Viswanathan Anand who will turn 40 this December, has throughout his career, for almost 20 years now, been way ahead of his times and peers. One of the best known non-Russian and Asian chess players, Anand has often been given sobriquets like "Lightning Kid" and "Vishy, the Tiger from Madras". Born on December 11, 1969, he picked his early lessons in chess, at the age of six from his mother, Susila Viswanathan.

By 14 he was the "Boy Wonder" in Indian chess and his assets, lightning speed, ability to see and read the game far ahead besides on-board intuition saw him emerge as the Youngest Indian National Champion at age of 16.

In 1987 he became the First Asian to win the World Junior Championship at Baguio City in the Philippines. The same year he became the first Indian to earn the coveted Grandmaster title.

In 1991, he won the strongest tournament at that time, The "Reggio Emilia" in Italy in 1991 ahead of Kasparov & Karpov.But the pinnacle of his career was achieved on December 24, 2000 when Anand became the 15th World Chess Champion in Teheran. Anand won the championship by remaining unbeaten. The win was very significant because in the process Anand became the First Asian to win the title ending many years of Soviet Domination of the Ancient Indian game.

If 2003 made him the "Speed king", 2004 saw him become the absolute king of Chess. Anand won both rapid and classical chess events. The year also saw Anand make a comeback to the Chess Olympiad after a gap of 12 years. Anand for the first time in Indian chess history captained an all Grandmaster team. Although the team finished sixth, Anand emerged as one of the top scorers on the Olympiad