Viswanathan Anand assured himself a place among all time greats as he won the World Champion title with ease against Veselin Topalov at Sofia, Bulgaria.
Anand has accomplished something which no other chess player achieved, not even Garry Kasparov. To give an apt answer his critics, he won in round-robin, knock out and two matchplay formats that he cant stand the test of time.
Anand started playing chess from the age of six, and won his first national title in the sub-junior tournament in 1983-84. Since then he didn’t look back.
At 15 he became as International Master, he was youngest Asian to achieve this distinction. At the age of 16 in 1786 and in 1987, he was crowned the youngest national champion, when world junior championship was held at Baggio city in Philippines, he became the first Asian to win it. In 1987 he earned grand master title, the country had found its first son in chess.
In 1995, he became the first Asian to play the world championship and he got the World No.2 position in the PCA Ranking list. In 1998 he won his first Linares title which strongest tournament ever in the history, and he reached to the World two rankings in the same year. He won Corus chess tournament for five times.
After defeating Alexey Shirov, he became the 15th World Champion in 2000 in Tehran. In 2000 and 2002 he won the first and second FIDE World Cups. His other victories came at Mainz, Dortmund, Wijk Aan Zee, Leon and Corsica Masters. In the main event of the chess Classics, he won the 10th title there at Mainz in August.
He was rewarded with the India’s highest sporting honour, inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, in 1991, also Arjuna Award, the Padmashri, he is the youngest recipient of the title, Padma Bhushan, the BPL Achievers of the World, the Soviet Land Nehru award, Sportsworld’s “ sportsman of the year 1995” Award and Sport Star.
Source: The Times of India