Viswanathan Anand's Biography
Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in India.
Anand, whose nickname is the Tiger of Madras, is a Brahmin.
He learnt to play chess from his mother Susheela when he was six years old.
Viswanathan Anand, who is commonly known as Vishy Anand, went on to become the World Number One and chess World Champion.
In 1984, at just 15, Vishy Anand was the youngest Indian to earn the IM title and three years later he became the first Indian Grandmaster.
In 2000, he beat Shirov to become the FIDE World Chess Champion.
In 2006, Vishy Anand became the first chess player to win the Corus tournament five times. His victory at Corus brought his ELO rating up to 2805, thereby becoming only the fourth chess player to be rated over 2800 - the others being Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov.
In 2007, Anand's victory at Linares also brought him the FIDE World No.1 Ranking.
On 29 September 2007 in Mexico City, Anand became World Champion for the second time in his career.
In October 2008, Vishy Anand successfully defended his chess world champion crown against Vladimir Kramnik.
Vishy Anand is fluent in Spanish and German and is a fan of Monty Python.
Anand is a spokesperson for Vidyasagar, an NGO that works on behalf of children with cerebral palsy and he also represents Avahan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative on AIDS.
Vishy Anand is married to Aruna.
In an interesting interview with Vishy Anand, he revealed how he listens to his opponent's breathing, looking out for signs of agitation.
Chess Games has an online database of Vishy Anand's games.
