Chess. The word itself fills me with joy and happiness. The more you think of it, play it, it deepens its roots in me. And when I come across that I am not only one undergoing through these circumstances, lest there are many others who enjoy it more than anything.
One such person who has been my inspiration from the day I began playing chess, Viswanathan Anand. Not only me, this particular person inspiration to many other peoples. Viswanathan Anand, known popularly as "Vishy", is an Indian chess Grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. Anand was the first Indian to win the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 and since then he has won this Championship in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He remained the undisputed World Champion from 2007 to 2013. Anand was the FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion in 2003 and is widely considered the strongest rapid player of his generation.
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Viswanathan Anand was born on December 11, 1969, in Madras (now Chennai). Anand learned to play chess from his mother when he was 6 years old. By the time he was 14, Anand had won the Indian National Sub-Junior Championship with a perfect score of nine wins in nine games. At age 15 he became the youngest Indian to earn the international master title. The following year, he won the first of three consecutive national championships. At age 17 Anand became the first Asian to win a world chess title when he won the 1987 FIDE World Junior Championship, which is open to players who have not reached their 20th birthday by January 1 of the tournament year.
Anand followed up that victory by earning the international grandmaster title in 1988. In 1991 Anand won his first major international chess tournament, finishing ahead of world champion Garry Kasparov and former world champion Anatoly Karpov. For the first time since the American Bobby Fischer abandoned the title in 1975, a non-Russian had emerged as a favorite to become world chess champion.
Throughout the 1990s Anand vied with Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik for the position at the top of FIDE's official chess rating list. Anand's first attempt to win FIDE's world chess championship ended in 1991 when he lost in the quarterfinals to Karpov in the FIDE Knockout World Chess Championship. Anand broke through in 2000, winning the FIDE World Chess Championship, which again featured knockout matches. Because of the tradition of having to beat the previous champion in a relatively long match, as well as misgivings about the short formats and quick time controls used in the knockout matches, most fans did not recognize Anand, or any of the FIDE champions since Kasparov, as legitimate.
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 6th longest on record.
Anand was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honor. In 2007, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award. Anand, who first earned the nickname of the “Lightning Kid” in India, is known for quick tactical calculations, which he has displayed by winning numerous “speed chess” titles. In 1998 Anand published a collection of his games, Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess, which he expanded with new games in 2001.
