Vishy Anand turns 40 today!

One of the world's best chess player and one of India's greatest sports persons ("the greatest" to me!), Vishwanathan Anand turns 40 today!!!

A few days back other Indian sports legend, Sachin Tendulkar completed 20 yrs of his cricketing career ...and the whole nation (rightly) celebrated the occasion as if it was a National Festival!

Just to let non-chess players know, Vishy Anand rose to the international arena (comparable to Sachin's cricket debut) in 1987 when he became Chess Grand Master!

That was 1987 - 2 years before Sachin made his debut in 1989.

When Sachin is celebrating 20 yrs of his cricket he is arguably at the top of the cricketing world...but so was Vishy when he completed 20 yrs of chess in 2007! He was World Champion by then and had won umpteen awards in various forms of chess (Classical, Rapid, Blindfold)...but I don't remember he getting even 1/10th of media coverage (or people's appreciation)...

Anyways, that is the fate of any sports that is not cricket and every sports person who is not a cricketer.

Here's Vishy's biography and career at glance:

http://www.tnq.in/vishwa.html

Wish him a very happy b'day...and hope he gets Bharat Ratna soon! ...ahead of Sachin Tendulkar!!! (even though I am equally big fan of Sachin)


~ Kaustubh