Viswanathan Anand was born in India in 1969. As we will see, it may be said decades later that Anand was one of the most important figures in chess history, and not just for his own play. He shot to success as a junior, crushing all competition he faced in India, becoming an International Master at 15, and then becoming Indian Champion at 16.In 1987, "Vishy" became World Junior Champion, the first person from India ever to accomplish this. The next year, in 1988, he became an International Grandmaster, also the first in India's history. Not only that, he was only the second person from South Asia to earn this highest accolade (the first was Niaz Murshed from Bangladesh, a year earlier).
Anand earned the nickname "Lightning Kid" because he played his games—even the most important of games—at a pace that others would use for blitz chess! His vision and calculating abilities are legendary.
After becoming a Grandmaster, Anand continued to excel in big-time events, winning the 1991 Reggio Emilia supertournament ahead of both Kasparov and Karpov! He began competing in the World Championship cycle, engaging in something of a duel with Gata Kamsky as they played two big matches. Because of the split in the chess world that took place in 1993, two World Championship cycles were running at the same time, the FIDE cycle, and the Kasparov-led PCA cycle. Anand and Kamsky made it to the Candidates Final of both cycles—Kamsky previaled in the FIDE match and won the right to challenge Anatoly Karpov in 1996 (he lost 10.5-7.5), while Anand prevailed in the PCA match, and won the right to challenge Garry Kasparov in the 1995 PCA World Championship Match.
This match was held in New York City's World Trade Center, with the match commencing on September 11. Anand was certainly the underdog, but in the mid-1990s it may be that Kasparov showed the most vulnerability of his career (for whatever reason), as he did not dominate quite as much as he did before or after. Anand was rising fast...could he win?
Alas, it was not to be. Kasparov and Anand drew the first eight games of the match. This suited Kasparov fine, because in the case of a 10-10 tie, he would keep his title. Anand then won Game 9 in spectacular fashion, culminating in a very strong exchange sacrifice (27.Rd5!!). However, Kasparov came back with a devastating blow in the famous Game 10: using 24 hours of preparation by himself and his team from the seeds of an idea spawned circa 1978, Kasparov came up with a briliant rook sacrifice to gain a winning position. While Kasparov won that game, it is noteworthy that Anand (though he used 50 minutes to find a way out of the worst of it, in contrast to his usual rate of play) was able to fashion a defense, and send the game to an endgame. A survey of the minefield of pitfalls he could have fallen into shows how much Anand sees at the board, and could be considered (in this era of computer-aided preparation, etc.) one of the greatest over-the-board defensive efforts in modern times.
Kasparov went on to win Games 11, 13, and 14 (in this game Anand had a nearly winning position) before the last four games were drawn to conclude the match. Kasparov kept his title 10.5-7.5.
Anand recovered from this setback, however, and continued to be ranked in the World Top 3, playing extremely well and winning supertournaments. In his career, he has won the prestigious tournaments Dortmund (2004), as well as three Corus tournaments, and several Melody Amber events. He has won multiple Advanced Chess events (where players use the help of computers), as well as multiple World Rapid Championships.
In 2000, in his home country of India, Viswanathan Anand became the FIDE World Champion, having defeated Alexei Shirov in the final 3.5-0.5. He was the last man standing in a field of 128 players.
In India, Anand is the most popular sportsman and, indeed, was named India's Sportsman of the 20th century. His influence on Indian Chess is perhaps greater than that any player has ever had on chess in a country in decades: India is now one of the very best chess countries in the world, with several young and strong Grandmasters, hosting more events, all because of Anand's success.
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