Viswanathan Anand: India's first grandmaster and world champion

Viswanathan Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988 and was world champion from 2007 to 2013. His fast play, his titles and India's chess boom.

Updated 9 November 2026 · 5 min read

Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is India's greatest chess player and the man who started the country's chess boom. In 1988 he became India's first grandmaster. He won the FIDE world title in 2000 and was undisputed world champion from 2007 to 2013, defending the title in three matches. Famous for playing quickly and well, he also won the World Rapid Championship twice, and many of India's young stars count him as their mentor.

Early years in Chennai

Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, and grew up in Chennai, then called Madras. His mother taught him chess when he was six. As a young player he moved so fast that people called him "the Lightning Kid". In 1987 he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Championship, and in 1988 he became India's first grandmaster, the highest title in chess.

Chasing the world title

In the 1990s the world title was split between FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and a rival "classical" line led by Garry Kasparov. Anand tried for both. In 1995 he played Kasparov in New York and lost. In 1998 he lost a FIDE final to Anatoly Karpov. In December 2000 he finally won the FIDE World Championship, a knockout event in New Delhi and Tehran, beating Alexei Shirov 3½–½ in the final.

Undisputed champion, 2007–2013

In 2007 the title was united again, and Anand won the World Championship tournament in Mexico City without losing a game. He then proved himself in matches:

• 2008, Bonn: beat Vladimir Kramnik 6½–4½.
• 2010, Sofia: beat Veselin Topalov 6½–5½. A volcanic ash cloud had stopped flights across Europe, so Anand reached the match after a 40-hour journey by road.
• 2012, Moscow: beat Boris Gelfand after a 6–6 tie, winning the rapid tiebreak 2½–1½.

In 2013 he lost his title to Magnus Carlsen in Chennai, his home city. He won the 2014 Candidates tournament to earn a rematch, but lost again in Sochi. He won the World Rapid Championship in 2003 and 2017. He first reached No. 1 on FIDE's April 2007 list, and his highest FIDE rating was 2817 (March 2011).

How Anand plays

Anand is a universal player. That means he has no single favourite type of position: he can attack, defend, or grind out an endgame. His great strengths are speed and intuition. He often sees the right idea at once and saves his time for the hardest moments, which also made him one of the best rapid players ever.

Famous game: Aronian vs Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2013

At the Tata Steel tournament in January 2013, Anand had Black against Levon Aronian in the Semi-Slav Defence. When Aronian's knight grabbed a pawn on h7, Anand did not defend it. Instead he started a chain of sacrifices. First he offered a bishop on c5, then a knight on e5.

Aronian won a pawn and then a rook, but Anand's queen, bishops and knight swarmed towards White's king. The finishing touch was 23...Be3. The bishop cut White's queen off from the h3 square, so Black's threat of ...Qxh3+, with a mating attack, could not be stopped. Aronian resigned.

The game is often called "Anand's Immortal", and Chess.com staff later ranked it among the three best games of all time. A move like 23...Be3, which steps between an enemy piece and the square it guards, is called an interference; practise the idea with our interference puzzles, and replay the game on the analysis board.

Father of India's chess boom

When Anand became a grandmaster, India had no others. His success made chess popular across the country and inspired a generation. In December 2020 he launched the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA), a mentoring programme whose first group included D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, R. Vaishali, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani. On FIDE's September 2023 list, Gukesh passed him (2758 to 2754), ending Anand's 37 years as India's top-rated player. A year later Gukesh became world champion. The wider story is on our page about chess in India.

Anand also works for FIDE. He was elected deputy president in 2022, served as interim president from July 2026, and was elected deputy president again in September 2026. As of November 2026, FIDE lists his classical rating as 2739. See all the title holders on our World Chess Champions page.

Sources

• Viswanathan Anand, Wikipedia
• Anand's Immortal, Wikipedia (score of Aronian vs Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2013)
• Viswanathan Anand, FIDE rating profile and ranking history
• Gukesh Ends Anand's 37-Year Reign As India's No. 1, Chess.com, September 2023
• Viswanathan Anand launches WACA chess fellowships, The Bridge, December 2020
• Viswanathan Anand takes charge as FIDE interim president, ChessBase India, July 2026
• FIDE Council composition for 2026–2030 announced, FIDE

Checked in November 2026.

Questions and answers

Who was India's first grandmaster?

Viswanathan Anand. He became India's first grandmaster in 1988, a year after winning the World Junior Championship.

How many times was Anand world champion?

He won the FIDE world title in 2000 and was undisputed world champion from 2007 to 2013. He won the title in Mexico City in 2007 and defended it in matches in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Who beat Anand for the world title?

Magnus Carlsen, in Chennai in 2013. Carlsen also won their rematch in Sochi in 2014.

Why was Anand called the Lightning Kid?

Because as a young player he moved extremely fast, often using only a few minutes on his clock while his opponents thought for much longer.