Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988.
In 2022, he was elected the deputy president of FIDE (French acronym for The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation).
He received the Arjuna Award in 1985 and Padma Shri in 1987. Anand was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award.
Anand started learning chess from age six from his mother, but he learned the intricacies of the game in Manila, where he lived with his parents from 1978 through the 1980s while his father was contracted as a consultant by the Philippine National Railways.
Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game. This has made him a well-liked figure throughout the chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen, all of whom were rivals for the world championship during Anand's career, each aided him in his preparations for the 2010 World Chess Championship.
Anand's collection My Best Games of Chess was published in 1998 and updated in 2001. He is the co-author of My Life in Chess and Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life.