Viswanathan Anand
| Viswanathan Anand | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Full name | Viswanathan Anand |
| Country |  India |
| Born | |
| Title | Grandmaster (1988) |
| World Champion | 2000–2002 (FIDE) 2007–present (undisputed) |
| FIDE rating | 2799 #4 on January 2012 FIDE rating list |
| Peak rating | 2817 (March 2011) |
Viswanathan Anand, known as Vishy,[1] (born 11 December 1969) is the current World Chess Champion. He comes from India. Vishy is the oldest player in modern times to become classical World Champion for the first time: he was 37 when he won in 2007.
Anand held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, at a time when the world title was split. This was a knock-out event of a different type from the classical matches.[2] He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: knockout, tournament, and match.
Anand has retained the world title by beating Veselin Topalov 6½–5½ in May 2010.[3]
Anand is one of a small group of players to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list, and in April 2007 at the age of 37, he became world number one for the first time. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008, holding the number one ranking for a total of 15 months. In October 2008, he dropped out of the world top three ranking for the first time since July 1996. At present he is ranked #4 in the world.
In 2007 he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. He is also the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. Though retaining his Indian citizenship, Vishy has been living in Spain for the past decade.
[change] References
- ↑ Tamil: விசுவநாதன் ஆனந்த்
- ↑ From 1948 to 1993, the world championship was administered by FIDE, the world chess federation. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, leading to the creation of two rival championships. This situation remained until 2006, when the title was unified at the World Chess Championship 2006.
- ↑ Annand–Topalov match link. [1]
