The very well known World Champion Viswanathan Anand has managed to retain his title. Anand, born on December 11, 1969 in Chennai, is the son of 

Vishwanathan, who is now a retired general manager, Southern Railways.

His friends call him ‘Vishy’ and he learnt to play chess from his mother Susheela at the tender age of six, and since then he had developed great love for 

the game. His mother had been a great source of inspiration for him. 

Anand’s schooling was completed at Don Bosco School, following which he did graduation in Commerce from Loyola College in Chennai. At the young 

age of 18, he was conferred Honorary Doctorate degree by Jawaharlal Technology University. 

During his childhood, Anand, who is now the World Chess Champion, started playing Tennis. But since he really disliked the behavior of the coaching 

camps in his school, he abandoned it and started playing chess instead. Vishy also loves reading, swimming and listening to music. 

In 1996, he married Aruna. The couple is fluent in Spanish. Other than Spanish, Anand is also comfortable in German and French. His wife Aruna jokingly 

use to call Anand the ‘Lord of Rings’ since the World Chess Champion always kept losing his wedding rings.