Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand (Tamil: விஸ்வநாதன் ஆனந்த்; born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), and has been the undisputed World Champion since 2007. Anand was the FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion in 2003, and is widely considered the strongest rapid player of his generation.
Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988. He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. 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. Anand has won the Chess Oscar six times (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008).
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 and in the World Chess Championship 2012 against Boris Gelfand. As the reigning champion, he will face Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013.
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 regained the world number one ranking on the November 2010 list, but had to concede the top spot back to Carlsen in July 2011.
Early life
Viswanathan Anand was born on December 11, 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, a town in Tamil Nadu. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Chennai (formerly Madras), where he grew up. His father, Viswanathan Iyer, is a retired General Manager of Southern Railways, and his mother Susheela, housewife and chess/film/club aficionado and an influential socialite. He has an elder brother, Shivakumar who is a manager at Crompton Greaves in India and an elder sister Anuradha who is a professor at the University of Michigan. Anand is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother.
He was taught to play chess by his mother and a close family friend named Deepa Ramakrishnan. He described his start in chess thus:
I started when I was six. My mother taught me how to play. In fact, my mother used to do a lot for my chess. We moved to the Philippines shortly afterward. I joined the club in India and we moved to the Philippines for a year. And there they had a TV program that was on in the afternoon, one to two or something like that, when I was in school. So she would write down all the games that they showed and the puzzles, and in the evening we solved them together.
Of course my mother and her family used to play some chess, and she used to play with her younger brother, so she had some background in chess, but she never went to a club or anything like that.
So we solved all these puzzles and sent in our answers together. And they gave the prize of a book to the winner. And over the course of many months, I won so many prizes. At one point they just said take all the books you want, but don't send in any more entries.
Anand was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Egmore, Chennai and holds a degree of Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.
Personal life
In August 2010, Anand joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation for promoting and supporting India's elite sportspersons and potential young talent. On 24 December 2010 Anand was guest of honour on the grounds of Gujarat university, Ahmedabad, where 20,486 players created a new world record of simultaneous chess play at single venue.
His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music. He is married to Aruna Anand and has a son born on 9 April 2011. Anand's son is named Akhil and in the Tamil tradition will be called "Anand Akhil" (no surname). Briefly, Anand lived with his wife Aruna in Spain. The family is now based in Chennai, India.
Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game. This has made him a well-liked figure throughout the chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen, of whom the former two were rivals for the World Championship throughout Anand's career, each aided him in preparing for the World Chess Championship 2010. Anand is sometimes known as the "Tiger of Madras".
Anand was the only sportsperson to have been invited for the dinner hosted by the Indian PM Manmohan Singh for US President Barack Obama on 7 November 2010.
Honorary doctorate
Anand was denied an honorary doctorate from University of Hyderabad because of confusion over his citizenship status; however, later Kapil Sibal, India's Minister of Human Resource Development apologized and said "There is no issue on the matter as Anand has agreed to accept the degree at a convenient time depending on his availability". According to The Hindu, Anand finally declined to accept the doctorate.
Chess career
Early career
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 title of International Master 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.
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. Kamsky went on to lose the 1996 FIDE 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. 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 10½–7½.
In the 1998 FIDE cycle, the reigning champion Karpov was granted direct seeding by FIDE into the final against the winner of the seven-round single elimination Candidates tournament. The psychological and physical advantage gained by Karpov from this decision caused significant controversy, leading to the withdrawal of future World Champion Vladimir Kramnik from the candidates tournament. Anand won the candidates tournament, defeating Michael Adams in the final, and immediately faced a well-rested Karpov for the championship. Despite this tremendous disadvantage for Anand, which he described as being "brought in a coffin" to play Karpov. The regular match ended 3–3, which lead to a rapid playoff, which Karpov won 2–0. Karpov thus remained the FIDE champion.
World Chess Champion
FIDE World Champion 2000
Main article: FIDE World Chess Championship 2000
After several near misses, Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov 3½–0½ in the final match held at Tehran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title.
He failed to defend the title in 2002, losing in the semifinals to Vassily Ivanchuk. The 2002 FIDE world championship was ultimately won by Ruslan Ponomariov. Anand tied for second with Peter Svidler in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 with 8½ points out of 14 games, 1½ points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov.
World Champion 2007
In September 2007 Anand became World Champion again by winning that year's FIDE World Championship Tournament held in Mexico City. He won the double round-robin tournament with a final score of 9 out of 14 points, a full point ahead of joint second place finishers Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand.
In 2000, when Anand won the FIDE World Championship, there was also the rival "Classical" World Championship, held by Kramnik. By 2007, the world championship had been reunified, so Anand's victory in Mexico City made him undisputed World Chess Champion. He became the first undisputed champion to win the title in a tournament, rather than in matchplay, since Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948.
