| Name | Anand |
| Pet Names | Baba, Sagara |
| Nick Names | Lightning Kid, vishy-theTiger from Madras |
| Date of birth | 11th December,1969 |
| Born in | Chennai |
| Brought up in | Chennai and Manila (Philippines), for a couple of years -the vital stage in his early development in Chess. |
| Education | Graduation in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. |
| Started Chess at | The age of 6 |
| Learned Chess from | Mother |
| Current World Ranking | No: 2 |
| Marriage | June,1996 (arranged by his parents) |
| Family | Father : Vishwanathan… Retired General Manager, Southern Railways Mother : Susheela… housewife Elder Brother: Shivakumar… Chief Design Engineer with Crompton Greaves Elder sister :Anuradha… teaches at Michigan University,USA Wife:Aruna…Graduate in Public Relations |
| First Tournament | L & T Open,Chennai |
| First Junior level national Championship | won at Vasco-da Gama, Goa ,1984 |
| First Senior level National championship | 1986(youngest winner) |
| First International Tournament | Lloyds Bank Masters,London (1984) |
| Biggest achievment | World Champion-Year 2000 |
| Long time Achievment | “One man Indian Chess revolution” |
| Awards | Arjuna Award (1985) Padmashri(1987,youngest ever recipient) National citizens Award(1987) Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna(1991-92,first ever recipient) Chess Oscar(1997-98) Padma Bhushan(1998) Padma Vibhushan(2001) and many more… |
| Favourites | Food: Thai (all time favourite…Sambar rice, Rasam and egg curry) Film: Freaks out on comedy. Also likes action Music: Abba, Queen, U2, Petshop Boys and also rock Actor & Actress:Hasn’t watched an Indian movie for ages.Likes Sharon Stone. Holiday spot: Paris, Spain in general Holland. Jaipur…and enjoys Singapore too. Pastime:Card game-Rummy. |
| Asset | His lightning speed of play and intuition |
| Trade Mark | Besides his simplicity its his whacky sharp wit |
| Habit | Anand never loses his cool |
| Trait | ‘Baba does loses his cool when he loses a card game.’ |
| Loves | Traveling, Reading & the beach |
| Pasttime Interests | Music, Card games, Books on any subject, Tennis, Swimming, Cycling, Walking, Aerobics |
| Most Memorable moment | Difficult to single out one.Sometime he meets a fan who is so happy to see him that he has a pleasant feeling the whole day. |
| Had not been in Chess.. | would have loved to be in Fine Arts or Information Technology. |
| Ultimate dream | Has been fulfilled when he became the World Champion. |
| Describes himself as | Fairly easy going. |
| Other Interesting Facts | vishy is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother.He’s known to eat portions the size of new-born elephants.
He plays tournaments eight months in the year. Endorsed as NIIT’s brand ambassador. He keeps track of what our tennis champions (Paes and Bhupathi) are up to. He follows international politics very closely. |
| Resides in | Collado Mediano , Spain |
| Address | V.Anand “Garga” No.4, 2nd Street Customs Colony Besant Nagar Chennai – 600 090 |
| Phone | +91-44-24916757 (Res) |
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