Country India
Born 11 December 1969 (age 40)
Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Title Grandmaster (1988)
World Champion
2000–2002 (FIDE)
2007–present (undisputed)
FIDE rating
2804
(No. 1 in the November 2010 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating
2804 (November 2010)
Viswanathan Anand, (Tamil: விசுவநாதன் ஆனந்த், IPA: [ʋiʃʋəˈn̪aːt̪ən ˈaːnən̪d̪]; born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion.
He 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. He then successfully defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov. As the reigning champion, he will face the winner of the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012.
Anand is one of six players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list, and in April 2007 at the age of 37, he became the 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. Anand officially regained the world number one ranking on November 1, 2010, after having defeated the reigning world #1 Magnus Carlsen in the Bilbao Masters.
Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1987.[1] He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honor. In 2007, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award in Indian history. Today he remains one of elite chess players in the world.[2]
Anand has been described by Lubomir Kavalek as the most versatile world champion ever, since Anand is the only player