In October 2007, Anand said he liked the double round robin championship format (as used in the 2007 championship in Mexico City), and that the right of Kramnik to automatically challenge for the title was "ridiculous".
World Champion 2008
This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
Main article: World Chess Championship 2008
Anand convincingly defended the title against Kramnik in the World Chess Championship 2008 held 14–29 October in Bonn, Germany. The winner was to be the first to score 6½ points in the twelve-game match. Anand won by scoring 6½ points in 11 games, having won three of the first six games (two with the black pieces).[32] After the tenth game, Anand led 6–4 and needed only a draw in either of the last two games to win the match. In the eleventh game, Kramnik played the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Once the players traded queens, Kramnik offered a draw after 24 moves since he had no winning chances in the endgame.
Anand–Kramnik, 2008 World Ch.
Final position of the match
Anand (2783) – Kramnik (2772), Wch Bonn GER (11); 29 October 2008 (final game)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qc7 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.f5 Qc5 10.Qd3 Nc6 11.Nb3 Qe5 12.0-0-0 exf5 13.Qe3 Bg7 14.Rd5 Qe7 15.Qg3 Rg8 16.Qf4 fxe4 17.Nxe4 f5 18.Nxd6+ Kf8 19.Nxc8 Rxc8 20.Kb1 Qe1+ 21.Nc1 Ne7 22.Qd2 Qxd2 23.Rxd2 Bh6 24.Rf2 Be3 ½–½
Responding to Anand's win, Garry Kasparov said "A great result for Anand and for chess. Vishy deserved the win in every way and I'm very happy for him. It will not be easy for the younger generation to push him aside... Anand out-prepared Kramnik completely. In this way it reminded me of my match with Kramnik in London 2000. Like I was then, Kramnik may have been very well prepared for this match, but we never saw it." In 2010 Anand donated his gold medal to the charitable organisation "The Foundation" to be auctioned off for the benefit of underprivileged children.
World Champion 2010
Prior to the World Chess Championship 2010 match with Veselin Topalov, Anand, who had booked on the flight Frankfurt-Sofia on 16 April, was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand asked for a three-day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on 19 April. Anand eventually reached Sofia on 20 April, after a 40-hour road journey. Consequently, the first game was delayed by one day.
The match consisted of 12 games. After 11 games the score was tied at 5½–5½. Anand won game 12 on the Black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined to win the match and retain the World Championship. In game 12, after Topalov's dubious 31st and 32nd moves, Anand obtained a strong attack against Topalov's relatively exposed king. Topalov subsequently resigned.
World Champion 2012
As a result of Anand's victory in the World Chess Championship 2010, he defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2012; the location of the event was the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. His opponent was Boris Gelfand, the winner of the 2011 Candidates Matches. The match was tied 6–6 after regular games with one win each. Anand won the rapid tie break 2½–1½ to win the match and retain his title. After losing in the 7th game to Gelfand, Anand came back to win the 8th game in only 17 moves – the shortest game in World Chess Championship history. After the match Russian president greeted Anand and Gelfand by calling both to his official residence.
World Championship 2013
Main article: World Chess Championship 2013
As a result of Anand's victory in the World Chess Championship 2012, he will defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2013. This time his challenger is Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the 2013 Candidates Tournament.
FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003
In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organised a rapid time control tournament in Cap d'Agde and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Each player had 25 minutes at the start of the game, with an additional ten seconds after each move. Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final. His main recent titles in this category are at: Corsica (six years in a row from 1999 through 2005), Chess Classic (nine years in a row from 2000 through 2008), Leon 2005, Eurotel 2002, Fujitsu Giants 2002 and the Melody Amber (five times, and he won the rapid portion of Melody Amber seven times). In the Melody Amber 2007, Anand did not lose a single game in the rapid section, and scored 8½/11, two more than the runners-up, for a performance rating in the rapid section of 2939. In most tournament time control games that Anand plays, he has more time left than his opponent at the end of the game. He lost on time in one game, to Gata Kamsky. Otherwise, he took advantage of the rule allowing players in time trouble to use dashes instead of the move notation during the last four minutes only once, in the game Anand versus Svidler at the MTel Masters 2006.
2013
In the 2013 Alekhine Memorial tournament, held from 20 April to 1 May, Anand finished third, with +2−1=6.
Other results
Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon, Spain, after Garry Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognised as the world's best Advanced Chess player, where humans may consult a computer to aid in their calculation of variations.
His game collection, My Best Games of Chess, was published in the year 1998 and was updated in 2001.
