Viswanathan Anand showed once again why age is just a number when it comes to sporting legends. After a string of poor performances through 2017, the Indian chess legend claimed the World Rapid Chess Championship on Thursday at Riyadh.
The former world champion remained unbeaten through the tournament and came back strongly to bag the top position on a tie-break after a three-way tie with Russians Vladimir Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi at 10.5 points from a possible 15. This was his first victory in a world championship since 2012.
While Anand was once the poster boy of rapid chess, this world rapid title comes after a drought of 14 years. He last won the World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003. The former world No 1 is also a five-time world champion, having won the World Chess Championship in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Here’s a a timeline of all his world titles
2002 – First world title
Anand won his first FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 in Tehran, after several near-misses in the year before. He became the first Indian to win the world title. He was the overall top seed in the competition and beat Alexander Khalifman, the defending FIDE world champion.
2003 – Rapid world champion
Anand won the first-ever World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003. The rules gave each player 25 minutes at the start of the game, with an additional ten seconds after each move. Anand went on to win this – beating Vladimir Kramnik in the final.
2007 – Undisputed world title
At the 2007 FIDE World Championship, Anand was the top-ranked player and favourite to lift the title. This tournament win also made him the undisputed world champion, when the two faction of international chess came together. In 2000, Anand’s claim as world champion was challenged by Vladmir Kramnik. But 2007 was the first reunified championship since Garry Kasparov had created the rival Professional Chess Association (PCA) Championship in 1993 and the winner here was the undisputed world champion.
2008, 2010, 2012 – Reigning world champion
The Indian great went on to defend his world title on three consecutive times after the record in 2007. Anand was reigning world champion or six years, winning the title in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Incidentally, Anand first defended his title against Kramnik in a convincing manner in 2008.
In 2010, Anand had to go through an unexpected obstacle en route his world title – a volcano, cancellation of flights and a road trip. According to a Chess Base report, travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria crossing five countries, 2000 kilometres, about a million potholes, an unexpected ferry and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Anand’s original travel plan were disrupted by a volcano in Iceland and after the authorities refused to reschedule the game, he decided to take the road. The Indian went on to win the title, in what is called one of the greatest World Chess Championship matches of all times.
In 2012, Anand defended his title in Moscow against Boris Gelfand, the winner of the 2011 Candidates Matches. However, when the championship came home to Chennai in 2013, Anand went down to Magnus Carlsen. He earned a world championship rematch with Carlsen in 2014, but could not change the result.