What is Anand's Position Amongst the Crowds of World Champions in Chess History

I started a poll in this few years back thinking of which world champion is most favorite to us (look at the right side Poll#1 Greatest Chess Player). Susan is running a post on this in her blog today on this same topic.

My own opinion is Kasparov! But he will be closely followed by Capablanca, Morphy and Fischer. After them the other players whom I would rank almost equally would be Karpov, Anand, Botvinnik, Lasker and Alekhine.

Why Anand in this rank? Because of his versatile style of chess. He is one of the most naturally talented chess player (along with Capablanca) who didn't get big chess mentors (like Kasparov got Botvinnik and it's true for other Russian champions as well). Anand is a very sharp player and his raw speed of chess is simply unmatchable by anyone else, not even Kasparov! Also he plays quite well against top Computers although his blindfold may not be the best in the market. Kramnik was a great rival of Anand if we study both of their careers and Anand has repeatedly triumphed over him last few years showing his spirit even better than what Kasparov did against his great rival Karpov. Anand is playing in a time when the gap between top chess players are marginal which I believe only Kasparov had to face amongst the earlier champions. Anand's career is not over and he is already in top best chess players ever to many chess players / fans like me.

Anand Remains World Chess Champsion by Winning the Match Against Kramnik

From Blogs

The World Chess Championship started this October 14th in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. The match consisted of twelve games between the defending Champion Anand (FIDE Rating 2783) of India vs the Challenger Kramnik (FIDE Rating 2772) of Russia.

Anand and Kramnik started out peacefully with two interesting draws, after which the Indian player exploded to score three wins - in game 3, game 5, and game 6. Especially difficult for Kramnik were the two loses with black in the same line which basically have decided the outcome of the match in early stage. Although Kramnik managed to pull a win in 10th game and Anand drew 11th game today with white pieces to win the match at a 6.5 - 4.5 margin.

The prize fund of 1.5 million Euro (approximately 2.35 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE license fees, and will be split equally between these 2 players. You can get a few more details on the match in the following links -

I have been following the games everyday in BART from my home to San Francisco or early morning at Chessbase, Susan Polgar's Blog, Chessdom, ChessMind and Official WCC Site, Chess Ninja Blog.

Except for today's drawn game the live rating at http://chess.liverating.org shows Anand's current live rating is 2791 (jointly topping the list with Topalov) and Kramnik's 2764. So for this draw I believe Anand may settle down 1 point lower than Topalov in the second position of the list. Here are few news on Anand's victory. So he now needs to prepare for another challenger next year - the winner of Topalov vs Kamsky match.

• http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chess/News/Veni_Vidi_Vishy_The_mind_and_method_of_the_maestro_in_a_mad_world/articleshow/msid-3655782,curpg-2.cms
• http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4988
• http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/10/wc-organizer-official-statement.html
• http://www.chessdom.com/anand-world-chess-champion-2008
• http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2008/10/wch-08-g11.htm

Anand Defeats Kramnik with Black Pieces in 3rd Game

Anand had a brilliant tactical game with black pieces to unsettle Kramnik in their 3rd game of World Chess Championship match 2008 in Germany. I wishAnand defend his title in this match successfully.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=337745
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4963
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=621714

Anand Defeats Kramnik with Black Pieces in 3rd Game

Anand had a brilliant tractical game to unsettle Kramnik their 3rd gmae of World Chess Championship match 2008 in Germany.

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=621714

Anand vs Kramnik World Championship 2008 First Game Drawn

Anand held Kramnik to an easy draw with black at the first game of World Chess Championship match 2008 today. This 12 game match between these 2 great chess players is going on in Bonn, Germany and I heartfully expect Anand to beat Kramnik in this match.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4958

Tomorrow Anand will have White pieces and hence I am expecting a good chance for him to take lead in the match.

Interestingly, I came out to this new of child chess player in my city (Fremont) a little earlier.

http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113000