Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. Known as the "Lightning Kid," "Tiger of Madras," and "Indian Chess Legend," Anand was the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2007 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time and was instrumental in popularizing chess in India. Born in Chennai (then Madras), Anand learned chess at age 6 from his mother. He became India's first grandmaster in 1988 at age 18, the youngest at the time from Asia. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1987 and has dominated Indian chess for over three decades. Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, becoming the first Asian to do so. In 2007, he won the Classical World Chess Championship and successfully defended his title multiple times against Vladimir Kramnik (2008), Veselin Topalov (2010), and Boris Gelfand (2012). He lost the title to Magnus Carlsen in 2013 but has continued to compete at the highest level. His impact on Indian chess has been immeasurable. He inspired generations of Indian chess players, including the current generation of grandmasters like Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh (who became World Champion in 2024), and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Under his influence, India has become one of the world's top chess-playing nations.