Viswanathan Anand overcame Alexei Shirov in the 2000 World Championship in Tehran as he became the first Indian world champion in chess.
In many ways, Viswanathan Anand was the ultimate trend-setter when it came to raising India’s glory on the world stage. In 1988, he became the first Grandmaster in chess from India and in 1991, he had his greatest moment when he defeated Garry Kasparov and drew with Anatoly Karpov to win in Reggio Emilia tournament. That win, ahead of two of the greatest players in history, made Viswanathan Anand one of the stars to look forward to. His progress in chess was rapid and in 1995, he got a chance to play Garry Kasparov in the World Championships in New York. However, by a combination of brinksmanship and superior play, Kasparov denied Anand the chance to win the title. In 1997, after playing a massive round-robin qualifying tournament, Viswanathan Anand faced off against Anatoly Karpov but yet again failed to win the championship.
In 2000, after years of trying, Viswanathan Anand finally reached the final of the World Championship after a strong showing. In the final, he faced off against No.1 seed Alexei Shirov of Spain in Tehran. Viswanathan Anand finally overcame the hurt of 1995 and 1997 to win the 2000 World Chess Championship by a margin of 3.5 to 0.5. For the first time, there was an Indian sportsman who had finally conquered the summit. Viswanathan Anand became the true epitome of a sporting legend following his win in Tehran. This point was tweeted on his Twitter handle a couple of hours ago.
A revolution
Anand’s win in 2000 was discounted by some critics as there was a split in the chess world with Garry Kasparov launching a rival PCA Chess federation. However, the chess world united a couple of years later and in 2007, Viswanathan Anand was crowned the undisputed champion. In 2008, he once again won the World Championship and he achieved the triple crown of being the No.1 ranked player in the world and getting past the magical 2800 ELO points system.
Viswanathan Anand went on to win the 2010 and 2012 championships by beating Vaselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand in Sofia and Moscow. Despite losing to Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand defied age and critics when he won the 2017 World Rapid Championship in Riyadh.
Thanks to the exploits of Anand, there are now over 64 Grandmasters from India who are determined to carry forward the legacy.
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