Vishwanathan Anand
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Contents |
A brief biography
Timeline: 1868-2000
2000-12
He won the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE; international chess federation) world championship in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Details:
Patibaa Thakurrpkl |Jun 26, 2018
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 Fischerabandoned the title in 1975, a non-Russian had emerged as a favourite to become world chess champion.
Throughout the 1990s Anand vied with Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik for 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 quarter finals to Karpov in the FIDE Knockout World Chess Championship. Because of the unusual format of the event, involving a series of short matches with quick time controls, it was boycotted by many of the top players. The decision to use a knockout format sprang from FIDE’s difficulty in securing a prize fund to pay for the usual long sequence of championship matches following Kasparov’s defection from FIDE to form a new organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA; 1993–96). Anand got his first title shot in 1995, when he was ranked number two behind Kasparov, but he lost the PCA championship match to Kasparov with a score of 1 win, 13 draws, and 4 losses. Anand’s next title shot came in 1998 against Karpov, who had reclaimed the FIDE title following Kasparov’s formation of the PCA. At the time of their match, Anand was ranked third, behind Kasparov and Kramnik but ahead of sixth-ranked Karpov. Anand first had to battle his way through the strongest sequence of knockout matches in chess history in order to play Karpov, who was directly seeded into the final match. The players drew their regular six-game match with two wins apiece and two draws, but Karpov won the two “quick chess” tie-break games to win the match.
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. Anand finally achieved his place in the list of generally recognized world chess champions with his victory in the 2007 FIDE World Chess Championship, a double round-robin tournament against most of the best players in the world. (In a double round-robin, each participant plays two games, one with the white pieces and one with the black pieces, against every other player.) Acceptance of the legitimacy of this tournament as a title event was the result of a series of agreements between FIDE and
Kramnik, who had become the “classical” world chess champion by defeating Kasparov in a match. In the agreement, FIDE recognized Kramnik as the classical champion, Kramnik agreed to defend his classical title against a FIDE challenger in a unification match, and both sides agreed that the winner of that match would put the unified title on the line in FIDE’s next championship tournament. In addition, FIDE guaranteed Kramnik a championship match against the tournament winner should he fail to win the event. Although Kramnik officially conceded the championship title after losing the tournament to Anand, he later expressed some reservations, stating, “At present, I take the view that I have just lent Anand the title temporarily.”
Anand defended the title against Kramnik in a 12-game match scheduled from October 14 to November 2, 2008, in Bonn, Germany. The match ended October 29, 2008, as Anand drew the 11th game to win the match with a score of 3 wins, 7 draws, and 1 loss.
Anand retained his title as world champion in 2010, defeating Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 12th and final game of their match.
In 2012 he faced Boris Gelfand of Israel in the championship match. The two men were tied after the 12th game, but Anand won the rapid tiebreaker round to remain world champion.
2013: Anand vs Carlsen
Ashish Vatsa | Games Of Thrones in Chess | Mar 20, 2017 | Quora
One of the greatest moment in chess history happened during Anand vs Carlsen World Championship 2013.
Before starting of game 9 score was 5–3 in favor of Carlsen. Anand was in must win situation and therefore game is titled "Game of Thrones" (You either win or you die thing). So Anand played very sharp and aggressive game and he finally got what he was seeking, a complex position with good winning chances. Carlsen gave check and there two logical way to block the check. It was the critical decision as it would decide the world championship. Anand at this time was h aving 11 minutes and Carlsen had only 30 seconds but Anand played the quickly and missed Carlsen next move. Carlsen played his move and Anand realizing his mistake resigned. Anand blocked with the wrong pieces. He had blocked with the right piece would be different. For any chess buff this is the position.
There are four legal moves but blocking only with the knight and bishop made sense. This is the engine evaluation.
With Bf1 its equal but Anand played Nf1. He went from 0.00 to -7.78 with just one move. Carlsen had only 30 seconds. Had Anand played Bf1 Carlsen could blunder in time trouble. Anand played the whole game quickly. Nonetheless Anand won the next Candidates tournament and gave a better fight.
