The people behind the game
Viswanathan Anand
Won the title in a tournament in 2007 and defended it in matches against Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand. India's first grandmaster.
- Born
- 1969
- Country connections
- India
At the board
The games. The ideas.
Explore classic encounters and championship battles. Play every move, or jump straight to the moments that tell the story.
2010 · World championship · Game 12
The last classical game
The deciding classical game of the 2010 championship. Anand’s central pawn breaks expose Topalov’s king.
Read the position
Every move sets the scene.
Use the controls to explore the full game, or select an annotated moment below. Each explanation describes the position immediately after its highlighted move.
Complete move list 56 moves
The journey
A remarkable path.
Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. His world titles came through both knockout and tournament formats, followed by successful match defenses. The split-era FIDE title of 2000–2002 is listed separately from his undisputed reign of 2007–2013. [1]
From the photographic archive Explore the championship record →The championship record
Time with the crown.
- 2007–2013Open world championship
- 2000–2002FIDE world championship · split era
Reigns are periods of title ownership, not a count of championship victories. Open-ended reigns reflect the record checked on 18 October 2026.
From the archive
A life in photographs.
Sources & credits
Biographical details and title records checked . Country connections describe the player’s career and background, rather than a live federation listing.
Portrait: Wolfgang Jekel · CC BY 2.0. Displayed in monochrome and cropped.
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