Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand was born on December 11, 1969 in Madras India. At the age of 14, Vishy won the 1983 National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9/9. A year later he became India’s youngest player ever to achieve the International Master title. In 1987, Anand became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. The following year he became India’s first ever Grand Master. After several tries, Anand was recognised as World Champion by FIDE after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5 – 0.5 in 2000. Vishy never received the recognition he deserved due to the fact that he did not defeat Garry Kasparov to win the title. Anand captured the title again in 2007 by way of a FIDE tournament. This time around, Anand’s critics point out that he did not win the World Championship through match play which was the historical standard for the title. Viswanathan Anand can silence these critics by defeating Vladimir Kramnik in the World Championship match beginning on October 14, 2008.
   Below is an outstanding game played by Anand in 2001. The first 13 moves are all book in the petroff defense. Perhaps Piket should have played 13… f6 which is favored by a lot of top players. 15. Nh4 is Anand’s evil invention which confused his opponent. Piket’s 19… bxc5 helped Anand develop his final combination by freeing up the d4 square for the bishop. This game is an outstanding example of why Viswanathan Anand is one of my all time favorite chess players.

[Event “Corus”]
[Site “Wijk aan Zee NED”]
[Date “2001.??.??”]
[White “Anand,V”]
[Black “Piket,Je”]
[Round “11”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2790”]
[BlackElo “2632”]
[ECO “C42”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4
d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. c4 c6 9. Re1
Re8 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Bg4 12. Bg5 Rxe1+ 13. Qxe1
Qd7 14. c5 Bc7 15. Nh4 h6 16. Bd2 Qd8 17. f4
Bc8 18. Qg3 b6 19. Re1 bxc5 20. dxc5 Qf8 21. Be3
Na6 22. Bd4 g5 23. Qf2 1-0