Before the World Chess Championship 2010 match with Veselin Topalov, Anand, who had booked on the flight Frankfurt–Sofia on 16 April, was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand asked for a three-day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on 19 April. Anand eventually reached Sofia on 20 April, after a 40-hour road journey.[42] Consequently, the first game was delayed by one day.[43] The match consisted of 12 games. After 11 games the score was tied at 5½–5½. Anand won game 12 on the Black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined to win the match and retain the World Championship. In game 12, after Topalov's dubious 31st and 32nd moves, Anand obtained a strong attack against Topalov's relatively exposed king. Topalov subsequently resigned. World Champion 2012[edit] Main article: World Chess Championship 2012 As a result of Anand's victory in the World Chess Championship 2010, he defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2012; the location of the event was the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.[44] His opponent was Boris Gelfand, the winner of the 2011 Candidates Matches. The match was tied 6–6 after regular games with one win each. Anand won the rapid tie break 2½–1½ to win the match and retain his title. After losing in the 7th game to Gelfand, Anand came back to win the 8th game in only 17 moves – the shortest game in World Chess Championship history. After the match, Russian president Vladimir Putin greeted Anand and Gelfand by calling both to his official residence.[45] World Championship 2013[edit] Main article: World Chess Championship 2013 Anand lost the defence of his title in the World Chess Championship 2013 at Chennai. The winner was Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the 2013 Candidates Tournament. The first four games were drawn, but Carlsen won the fifth and sixth games back to back. The seventh and eighth games were drawn, while the ninth game was won by Carlsen. On 22 November, the tenth game was drawn making Carlsen the new world champion.[46] World Championship 2014[edit] Main article: World Chess Championship 2014 Anand won the double round-robin FIDE Candidates tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk March 13–30 and earned a world championship rematch with Magnus Carlsen. Anand went through the tournament undefeated, winning his first-round game against Levon Aronian, his third-round game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and his ninth-round game against Veselin Topalov.[47] He drew all his other games, including his twelfth-round game against Dmitry Andreikin, where Anand agreed to a draw in a complex, but winning position.[48] He will face Carlsen in the world championship match scheduled for November 5–25, in Sochi, Russia.[49] FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003[edit] In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organised a rapid time control tournament in Cap d'Agde[50][51] and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Each player had 25 minutes at the start of the game, with an additional ten seconds after each move. Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final. His main recent titles in this category are at: Corsica (six years in a row from 1999 through 2005), Chess Classic (nine years in a row from 2000 through 2008), Leon 2005, Eurotel 2002, Fujitsu Giants 2002 and the Melody Amber (five times, and he won the rapid portion of Melody Amber seven times). In the Melody Amber 2007, Anand did not lose a single game in the rapid section, and scored 8½/11, two more than the runners-up, for a performance rating in the rapid section of 2939.[52] In most tournament time control games that Anand plays, he has more time left than his opponent at the end of the game. He lost on time in one game, to Gata Kamsky. Otherwise, he took advantage of the rule allowing players in time trouble to use dashes instead of the move notation during the last four minutes only once, in the game Anand versus Svidler at the MTel Masters 2006.[53] 2013[edit] In the 2013 Alekhine Memorial tournament, held from 20 April to 1 May, Anand finished third, with +2−1=6.[54] Other results[edit] Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon, Spain, after Garry Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognised as the world's best Advanced Chess player, where humans may consult a computer to aid in their calculation of variations. His game collection, My Best Games of Chess, was published in the year 1998 and was updated in 2001. Anand's recent tournament successes include the Corus chess tournament in 2006 (tied with Veselin Topalov), Dortmund in 2004, and Linares in 2007 and 2008. He has won the annual event Monaco Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championships in years 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2006. He is the only player to have won five titles of the Corus chess tournament. He is also the only player to win the blind and rapid sections of the Amber tournament in the same year (twice: in 1997 and 2005). He is the first player to have achieved victories in each of the three big chess supertournaments: Corus (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006), Linares (1998, 2007, 2008), Dortmund (1996, 2000, 2004). In 2007 he won the Grenkeleasing Rapid championship, which he won for the tenth time defeating Armenian GM Levon Aronian.[55] Incidentally, just a few days before Aronian had defeated Anand in the Chess960 final.[56] In March 2007, Anand won the Linares chess tournament and it was widely believed that he would be ranked world No.1 in the FIDE Elo rating list for April 2007. However, Anand was placed No.2 in the initial list released because the Linares result was not included. FIDE subsequently announced that the Linares results would be included after all,[57] making Anand number one in the April 2007 list.[58] Anand won the Mainz 2008 Supertournament Championship by defeating rising star Magnus Carlsen, earning his eleventh title in that event.[59] Rating[edit] In the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time,[60] and (as of July 2008) he held the number one spot in all ratings lists but one since then until July 2008, the exception being the January 2008 list, where he was rated No. 2 behind Vladimir Kramnik (equal rating, but Kramnik held the No. 1 spot due to more games played).[61] He dropped to No. 5 in the October 2008 list, the first time he had been outside the top 3 since July 1996.[62] In 2010, Anand announced that he would expand his tournament schedule, beginning in late 2010, in an effort to regain the world number one ranking from Magnus Carlsen.[63][64] He achieved that goal on 1 November 2010 list with a rating of 2804, two points ahead of Magnus Carlsen,[65] but was once again overtaken by Carlsen in July 2011. Assessment[edit] Lubomir Kavalek describes Anand as the most versatile world champion ever, pointing out that Anand is the only player to have won the world chess championship in tournament, match, and knockout format, as well as rapid time controls.[3] In an interview in 2011, Kramnik said about Anand: "I always considered him to be a colossal talent, one of the greatest in the whole history of chess"; and "I think that in terms of play Anand is in no way weaker than Kasparov but he's simply a little lazy, relaxed and only focuses on matches. In the last 5–6 years he's made a qualitative leap that's made it possible to consider him one of the great chess players."[66] In an interview in 2014 Alexander Grischuk said about Anand: "I have to say that of all the players I’ve played against Anand has personally struck me as the strongest, of course after Kasparov."[67] Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters[edit]