Viswanathan Anand born 11 December 1969)is an Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion.

He was taught to play by his mother. He described his start in chess in a conversation with Susan Polgar:

National level success came early for him when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the International Master Title at the age of fifteen, in 1984.

Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov 3.5–0.5 in the final match held at Tehran, thereby becoming the first Indian to win that title.

In September 2007 Anand became World Champion again by winning that year's FIDE World Championship Tournament held in Mexico City. He won the double round-robin tournament with a final score of 9 out of 14 points

Anand successfully defended the title against Kramnik in the World Chess Championship 2008 held between October 14 and October 29 in Bonn, Germany.

In October 2003 Anand won FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003 event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final.

Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time, and (as of July 2008) he held the number one spot in all ratings lists

 Arjuna award for Outstanding Indian Sportsman in Chess in 1985  Padma Shri, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1987  The inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour in the year  Padma Bhushan award in 2000  Chess Oscar (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004 and 2007)  Padma Vibhushan in 2007