Carlsen won the championship quite convincingly. When Grandmaster Ronen Har-Zvi was analyzing this game he said and these are his exact words”May be Anand will the candidates and they will play another match and I don’t see Anand playing this way(he was referring to whole championship performance) winning one game. He will have to play different. Ten years ago Anand would be even in this match. You take Anand 2003, this match is even. He wouldn’t blunder the same way in game four and he would make really serious difficulty in game 3 but he is just a weaker player then he was. He was great player. When Carlsen was 6 month old he played a match with Karpov, Quarterfinal of the Candidates”
Trivia, anecdotes
Jay Mehta’s 12 insights
Jay Mehta |What are some mind-blowing facts about Viswanathan Anand? | Sep 10, 2017
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is a former World Chess Champion, who is the fourth player in the history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating.
Viswanathan Anand has been tagged as "One Man Chess Industry" for India. This five-time world champion is single-handedly responsible for setting off the name of his country in the field of Chess.
Born in a small town of Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, this Chess Grand Master was the baby of his family, being 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother. Since, the times he was a child, he played chess at a super fast speed, which gave him the nickname of "Lightning Kid". Other than playing chess, Anand loves reading and listening to music and considers physical fitness as essential as mental.
1. He rates the late Bobby Fischer as the best of all time. 2. Every time he loses a game, h actually works out super hard at the gym so that his mind can sleep at peace, without worrying about the loss.
According to Anand, it is impossible to stay unaffected by failures. He believes that when failures stop affecting you, you stop being a sportsperson.
3. His mother taught him the game of chess when he was just six years old.
His close family friend, Deepa Ramakrishnan also played an important part in teaching him the tactics of Chess at the young age.
4. At the age of 15, Anand became the youngest Indian to win the title of International Master.
In chess, International Master is the level players normally attain before they become Grandmasters.
5. In his Initial years, Anand used to play the entire classical game of chess in merely 15-25 minutes while his contemporaries would take 2-3 hours.
6. The title of Grandmaster was awarded to Anand (a.k.a Vishy) after he won the Shakti Finance International chess tournament in 1988 at Coimbatore.
He became India's first ever Grandmaster. Since then, there have been several Indian chess players who have gone on to achieve the title of grandmasters.
7. He is a language enthusiast and knows three foreign languages; French, German and Spanish apart from Tamil and English.
8. He has won the World Chess Championship five times and was World No.1 from 2007 to 2013.
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov presents the World chess champion Viswanathan Anand. Anand defeated Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in a rapid tiebreaker round of the World Championship,2012 in Moscow.
9. Anand loves Moscow, the spiritual home of chess.
At this historical chess city, two thousand Muscovites once gave Anand a standing ovation for his splendid move against Vladislav Tkachiev.
10. He was the only sportsperson who was invited at the dinner party hosted by the Indian PM Manmohan Singh for US President Barack Obama.
11. His book 'My Best Games of Chess' got the British Chess Federation 'Book of the Year' Award in 1998.
12. In 2007, he was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.
Apart from this, Anand was also awarded the prestigious Padma Shri in 1987 when he was just 18! That year, former Indian cricket captain, Mohammed Azharuddin was the only other sports person to have been given this honor. Make sure you share this inspiring story with your friends and family!
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2021
Anand finishes 2nd in Croatia
July 12, 2021: The Times of India
Former world champion V Anand finished second in the Croatia Grand Chess Tour with an impressive performance, accentuated by his two victories over longtime rival Garry Kasparov.
Anand, who had beaten Kasparov on the first day of the Blitz, came up with a superb performance again to defeat the Russian legend in the 13th round on Sunday.
Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (22 points) sealed the title with a round to spare, thanks to a victory over a misfiring Kasparov in the 17th round. Indian ace Anand took a quick draw in his 18th round game against Alexander Grischuk to finish with 21 points and a clear second ahead of the top-seed Ian Nepomniachtchi. PTI
2022
An ace at age 52
June 1, 2022: The Times of India
From: June 1, 2022: The Times of India
Earlier this week, Viswanathan Anand returned to the top-10 in world chess rankings. Anand, who had first entered the top-10 in 1991 at the age of 21, was 52 years old at the time of his latest entry -the number of years between the two entries being a whopping 31 years, a record (See table). By getting back into top-10, Anand also achieved the following feats. . .
Vishy is the only one on the list to have been in the top-10 in his twenties and his fifties He is only the second player from outside the Russian/Soviet school (Korchnoi too being a product of it) to figure on the list, Lajos Portisch being the other
He is the first 50-plus player to figure in the top-10 since 1990
He is the only one who wasn’t part of the top-10 in 1967 (since when ratings are available) to have achieved the feat of being in that list beyond the age of 50
