iSporter Suraj Kori lists down some of the achievements of Vishwanathan Anand the World Champion and put them in context with Indian cricket team's exit from the T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka handed India its 3rd consecutive lost in the Super 8 crashing out its all chances of making to the semi-finals! With losses in both its matches of Super 8, a comprehensive win over Sri Lanka would have eased their way to the semis. And then India had to pray that Australia would defeat West Indies to book their place! But team India failed to do so and is now out of the World Cup. But how far is it ethical to rely on run rate and other teams to lose to qualify you for the semis? Can you be a World champion like this? Even after Indian team not deserving a place in the semis everyone were praying that India could book a place in semis… But no one even knew what Vishwanathan Anand was achieving at the World Championship!
Anand was playing the World Chess Championship at Sofia and needed a win in its last match against Topalov. The points were being tied at 5.5 after 11 matches and Anand had to win this match to directly win the championship and avoid a rapid fire round. Most of the Indians hardly followed Anand’s campaign…
Anand has been winning awards at international level from a very early age making India proud tournament after tournament. He won the National Sub-Junior Championship in 1983 at the age of 14! He then became the youngest Indian to win the International Master title in 1984 at the age of 15. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Chess Junior Championship. In 1988, at the age of 18, he became India’s first Grandmaster by winning Shakti Finance International Chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India.
Anand is one of the five players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list! In April 2007at the age of 37, he became the oldest person to become World number-one for the first time. He was at the top of World rankings five out of six times from April 2007 to July 2008, holding the number-one ranking for a total of 15 months.
Anand is the first sport-person to receive Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1991-92, India’s highest sporting honour. In 2008, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award. He was the first sport-person to get this award in Indian history.
Anand is the first player in Chess history to win the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament and Match! He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000-2002 and became the undisputed World Chess Champion in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
Anand won the World Rapid Chess Championship at Corsica (6years in a row from 1999-2005), Chess Classic (9yeras in a row from 2000-2008), Leon 2005, Eurotel 2002. Fujitsu Giants 2002 and Melody Amber (5times) and he won the rapid portion of Melody Amber 7 times. Anand has won the Chess Oscar in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year’s best player according to a worldwide poll of leading Chess critics, writers and journalists conducted by the Russian Chess magazine.
Above listed are just a few success of what the great Anand has achieved throughout his career. His is still young by his brains and rightly called the ‘Lightning Kid’! I wish him he goes on and on winning more championships for India and making us proud…
Indian cricket team has failed to qualify for the semi-finals of World Cup for second time in a row where as this is Anand’s 4th World Championship title. Even after such great achievements Anand has been neglected with the India cricket team being in limelight with their performance deteriorating tournament after tournament.
Vihwanathan Anand you are truly the “King of Chess”!
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