Viswanathan Anand (Vishy)

Gaze into the firmament of Sports, you will notice thousands of bright meteors. As they pass through the atmosphere, most of the rapidly burn out. Very few reach the earth in the form meteorites. The impact made by of most of them is hardly visible. One or two in a decade make a lasting impact in the world of sports. Undoubtedly, one such is Viswanathan Anand, fondly known as Vishy.

My choice personalities from all forms of sports together number about a dozen. Each is distinctive in his/her own achievements, contribution to the sport and the impact they made on subsequent generations. Sergey Bubka demolished everything on his way in pole vault, started off by climbing peaks, believed to be impossible to scale during his time and then went on to scale peak after a peak. He had to challenge himself at every event since there is no one close to him challenge. He is a real Pole Star (dhruv tara) in the firmament of sports.

The landmarks (rough equivalent of records in cricketing terminology) set by a sportsman are not good enough criterion to be my sports hero. They are mere numbers. The membership count of their fan club does not impress me. Some super-heroes killed the entire next generation in team sports. True hallmark of a great sports-person depends on how many younger people inspired by him have taken up that sport seriously and surpassed him and set much higher standards than the earlier era. The legacy left behind – the good points alone. If you look at some Indian film personalities, they have a massive count of vulgar fans. Am I to go by their numbers?

Anand grabbed the attention of discerning chess world at a young age. Experts predicted he would be a World Champion in future. He did become World Champion not once but thrice; in three distinct formats against formidable opponents. His behavior on and off the stage is impeccable. He is a gentleman to the core; soft spoken outside the playing room and a silent assassin at the board.

When he first made his mark at a young age, in India and in fact, in most of Asian region, there were hardly any high-level chess players. During that period, high-level chess players mostly came from the erstwhile Soviet Union and some European Countries. Bobby Fisher, an eccentric genius from US was an exception. Several youngsters drew inspiration from Anand and now Asia has dozens of GMs, and hundreds of IMs and thousands of talented budding players. Chess standards have gone up to a remarkable level. Spain does not consider him as a foreigner. He is widely respected not only in the Chess World but also in the entire Sports World.