Chennai, Oct 23 : World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand shared the limelight with Indian cricketers at the felicitation ceremony organised by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) here on Monday.

Asian Chess Federation President Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifah Al Nahyan presented Anand with a memento, but the world chess champ was more than impressed to be in the company of former Indian cricket skipper Rahul Dravid.

“The award was very touching and all in all it is a great reception. It was nice to meet him (Rahul Dravid). I also met other colleagues from sports.

Many of my friends came from all over India. It was fantastic," Anand said.

Along with Dravid, N. Srinivasan, the treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and former Indian cricketers Krishnamachari Srikanth and W V Raman, members of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association were also present on the occasion.

Anand arrived in India on October 15 after winning the global tournament in Mexico City by beating a field that included eight of the world's top ten chess players.

Anand, 37, replaced Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as world champion on September 29, winning the tournament on points after tying a match with Hungarian Peter Leko on the 14th day of the contest, which he dominated from the start.

The Indian grandmaster had earlier won the World Championship in 2000, but some of the sheen was taken away from that win because the chess world at that time was split between two rival world bodies.

This time there was no taking away from his feat as the rival organisations have come under the FIDE.

Anand won the world junior title in 1989, becoming India's first Grand Master at the age of 16. (ANI)