Anand's recent tournament successes include the Corus chess tournament in 2006 (tied with Veselin Topalov), Dortmund in 2004, and Linares in 2007 and 2008. He has won the annual event Monaco Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championships in years 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2006. He is the only player to have won five titles of the Corus chess tournament. He is also the only player to win the blind and rapid sections of the Amber tournament in the same year (twice: in 1997 and 2005). He is the first player to have achieved victories in each of the three big chess supertournaments: Corus (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006), Linares (1998, 2007, 2008), Dortmund (1996, 2000, 2004).
In 2007 he won the Grenkeleasing Rapid championship, which he won for the tenth time defeating Armenian GM Levon Aronian. Incidentally, just a few days before Aronian had defeated Anand in the Chess960 final.
In March 2007, Anand won the Linares chess tournament and it was widely believed that he would be ranked world No.1 in the FIDE Elo rating list for April 2007. However, Anand was placed No.2 in the initial list released because the Linares result was not included. FIDE subsequently announced that the Linares results would be included after all, making Anand number one in the April 2007 list.
Anand won the Mainz 2008 Supertournament Championship by defeating rising star Magnus Carlsen, earning his eleventh title in that event.
Rating
In the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time, and (as of July 2008) he held the number one spot in all ratings lists but one since then until July 2008, the exception being the January 2008 list, where he was rated No. 2 behind Vladimir Kramnik (equal rating, but Kramnik held the No. 1 spot due to more games played). He dropped to No. 5 in the October 2008 list, the first time he had been outside the top 3 since July 1996.
In 2010, Anand announced that he would expand his tournament schedule, beginning in late 2010, in an effort to regain the world number one ranking from Magnus Carlsen.He achieved that goal on 1 November 2010 list with a rating of 2804, two points ahead of Magnus Carlsen, but was once again overtaken by Carlsen in July 2011.
Assessment
Lubomir Kavalek describes Anand as the most versatile world champion ever, pointing out that Anand is the only player to have won the world chess championship in tournament, match, and knockout format, as well as rapid time controls.
In an interview in 2011, Kramnik said about Anand: "I always considered him to be a colossal talent, one of the greatest in the whole history of chess"; and "I think that in terms of play Anand is in no way weaker than Kasparov but he's simply a little lazy, relaxed and only focuses on matches. In the last 5–6 years he's made a qualitative leap that's made it possible to consider him one of the great chess players."
विश्वनाथन आनंद
विश्वनाथन आनंद भारत शतरंज खिलाड़ी, अंतरराष्ट्रीय ग्रैंडमास्टर एवं वर्तमान विश्व चैंपियन हैं।
२००० में उन्होंने फीडे विश्व शतरंज चैंपियनशिप जीती थी। २००७ की विश्व चैंपियनशिप में विजय के बाद वे शतरंज के निर्विवाद बादशाह बन गये। १४ से २९ अक्टूबर २००८ के मध्य संपन्न विश्व शतरंज चैंपियनशिप में उन्होंने व्लादिमीर क्रैमनिक को हराकर अपना खिताब बरकरार रखा है। इस विजय के साथ ही वे चैंपियनशिप के तीन भिन्न प्रारूपों यानि नॉकआउट, टूर्नामेंट तथा मैच में जीतने वाले विश्व शतरंज इतिहास के पहले खिलाड़ी बन गये हैं।
