May 01, 2004 06:16 PM
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(Updated May 01, 2004 06:17 PM)
Hello sports lovers,
Even as a child I was very fond of indoor games like chess, carrom etc, especially chess where people used to get engrossed in the chess board for hours together, trying to make a move. Chess is basically played by all age groups. The one and only one great sports man India has ever produced is ''Vishwanathan Anand'' in the field of chess.
Anand was born on 11th december 1969 to. Vishwanathan, a GM in southern railways and Susheela a housewife and a chess lover. It was his mother who initiated him to the mysteries of the game and saw his growing interest and skills. It is the dream of every mother that her child should be great one day. Looking at Anands keen interest in the game, and the mothers inspiration and motivation led him to become a world champion. Both mother and son would play chess regularly and 13 years later in december 2000, this prophecy came true.
Popularly known as ''vishy''this tiger from Madras learnt chess at the age of six. His assets, his lightning speed of play and intuition saw him through as the youngest National champion at the age of 16. When he was nine years old, his father was posted to Manila. This was the time he really started improving his skills.
There was a Television programme called chess today in the afternoon, featuring analysis of important games by grandmasters and international masters. When he was in school, his mother would make a note of all this and give it to him. He would also solve all the puzzles that the programme featured and win prizes. This was a very important stage in his chess development. He would attend all chess tournaments and win prizes.
People gathered to watch him play, his style, the way he attacked the chess. Those days there was only one grand master ''Eugene Torre''. Torres brother was Anands coach and presented him with a regular sized chess board. Back in INDIA in 1980 Anand started playing almost all the tournaments on the weekends. He would defeat almost all the players, one after the other and would never let go of the game. He even won a prize for perseverance.
In 1983 he won National junior championship. In 1984, he took the first step in the international stage to play the Lloyds Bank Masters. GRANDMASTER AT 17--At the age of 17 he attained the Grandmaster norm.The good thing about Anand was he never got overtly happy, when he wins neither was he badly affected by the loss. In 1987 he became junior world champion.In those days he would never play for a draw.After becoming a professional, he decided to settle down in SPAIN, because all major tournaments took place in Europe.
On defeating KASPAROV in 1995 Anand became a world champion.He then participated in two championship FIDE and PCA. Anand is currently rated as No 2 in the world in both the rating list, FIDE and PCA list. He has been awarded many prestigious titles like, Arjuna award,the padmashri, the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the Soviet land Nehru award, The BPL achiever of the world, Sportsman, ''Sports man of the year 1995''.
Anand holds a degree in commerce and his hobbies are reading, swimming, listening to music.A nice person, untouched by fame that made him great. It must be the gift of genius. He has beaten every one, won the highest rated tournaments, yet perhaps we fail to guage his standing.
He has proved himself to be the catalyst to the younger generation. Today we have 20IM's and 2GM. There is Koneru Humpy, Aarthi ramaswamy, and P.hariKrishna all are teen age World champions. To conclude a man of discipline, self centered, clear reasoning and immediate insight.
