5 reasons why Viswanathan Anand is India's biggest sporting icon post-Independence

Several iconic sportspeople have auctioned their medals and belongings for charity. Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was one such man. The chess player gave away his 2008 World Chess Championship medal to raise funds for charity, and the sum it was sold for was so measly that it did not deserve a mention in the media.From 1886 to the present day, there have been only 16 men who have been crowned world champions and Anand is one of them. A medal he had won after 11 grueling classical chess games against Vladimir Kramnik was of minuscule value in comparison to a bat with which Sachin Tendulkar scored one out of a hundred centuries in an ODI series game for India, which might just be a drop from an ocean for the Little Master given the size of his trophy cabinet.For anyone who follows or plays chess in India, Vishwanathan Anand is the standard role model. The success he has achieved and the level at which he has achieved it is something every Indian should be hugely proud of. For the general public, Vishy might just be a spectacled guy who plays amazing chess, but he is so much more than that. He single-handedly changed the course of chess history and showed the world that it is not just the Russians who can play the sport at the top level.Major Dhyan Chand is, without a shred of doubt, India’s greatest sporting icon and will always remain so. But if we take a look at our post-independence period, it is Anand who takes the title. The quiet and soft-spoken chess maestro from Chennai pips the God of Cricket to the crown for the sheer weight of his achievements and how he rose to the top of an individual sport and flew our tricolour high across all continents of the globe. Here’s why Vishy is India’s biggest sporting icon after 1947!

#1 Titles, honours and championships

Anand with the 2012 World Championship trophy

There have only been 16 undisputed World Champions since 1886 and we should be proud of the fact that Vishy is one of them. He held the title for a whopping seven years, as he became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and then successfully defended his title in 2008 against Russian Vladimir Kramnik. Another successful defense came in 2010 as Anand defeated Veselin Topalov and then once more in 2012 against Boris Gelfand. Many tried, but could not dethrone the king.

He is the only chess player to have won the World Chess Championships in all three formats i.e. knock-out (2000), tournament (2007) and classical (2008 – 2013).In April 2006, Vishy became just the fourth player in history to cross the 2800 ELO mark and was ranked number one in the world for almost two years in a row. He has won a total of 48 titles and is still going strong.

He became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988, the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1991-92 and also the first sportsperson to be awarded the Padma Vibhushan, which is the second-highest civilian award in the country, in 2007. Yet it is baffling how Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna before him or Major Dhyan Chand.

The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists, and Anand has won it for a record six times in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008. We have become so accustomed to reading about his wins that only his losses seem to feature in the news now.

#2 End of the Soviet domination of chess

Anand beat Russian Alexei Shirov in 2000 to win his first Championship

The game of chess was born in India as chaturanga in the 6th century, from where it spread towards the west to Persia and further as the centuries rolled on. The modern form of the game was developed over time in Europe and literature on the game started being published from the 15th century. The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and almost all the famous chess players and writers in the game’s history have been European or American.

Mikhail Botvinnik became World Champion in 1948 and with the exception of the enigmatic Bobby Fischer, who was American, all chess champions since have been Russian or from a Soviet country. Chess is a favourite pastime in the country, and a sport that has been dominated by them post-World War II. It was Anand who became the champion in 2000 and then in 2007, to end the dominance and usher in a new phase in the game’s illustrious history.

It was a strange sight for players to see a young, spectacled Grandmaster from a third-world country playing the game at a speed that no one has ever played before and beating every rival he came across. Anand’s successes early in his career against the likes of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov paved the way for a new generation of chess players to emerge from India as well as other countries.

Anand brought chess into newspapers and made it among the top five or so most well-known sports in the country. As a result, the infrastructure improved, the number of events grew, as well as the number of entries in such events – all due to the Anand wave.

Up-and-coming players all over the world started looking up to him and were inspired by him to take up the game.

He became the face of chess in the country and all over the world, and his name became synonymous with the sport.

During a train journey to Kerala in the late 1980s, an elderly gentleman sitting next to him asked him about his career. Anand stated that he played chess for a living, to which the passenger asked if Anand’s father had a business that could sustain his ambitions. Anand told him that he just plays chess and the gentleman, who did not recognize his fellow passenger, replied that only Viswanathan Anand could play chess for a career!

