Name of the sportsperson: Vishwanathan Anand
Discipline: Chess
State: Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Date of Birth: 11 December 1969
Achievements:
• Grandmaster (1988)
• World (2000–2002)
• Champion 2007–present (undisputed)
• At the age of eighteen, Anand became India''s first Grandmaster.
• Arjun Awardee
• Padma Shri
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
• Soviet Land Nehru Award
• Sportsman of the year 1995
• Padma Bhushan
• Jameo de Oro, Spain''s highest civilian award to a foreigner
Profile:
Anand was born in Mayiladuthurai, a small town in Tamil Nadu, India in a Tamil Iyer (South Indian Brahmin) family. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Chennai, erstwhile 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.
Anand did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, and Chennai and holds a degree in commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music. He is married to Aruna Anand and lives in Collado Mediano in Spain.
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 honor on the grounds of Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, where 20,486 players created a new world record of simultaneous chess play at single venue.
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.
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.
Anand has been viewed as an unassuming, benevolent person with a reputation of refraining from political and psychological ploys as much as possible in order to focus solely on the chessboard. 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, all 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 very exclusive dinner that Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh hosted for US President Barack Obama on November 7, 2010.
