1969: Born Chennai, December 11.
1975: Mother Sushila introduces him to the game at the age of six.
1983: Wins national sub-junior (under 15) championship.
1984: Ties for second place in world sub-junior championship. Wins national junior (under 19) and Asian junior titles.
1986: Wins national senior title at 17, the youngest to do so.
1987: First Asian to win world junior championship beating Vasily Ivanchuk. At 18, becomes India's first Grandmaster.
1991: Reaches quarterfinals of the FIDE World Championships.
1992: Leads Indian team at Chess Olympiad at Manila. Wins the Linares and the Alekhine Memorial.
1994: Wins the PCA Grand Prix in Moscow ahead of Garry Kasparov.
1995: Loses to Kasparov in the PCA World Chess Championships.
1996: Beats Kasparov in the Credit Suisse Rapid Tournament.
1997: Conferred the prestigious Chess Oscar in a poll by chess journalists from 55 countries.
1998: Loses in FIDE World Chess Championship final at Lausanne to Russian Anatoly Karpov.
2000: Wins the World Chess Championship beating Alexei Shirov and inches close to an ELO rating of 2800.
Anand-khalifman Quarter-final tie-breaker: Black to play. Khalifman misses a win by not playing this move, allowing Anand to rescue his position and stay in the tournament.
Shirov-Anand Final, Game 3: Black to play. Anand lures Shirov into taking a "poisoned pawn" and with this move launches a perfectly calculated defence to win in 41 moves and lead 2-0.
Anand-Shirov Final, Game 4: White to play. Anand calculates 12 moves ahead before playing this. It enables one knight to defend the other, keeps a vital pawn safe and wins him the title.
Anand's victory in Teheran has already opened up debates as to how the world No. 2 would face up against world No. 1 Garry Kasparov. Georgian Grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili, a commentator for the world championship final who worked with Kasparov from 1987 to 1994, regards the temperamental Russian as the greatest player in the history of chess, whose opening game and development of ideas are unparalleled. But today, despite Anand's 3-14 record against the former world champ, Azmaiparashvili knows where to put his money if the two go head to head. "I'm sure Anand has a good chance against Kasparov now, he's in the best form of his life."
"Every player has his weaknesses but today I cannot say what Vishy's weakness is. His openings are good, and he can quickly take advantage of a good position. His defence is like a boxer who puts his guard and holds it there, whereas someone like Kasparov will try to drop his guard and deliver a knock-out."
Kasparov's domination over opponents is both technical and mental. His former coach says, "He wants his opponent to think that he is better than them. Only those who don't do so have a good chance but it is very difficult for a player to think he is better than Kasparov. But now Anand can. Kasparov was once a king but kings die."