Viswanathan Anand is the World Chess Champion! The greatest sportsman India has ever produced, won the FIDE World Chess Championships on Christmas Eve, 2000 to assure himself a place in history and give his one billion countrymen a Christmas present they are unlikely to ever forget.

Few disciplines have earned India the kind of international recognition that chess has in the last decade. The credit for this goes to Viswanathan Anand, who at the age of 18, became India's first and youngest Grand Master in 1987. He has had a brilliant career and has reached the top in the world of chess. Anand was introduced to chess by his mother when she took the eight-year old to a local chess tournament in Chennai. But it was in Manila, where Anand's father was on a transfer for one year, that his interest in chess was aroused.