World Chess Championships: The Indian Saga

As India’s No.3 Vidit Gujrathi bowed off, losing the battle to Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda in the quarterfinals, the Indian challenge came to an end in the FIDE Chess World Cup 2021. Though another World Chess Champion title coming home seems a far-fetched dream now, India has a glorious past to look back and swell over.

India’s Moment de Gloire belongs to Viswanathan Anand, its first grandmaster and five times World champion who brought the laurels to the Indian soil. Anand belongs to the elite list of players who have crossed an Elo rating of 2800. He accomplished the feat in 2006.

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Winning the Crown: the Indian Chronicle

Vishy Anand brought the World Champion title to India in 2000. The FIDE World Cup 2000 was held from 1 September to 13 September 2000 in Shenyang, China. The 24-player Category XVI chess tournament organized by FIDE, and hosted by the Chinese Chess Association, was also the official First Chess World Cup. In the final, Viswanathan Anand beat Evgeny Bareev and won the $50,000 cash prize and the inaugural title.

Anand, the No. 1 seed of the tournament, entered the quarterfinals easily defeating his longtime rival Vassily Ivanchuk. But in the semifinals he faced a tough game at the hands of Boris Gelfand a sudden-death blitz game was required to settle the match. The initial game between Anand and Bareev was a draw after 33 moves in the final match. In the second game, Bareev seemed to edge on until 36... Re8?? When he blundered quite unexpectedly, compromising the winning position to Anand.

The World Chess Championship 2007

Anand retained his title till 2002. He brought home the second World Champion title in 2007. The event which was held in Mexico City between 12th - 30th September 2007 was a double round robin tournament with eight players.

Vishy Anand won the tournament and regained his title as World Chess Champion. The only undefeated player in the game, Anand won a score of 9 points out of 14 that included 10 draws and four wins. The 2007 championship was unique in the way that it let a tournament decide the championship rather than a match. FIDE later decided that the following world championship matches would be held between the reigning champion and a qualified challenger.

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 The World Chess Championship 2008

In 2008, the World Chess Championship was conducted as a best-of-twelve-games match between the reigning champion, Viswanathan Anand, and his predecessor, Vladimir Kramnik. Anand retained his title after eleven games by a final score of 6½–4½. The match took place in Germany, between 14 October and 29 October 2008, at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, in the city of Bonn.

The World Chess Championship 2010

In the World Chess Championship 2010, Anand, the defending world champion, was pitted against Veselin Topalov. Topalov was presented with the opportunity to become the challenger as compensation for the denial of his entry into the 2007 tournament. The World Chess Championship 2010 cycle, allotted Topalov special privileges.

The 2010 match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 April to 13 May 2010 was a twelve games event with tie-breaks following the same format and length as the previous matches in 2006 and 2008.

The event where Anand emerged the winner had a prize fund of 2 million euros of which 60% went to the winner. Anand retained his title, winning 6½–5½ in the final game of the match.

The World Chess Championship 2012

The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between Viswanathan Anand and Israel’s Boris Gelfand - Anand’s former opponent in the 2000 tournament and winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament.

In the match, Anand was the defending champion with his victories in 2007, 2008 (against Vladimir Kramnik) and 2010 (against Veselin Topalov). Gelfand was the challenger thanks to the 2011 eight-player Candidates Tournament which he had won. Anand's subsequent victory in 2012, also turned out to be his title defence for a consecutive third time.

Anand retained his championship after 16 games, including four rapid games. The match was held in Russia, at the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, from 10th to 30th May 2012. The prize amount for the event was US$2.55 million.

Postscript:

Back in 2006, FIDE made the announcement that the 2007 World Chess Championship would be an eight-player tournament and held as the title of FIDE World Chess Championship. 

Read more on FIDE: Online Chess Rules at MindMentorz blog 

At the time there were two world championships - FIDE World Championship and the "Classical" World Championship. The list of the players for the tournament included the 2005 FIDE world champion Topalov. Kramnik did not get a mention.

FIDE decided to unite the two World Champion titles by organizing a match between Kramnik and Topalov, which came to be called the World Chess Championship 2006.

Kramnik won the match and got entry to the World Chess Championship 2007, the following year. Eventually, the 2007 World Chess Championship was won by Viswanathan Anand.