Viswanathan Anand
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Image:Vishy-anand-2005.jpgViswanathan Anand (IPA: Template:IPA) (born December 11, 1969 in Chennai (then called Madras), India) is an Indian chess grandmaster. In the April 2006 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand has a rating of 2803, making him the number two in the world (after Veselin Topalov), and one of only four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the Elo rating system. Anand has been among the top three ranked players in classical time control chess in the world continuously since 1994 and the best rapid chess player in the world over much of that period.
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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 Chess Championship with a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the International Master Title at the age of fifteen, in 1984. At the age of sixteen he became the National Champion and won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed, earning him the nickname "Lightning Kid" ("Blitz chess" is known in India as "Lightning chess"). 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.
"Vishy", as he is sometimes called, 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 either, and he continued to play games at blitz speed. In 1991, he lost in a tie-breaker to Anatoly Karpov in the quarter finals of the FIDE World Chess Championship Cycle.
Anand qualified for the Professional Chess Association World Chess Championship final by winning the candidates matches against Michael Adams and Gata Kamsky. In 1995, he played a title match 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 using a splendid sacrifice on the queen side, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10.5 - 7.5. Image:Viswanathan Anand 08 14 2005.jpg Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon, Spain after Garry Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognized as the world's best Advanced Chess player, where humans may consult a computer to aid in their calculation of variations.
Anand's recent tournament successes include the prestigious Corus chess tournament in years 2003, 2004, 2006 (tied with Topalov), and Dortmund in 2004. He has won the annually held 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 (and he did this twice -- in 1997 and 2005).
Anand has won the Chess Oscar in 1997, 1998, 2003, and 2004, one better than Fischer's three. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year's best player according to a world-wide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64.
His game collection, My Best Games of Chess, was published in the year 1998 and was updated in 2001.
World Chess Champion
After several near misses, Anand finally won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5 - 0.5 in the final match held at Teheran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title. He lost the title when Ruslan Ponomariov won the FIDE knockout tournament in 2002.Image:Vishy-anand.jpg
He became shared second in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 (together with Peter Svidler) with 8.5 points out of 14 games, lagging 1.5 points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov.
World Rapid Chess Champion
In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organized a rapid time control tournament in Cap d'Agde and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Each player had 25 minutes at the start of the game, with an additional 10 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. Anand is widely regarded as the world's finest Rapid Chess player. He has won countless major rapid chess events defeating all top players in the process. His main recent titles in this category are at: Corsica (5 yrs in a row from 1999-2004), Mainz (5 yrs in a row from 2000-2005), Leon 2005, Eurotel 2002, Fujitsu Giants 2002 and the Melody Amber (5 times -- and he won the rapid portion of Melody Amber 7 times). It is well known that in virtually all classical (regular time control) games that Anand plays, he has more time left than his opponent at the end of the game.
Chess titles
- 1983 National Sub-Junior Chess Champion - age 14
- 1984 International Master - age 15
- 1985 Indian National Champion - age 16
- 1987 World Junior Chess Champion, Grandmaster
- 2000 FIDE World Chess Champion
- 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion
Awards
Anand has received many awards.
- Arjuna award for Outstanding Indian Sportsman in Chess in 1985
- Padma Shri, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1987
- The inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour in the year 1991-1992.
- British Chess Federation 'Book of the Year' Award in 1998 for his book My Best Games of Chess
- Padma Bhushan in 2000
- Chess Oscar (1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004)
Further reading
- Viswanathan Anand, My Best Games of Chess (Gambit, 2001 (new edition))
Sample game
On his way to winning the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, Anand defeated Grandmaster Viktor Bologan with the white pieces. Here are the moves in algebraic chess notation (Analysis by Grandmaster Ljubomir Ftacnik):
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Nb8 10. d4 Nbd7 11. Nbd2 Bb7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Nf1 Bf8 14. Ng3 c5 15. d5 c4 16. Bg5 Qc7 17. Nf5 Kh8 18. g4 Ng8 19. Qd2 Nc5 20. Be3 Bc8 21. Ng3 Rb8 22. Kg2 a5 23. a3 Ne7 24. Rh1 Ng6 25. g5! b4!? Anand has an excellent kingside attack, so Bologan seeks counterplay with the sacrifice of a pawn. 26. axb4 axb4 27. cxb4 Na6 28. Ra4 Nf4+ 29. Bxf4 exf4 30. Nh5 Qb6 31. Qxf4 Nxb4 32. Bb1 Rb7 33. Ra3 Rc7 34. Rd1 Na6 35. Nd4 Qxb2 36. Rg3 c3(See diagram) 37. Nf6!! Re5 If 37...gxf6, 38. gxf6 h6 39. Rg1! Qd2! 40. Qh4 leaves white with an irresistible initiative. 38. g6! fxg6 39. Nd7 Be7 40. Nxe5 dxe5 41. Qf7 h6 42. Qe8+ 1-0
External links
- Anand's games at chessgames.com
- His rating card on FIDE.com
- A site with his career accomplishments and awards
- 55 Critical Positions from His Games
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