Viswanathan Anand

no doubt, he is one of the greatest chess players of all time, he is the current world champion.

Anand 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 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. He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against Veselin Topalov, the winner of a challenger match against Gata Kamsky in February 2009.^[1]

Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008. In October 2008, he dropped out of the world top three ranking for the first time since July 1996.

Is this a forum thread?

Thanks for the information..

Anand's rise in the Indian chess world was meteoric. National level success came early for him when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the International Master Title at the age of fifteen, in 1984. At the age of sixteen he became the national chess champion and won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. In 1988, at the age of eighteen, he became India's first Grandmaster by winning Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India. He was awarded Padma Shri at the age of 18.

"Vishy", as he is sometimes called by his friends, burst upon the upper echelons of the chess scene in the early 1990s, winning such tournaments as Reggio Emilia 1991 (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov). Playing at such a high level did not slow him down, and he continued to play games at blitz speed.

In the World Chess Championship 1993 cycle Anand qualified for his first Candidates Tournament, winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarter-final match to Anatoly Karpov.^[6]

In 1994–95 Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated the qualifying cycles for the rival FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle (FIDE World Chess Championship 1996), Anand lost his quarter-final match to Kamsky after leading early.^[7] Kamsky went on to lose the championship match against Karpov.

In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand won matches against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Gata Kamsky in the Candidates final.^[8] In 1995, he played the PCA World Chess Championship 1995 against Kasparov in New York City's World Trade Center. After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match), Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10.5–7.5.

what do you mean?

Anand is an eternal genius. He has made us proud.

yaa.... he has.... & remember, he is one of the four super GMs...

a list of his awards:

1983 National Sub-Junior Chess Champion - age 14
1984 International Master - age 15
1985 Indian National Champion - age 16
1987 World Junior Chess Champion,
1988 Grandmaster
2000 FIDE World Chess Champion
2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion
2007 FIDE World Chess Champion (Undisputed)

We want KASPAROV-ANAND matches.

they would be very interesting, if these type of matches really occur in future.. is'nt it?

kasparov doesn't seem to think much of anand. He did trounce him.

kasparov is perhaps the world's best player.. but you must agree that both are true legends..!!!

At least Anand didn't try to run for President.

ha ha... & he is extremely gentle.. we cant wait for the next world championship, in which he will defend his title..

which is some 8 months away..

LOL

The match was a one-off event in which the previous world champion (Vladimir Kramnik) had been given the right to challenge to regain his title. Its origin was in the complications in reunifying the world title in 2006.

The chess world title was split between 1993 and 2006. In early 2006, FIDE had already announced the conditions for the World Chess Championship 2007: an eight-player tournament which included FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, but not "Classical" World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. FIDE later organized a re-unification match between Kramnik and Topalov (the World Chess Championship 2006), with Kramnik to take Topalov's place in the 2007 tournament if he was to win the match. Kramnik did win the match and the reunified World Chess Championship, and so Topalov was excluded from the 2007 World Championship.

In June 2007 FIDE announced that Topalov would get special privileges in the World Chess Championship 2009 qualifying cycle, while Kramnik, if he lost his title in 2007 (which he did, coming second behind Viswanathan Anand), would get a rematch with the champion in 2008.

Anand better look out here come Magnus Carlsen

What's the earliest Magnus can get into the FIDE cycle to be a challenger? I think he opted out of the recent invites for the world cup.

I suppose FIDE could get desperate and arrange a one-off Carlsen-Anand match, in search of some credibility as well as a match that could ignite public interest. Even so, Carlsen may not be up to the challenge vs. the Champion's very great experience--the same thing that contributed to sinking Anand in his match with Kasparov.

So when will Magnus have that kind of experience?  I'd say: Not soon. Perhaps a few years.

anand will be contesting with topalov in the next world chess championship.

but that is in danger, because of financial bidding problems..!!