Crossword Dictionary

viswanathan anand

Viswanathan Anand, (born December 11, 1969, Madras [now Chennai], India), is an Indian chess master who won the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE; international chess federation) world championship in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.

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. Anand earned 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.

Throughout the 1990s Anand vied with Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik for position at the top of FIDE’s official chess rating list.

Anand broke through in 2000, winning the FIDE World Chess Championship. Because of the tradition of having to beat the previous champion in a relatively long match, 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.

Anand defended his world champion title in 2013 against Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who won the scheduled 12-game tournament after the tenth game. The next year Anand and Carlsen had a rematch for the world championship, which ended in victory for Carlsen.

Anand, who first earned the nickname of the “Lightning Kid” in India, is known for quick tactical calculations, which he has displayed by winning numerous “speed chess” titles. In 1998 Anand published a collection of his games, Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess, which he expanded with new games in 2001.