In a chess world dominated by the Russians since the 1950’s, India’s Viswanathan Anand, is an anomaly. Popularly known as “Vishy, the Tiger from Madras”, is currently the number 3 player in the world, behind current and former World Chess Champs, Vladimir Krammnik and Gary Kasparov. “Vishy” learned chess at the tender age of six from his mother, and his incredible gift of calculation with lightning speed and intuition, saw him winning, at the age of 16, the 1986 National Championship of India, which is considered to be the birthplace of chess. Known originally as Chaturanga, it was rumored to have been brought to the West by Marco Polo.
In 1987, Vishy became the first Asian to win the World Junior Championship, and later that year, earned the coveted Grandmaster title. Vishy carved a special place in chess history by winning the strongest tournament of it’s time, the “Reggio Emilia” in Italy in 1991, ahead of former World Champions Kasparov & Karpov.
The height of Vishy’s career had to be on Christmas Eve, in 2000, when he became the 15th FIDE World Chess Champion in Teheran. After having lost a match for the title in 1995 against Kasparov, Vishy rebounded, and after a string of tournament victories, won the 2000 Championship by remaining unbeaten. By winning that title, Vishy also became the first Asian to win it, ending decades of Soviet domination, and he is the first non-Russian since Bobby Fischer to be called World Champion.
In 2003, Vishy was crowned World Rapid Chess Champion at Capd’Agde in France, where he beat the current world champion Kramnik in the finals. His excellent performance of winning six out of the eight events was remarkable to say the least, and has been crowned with his third “Chess Oscar”, and the Best Indian Sportsman for the second consecutive year. In 2004 , Vishy won the historic Corus Chess Tournament for the fourth time, and now enters the elite league of players that includes former World Chess Champion Max Euwe, Lajos Portisch, Viktor Kortchnoi.
It is clear why Vishy is also known, as a “one man Indian Chess revolution,” as he keenly promotes the game of chess, all over India. Treated like a superstar from Bollywood wherever he goes, Vishy claims that it is, “my ambition to be able to take chess to the grass roots level”. He regularly collaborates with young Indian chess players to help make their existing talent reach higher. His first book, “My best games of Chess” is also one the best selling, and best written books on the game today.
In 1995, I had the privilege of watching Vishy do battle against Kasparov, high atop the the now hallowed ground of NYC’s World Trade Center, for the World Championship. Although, he lost that match, he was in great shape in quite a few games. Here is one of his best efforts of the match.
White Vishy Anand
Black Gary Kasparov
1995 World Chess Championship
Sicilian Defense
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e6 7.O-O Be7 8.a4 Nc6
9.Be3 O-O 10.f4 Qc7 11.Kh1 Re8 12.Bf3 Bd7
13.Nb3 Na5 14.Nxa5 Qxa5 15.Qd3 Rad8 16.Rfd1 Bc6
17.b4 Qc7 18.b5 Bd7 19.Rab1 axb5 20.Nxb5 Bxb5
21.Qxb5 Ra8 22.c4 e5 23.Bb6 Qc8 24.fxe5 dxe5
25.a5 Bf8 26.h3 Qe6 27.Rd5 Nxd5 28.exd5 Qg6
29.c5 e4 30.Be2 Re5 31.Qd7 Rg5 32.Rg1 e3
33.d6 Rg3 34.Qxb7 Qe6 35.Kh2 1-0
E. “Doc” Smith is a former Rhode Island Amateur Champion, and has won divisional titles in the U.S. Amateur Team Championships for Brown University as well as the Rhode Island Chess League Championships. He has also taught chess to kids in S.F. schools, where he has recently directed several successful citywide tournaments.
