Remembering Viswanathan Anand five chess world titles

Viswanathan Anand is one of the biggest names in the history of chess. As far as India goes, he's the best to ever move the chess pieces across the board. He made a name for himself mostly through his five World Chess Championship titles. In a career that spanned more than two decades, he has met with some of the biggest names the game has ever produced and managed to exit the room as a champion five times. Here are his biggest wins.

The first-ever title for India

Anand made history with his first-ever World Championship. His first title in 2000 was also the first one for his country too. He was the first seed at the tournament, and he justified the seeding. Yet, the road to the finals was not an easy one. Among the 100 participants, no one gave him any issue until the quarterfinals. There, after beating Alexander Khalifman, the road to the finals was open. In the finals, he was put against Alexei Shirov, who was seen as more than a worthy adversary for the first-ever Indian title. We could even argue that he was the underdog, considering that Shirov won both of their previous duels in the same year. When it was all said and done, it was an easy 3:0 win for Viswanathan. If you have a feeling that you could've predicted this outcome, you ought to try and wager on modern chess players, and you can do it if you click here.

Unified world champion

It took Viswanathan five years to unify the titles. He did it at the 2007 World Championship, in a format that differed quite a lot from the one that was on schedule in 2000. Yet, the double round robin system suited Anand far too well. He was pitted against the likes of Grischuk, Gelfand, Svidler, and Leko, among a few others. During his amazing run, he didn't lose a single match. In chess, many times it is more important not to lose than to actually win the match. The career of Viswanathan Anand is a firm proof of this. Thanks to his penchant not to lose against any opponent was what brought him the title in 2007 and aided in making him the undisputed world champion.

2008: The title retention

2008 saw a major shift in the chess universe. The world title reunification process was a weird one, to say the least, and thus it saw Kramnik as the title defender, and not Viswanathan. Yet, it poses no issues for the Indian Grand Master. In what was expected to be a twelve-game affair, he took home a win by 6.5 points in 11 games, after he won the first three games out of six. His secret behind the win was in the fact that he changed the way he opens the matches, and adapted his strategy to the manner in which his opponent does it. For Viswanathan, it was a match he wanted to win at any cost, and he has spent half a year preparing for the final.

The three-peat

By 2010, Viswanathan Anand was the best chess player in the world. While that was the fact, he still had to prove it against Veselin Topalov. In addition to having an amazing adversary in the 2010 World Championship final, he also had to play the Bulgarian player on his home soil in Sofia. In addition to having the duel delayed by a day, after volcanic ash spewing from Eyjafjallajökul in Iceland, Anand had a quite longer trip to the finals, literally. The controversial eruption also had a say in the Champions League duel between Barcelona and Inter. While Barca lost the semi-final after having to reach Milan via bus, Anand didn't want to let nature ruin his three-peat. Just like Jose Mourinho, the Indian Grand Master has had to rely on defence this time around, and his choice was the Grunfeld Defence, which was a good approach to attain another world title. The story of how a historic chess opening took a victory away from a player who had prepared for the bout with the help of a supercomputer made the rounds in the news that year.

The last title

When Viswanathan Anand took home his fifth and last title, he was already past his prime. Yet, he was not a player you wanted to underestimate. Not that Boris Gelfand did that, but when the two met in the final, many people expected the Belarusian-Israeli player to take home the win. At that point, the Indian Grand Master hasn't won a tournament in two years since his last world title. Yet, this was his chance to shine once again for the last time, and he took it. Nowadays, when Gukesh Dommaraju is making rounds in the world of chess, it is only right to remember another great Indian chess master.