Vishwanathan Anand, known as Vishy is the oldest player in the modern game of Chess. Hailing from India he is one of the best chess champion not only in the country, but throughout the world. He is in no way weaker to other contestants; all he has is colossal talents, which makes him stand one of the greatest in whole history of chess.
1. Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 at Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu.
2. His father, Viswanathan Iyer, is a retired General Manager of Southern Railways, and had studied in Jamalpur Bihar, and his mother Susheela was a housewife and chess and film Keeda who always wanted Vishy to be chess champion.
3. Anand is the youngest of 3 children and he is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother.
4. Anand learnt chess from the age six from his mother and a close family friend named Deepa Ramakrishnan.
5. 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.
6. Anand is one of nine players in history to pass 2800 Elo on the FIDE rating list and also He occupied the number one position for 21 months, the 6th longest on record.
7. Viswanathan Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988.
8. In 1991-92 he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sports person to receive the award.
9. 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.
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10. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championshion and 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.