शतरंज (चैस) दो खिलाड़ियों के बीच खेला जाने वाला एक बौद्धिक एवं मनोरंजक खेल है। किसी अज्ञात बुद्धि-शिरोमणि ने पाँचवीं-छठी सदी में यह खेल संसार के बुद्धिजीवियों को भेंट में दिया। समझा जाता है कि यह खेल मूलतः भारत का आविष्कार है, जिसका प्राचीन नाम था- 'चतुरंग'; जो भारत से अरब होते हुए यूरोप गया और फिर १५/१६वीं सदी में तो पूरे संसार में लोकप्रिय और प्रसिद्ध हो गया। इस खेल की हर चाल को लिख सकने से पूरा खेल कैसे खेला गया इसका विश्लेषण अन्य भी कर सकते हैं। शतरंज एक चौपाट (बोर्ड) के ऊपर दो व्यक्तियों के लिये बना खेल है। चौपाट के उपर कुल ६४ खाने या वर्ग होते है, जिसमें ३२ चौरस काले या अन्य रंग ओर ३२ चौरस सफेद या अन्य रंग के होते है। खेलने वाले दोनों खिलाड़ी भी सामान्यतः काला और सफेद कहलाते हैं। प्रत्येक खिलाड़ी के पास एक राजा, वजीर, दो ऊँट, दो घोडे, दो हाथी और आठ सैनिक होते है। बीच में राजा व वजीर रहता है। बाजू में ऊँट, उसके बाजू में घोड़े ओर अंतिम कतार में दो दो हाथी रहते है। उनकी अगली रेखा में आठ पैदल या सैनिक रहते हैं। पर्शियन/इरानी शतरन्ज / खेलते हुए चौपाट रखते समय यह ध्यान दिया जाता है कि दोनो खिलाड़ियों के दायें तरफ का खाना सफेद होना चाहिये तथा वजीर के स्थान पर काला वजीर काले चौरस में व सफेद वजीर सफेद चौरस में होना चाहिये। खेल की शुरुआत हमेशा सफेद खिलाड़ी से की जाती है।
खेल की शुरुआत सफ़ेद हमेशा पहले चलता है। इस प्रारंभिक कदम के बाद, खिलाड़ी बारी बारी से एक बार में केवल एक चाल चलते हैं (सिवाय जब "केस्लिंग" में दो टुकड़े चले जाते हैं)। चाल चल कर या तो एक खाली वर्ग में जाते हैं या एक विरोधी के मोहरे वाले स्थान पर कब्जा करते हैं और उसे खेल से हटा देते हैं। खिलाड़ी कोई भी ऐसी चाल नहीं चल सकते जिससे उनका राजा हमले में आ जाये। यदि खिलाड़ी के पास कोई वैध चाल नहीं बची है, तो खेल खत्म हो गया है; यह या तो एक मात है - यदि राजा हमले में है - या एक गतिरोध या शह - यदि राजा हमले में नहीं है। हर शतरंज का टुकड़ा बढ़ने की अपनी शैली है। प्यादा या सैनिक खेल की शुरुआत सफेद खिलाड़ी से की जाती है। सामान्यतः वह वजीर या राजा के आगे रखे गया पैदल या सैनिक को दो चौरस आगे चलता है। प्यादा (सैनिक) तुरंत अपने सामने के खाली वर्ग पर आगे चल सकता है या अपना पहला कदम यह दो वर्ग चल सकता है यदि दोनों वर्ग खाली हैं। यदि प्रतिद्वंद्वी का टुकड़ा विकर्ण की तरह इसके सामने एक आसन्न पंक्ति पर है तो प्यादा उस टुकड़े पर कब्जा कर सकता है। प्यादा दो विशेष चाल, "एन पासांत" और "पदोन्नति-चाल " भी चल सकता है। हिन्दी में एक पुरानी कहावत पैदल की इसी विशेष चाल पर बनी है- " प्यादा से फर्जी भयो, टेढो-टेढो जाय !" राजा राजा किसी भी दिशा में एक खाने में जा सकता है, राजा एक विशेष चाल भी चल सकता है जो "केस्लिंग" कही जाती है और इसमें हाथी भी शामिल है। अगर राजा को चलने बाध्य किया और किसी भी तरफ चल नहीं सकता तो मान लीजिये कि खेल समाप्त हो गया। नहीं चल सकने वाले राजा को खिलाड़ी हाथ में लेकर बोलता है- 'मात' या 'मैं हार स्वीकार करता हूँ'। वजीर या रानी वज़ीर (रानी) हाथी और ऊंट की शक्ति को जोड़ता है और ऊपर-नीचे, दायें-बाएँ तथा टेढ़ा कितने भी वर्ग जा सकता है, लेकिन यह अन्य टुकड़े पर छलांग नहीं लगा सकता है। मान लीजिए पैदल सैनिक का एक अंक है तो वजीर का ९ अंक है। ऊंट केवल अपने रंग वाले चौरस में चल सकता है। याने काला ऊँट काले चौरस में ओर सफेद ऊंट सफेद चौरस में। सैनिक के हिसाब से इसका तीन अंक है। ऊंट किसी भी दिशा में टेढ़ा कितने भी वर्ग चल सकता है, लेकिन अन्य टुकड़े पर छलांग नहीं सकता है। घोड़ा घोड़ा "L" प्रकार की चाल या डेढ़ घर चलता है जिसका आकार दो वर्ग लंबा है और एक वर्ग चौड़ा होता है। घोड़ा ही एक टुकड़ा है जो दूसरे टुकड़ो पर छलांग लगा सकता है। सैनिक के हिसाब से इसका तीन अंक है। हाथी हाथी किसी भी पंक्ति में दायें बाएँ या ऊपर नीचे कितने भी वर्ग सीधा चल सकता है, लेकिन अन्य टुकड़े पर छलांग नहीं लगा सकता। राजा के साथ, हाथी भी राजा के "केस्लिंग" चाल के दौरान शामिल है। इसका सैनिक के हिसाब से पांच अंक है। अंत कैसे होता है? अपनी बारी आते पर अगर खिलाड़ी के पास चाल के लिये कोई चारा नहीं है तो वह अपनी 'मात' या हार स्वीकार कर लेता है।
