Viswananthan Anand to be honoured by AICF

The All India Chess Federation is pleased to announce that it will be felicitating World Rapid Champion and World Blitz Bronze Medalist Viswanathan Anand with Rs. 5,00,000 cash prize at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai today.

Earlier speaking to IANS, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) said, “He is the living legend of the Indian sport.”

“We believe in Anand’s ability. I was tracking Anand at the world rapid tournament from round one. After his win against World Champion Magnus Carlsen, we were confident that Anand would win the title,” the Secretary had said.

Viswanathan Anand’s List of Achievements:

1987: First Indian to win World Junior Championship.
1988: First Indian to become Grand Master. Was awarded Padma Shri when he was only 18.
1995: Reached the PCA World Championship Final and took on Garry Kasparov. The first India to challenge the Russian dominance.
2000: Becomes FIDE World Champion by winning in Knock Out format
2003: Becomes World Rapid Champion by beating Vladimir Kramnik in the final
2007: Becomes Unified World Champion by winning the title in the Tournament Format, ahead of the Vladimir Kramnik who was the champion at the time
2008: Beats Vladimir Kramnik in a match to become the World Champion again, this time by winning in a match format
2010: Beats Veselin Topalov to retain the title
2012: Beats Boris Gelfand to retain the title yet again to become the fifth time world champion. Is chosen as the ‘Indian of the year’ by CNN-IBN.
2014: After losing the World Title in 2013, most people wrote of Anand as history. But Vishy was in no mood to let go and made a stunning comeback just few months later to win the Candidates tournament very comfortably. He challenged Magnus again for the title this way.
2017: World Rapid Champion again.

Anand is the only player to have won the world chess championship in tournament, match, and knockout format, as well as rapid time controls. Anand ranks sixth in the world by months at FIDE number one (21) with a peak rating of 2817. He has won countless tournaments in a career spanning more than 3 decades that started from erstwhile Madras and is still going strong.