#3 30 years in the game and still going strong

Anand received the title of Grandmaster in 1988, but his chess career began even before that. His rise began when he was 6, when his mother introduced him to the sport.As a 14-year-old, he announced his arrival in style with the national sub-junior title and a score of 9/9. He won the Asian Junior Championships (under-19) in 1985, and then the World Juniors just two years later in 1987.

Fast forward to the present day and the 45-year old is still a part of the chess elite and a hugely-respected player among his peers. Despite being dethroned by the Mozart of Chess, Magnus Carlsen, Anand is still at the top of the game playing some high-quality chess and flying the Indian flag high. He recently turned 46 years old and is the oldest player in the top 20 in the world rankings, and the third oldest in the 2700+ rating club.

It is astonishing how he has managed to sustain such a high level of performance for almost three decades and has adapted his game to meet new challenges. While we laud Sachin Tendulkar for his long career after starting off at a young age, Anand also deserves the same level of credit and respect, if not more, as he always been among the top players in the world and has shown absolutely no signs of stopping.

Anand trained himself up till 1991 and at that time, it was only books and coaches who could teach you chess and help with improvement.

Now, computers have become an essential part of chess training and preparation, and he has seemed to adapt seamlessly. It takes great courage to give up on old practices and train using new methods, and all credit goes to him for staying ahead of the times and adapting to change.

#4 \'Astronomical\' talent

The player has a minor planet named after him

In 1988, Kenzo Suzuki discovered a minor planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is usually named after the person who discovered it but if it remains nameless, then it is in the hands of the committee members chosen from the working group of the International Astronomical Union to name it. The planet was nameless until April this year, as a result of which Michael Rudenko, a committee member, proposed the name of Viswanathan Anand, as he was an ardent fan of his.

He is only the third chess player after Alexander Alekhine and Anatoly Karpov to be honoured in this manner, and the only Indian sportsperson. As you read this article, ‘4538 Vishyanand’ is cruising in orbit around the sun.

Chess is a very popular hobby and sport all over the world and it literally has no bounds. Every country on the globe has a good number of people playing chess, unlike another sport which is revered to near-obsessive levels.

As a result, Anand is respected and followed all over the world, more so in developing and under-developed countries, where he is seen as a player who challenged the Soviet and European stronghold and exposed other parts of the world to this beautiful game of skill and wit.

In addition to his Indian honours, Vishy has been felicitated by governments and organizations from other countries as well. He was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship for the development of economic, scientific and cultural ties with Russia in 2014 and is much loved and adored by the people in the country as well.

In 2015, Anand was honoured with the Top Country Award at the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi. It is an award given to eminent people of Indian origin who have helped bring glory to both India and Spain.

#5 Humility and simplicity

Last but not the least, Anand is also renowned and loved for his simple nature and personality. He has always been humble in victory and gracious in defeat, and is a great role model for aspiring sportspersons on how to conduct themselves. He has experienced the highest of highs that the sport has to offer, along with the most crushing of lows. To his great credit, he has never let either affect his game or nature, which is why he has been able to remain at the top level for multiple decades.

While all Indian fans adore and worship Rahul Dravid for his grit, determination and humility, it is surprising that Anand, despite sharing the same qualities, is not seen in the same light as the Wall.

Anand has won everything a chess player can possibly hope to win and has gained international fame and recognition, but still remains the same unassuming and modest person he was at the outset of his career, which can only be admired.

While Bollywood stars making donations to the Chennai flood relief operations made the headlines across the country, Anand and his wife opened up their home to the nearby slum dwellers and gave them shelter from the devastating floods that have hit Anand’s home city, in addition to making a monetary contribution.

Despite being in England for the London Chess Classic, Anand kept up with the situation in Chennai and did all he possibly could to help those affected.

He has never sought the headlines or the front pages and has never made any statements that have created any sort of controversy. While wedding and engagement pictures of cricketers make national headlines and front page news, Anand’s endeavours are still relegated to small pieces in the back pages. Vishy is the greatest sporting icon for our country and deserves his share of recognition and adulation for sure!

Let us make a concerted effort to try and follow his progress and games as much as possible, and with the Candidates coming up next year, let us show him our support so that he can have another shot at regaining his World Championship crown!

Edited by Staff Editor