When Viswanathan Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988, India had perhaps two dozen serious tournament players. When he retired from world-championship competition in 2014, India had thousands. The current world champion is from Chennai. The world No. 2 and No. 3 are from Chennai and Mumbai. Anand did not personally raise this generation — but the path he opened did.

Early years

Anand was born in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, in 1969 and grew up in Madras (now Chennai). His mother Susheela taught him to play at six. His chess education came largely from books and from playing at the Tal Chess Club in Chennai — the Indian chess infrastructure of the period was thin, and Anand effectively built his career through correspondence games and self-study.

He won the Indian Championship at age fifteen and the World Junior Championship in 1987 at seventeen. He earned his grandmaster title in 1988 — India’s first. His tournament debut years in the late 1980s and early 1990s established a reputation for unusual playing speed; he was nicknamed “The Lightning Kid” for his rapid blitz play in long games.

The FIDE title and the unification

Anand reached his first World Championship match in 1995 against Garry Kasparov in New York (the PCA title at the time). He lost 10.5–7.5 after holding the match level until game 9, where Kasparov’s 14.Nd5!? piece sacrifice in the Najdorf English Attack swung the match decisively.

He won the FIDE world title in 2000 against Alexei Shirov in Tehran — but this was the “split” title of the divided championship era, when Kramnik held the Classical title from his win over Kasparov. The chess world did not fully recognise FIDE’s title between 2000 and 2007.

The 2007 unification tournament in Mexico City restored a single world chess champion. Anand won the round-robin — six players, double round-robin — half a point ahead of Kramnik. He became the unified world champion at the age of 38.

The five-title years

Anand’s five world-championship matches between 2008 and 2014 are an unusual stretch of championship defenses. He won three:

He lost two:

Carlsen’s victory in 2013 ended Anand’s championship reign.

After the championship

Unlike most former world champions, Anand did not retreat from competitive chess after losing the title. He continued to play top events — Norway Chess, Wijk aan Zee, Linares — and remained in the world’s top 10 well into his fifties. He won the World Rapid Championship in 2017 at age 47, becoming the oldest player to win a major chess title.

His role in Indian chess has evolved into ambassadorship. He founded the Westbridge-Anand Chess Academy in Chennai, which has trained several of the young Indian grandmasters now in the world’s top 20. He has spoken publicly about chess pedagogy, opening preparation, and the Indian chess infrastructure he helped create.

Legacy

Anand’s legacy has two threads. The first is competitive: five world titles, fifty-plus tournament victories at the highest level, and a 30-year career at the top of the rating list. The second is structural: he is the figure most responsible for India’s emergence as the dominant chess nation of the 2020s.

The 2024 World Champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, from Chennai. The 2024 World Rapid Champion was Arjun Erigaisi. The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss was won by Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, also from Chennai. None of these careers would have been possible without the foundation Anand laid down.

References

For original sources and further study:

Cross-links inside Caissly: he features prominently in the Ruy Lopez, Najdorf, and Semi-Slav articles.