Viswanathan Anand ranks at No 36 in IE 100 l of most powerful people in India in 2025 | Chess News
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand is a new entrant in the IE 100 l of most powerful people in India in 2025, coming in at No 36.
Anand is the original world-beater from India on the battlefield of 64 squares. Semi-retired now, he has played a significant role in guiding India’s current generation of stars. Anand has mentored 18-year-old Gukesh, who became the youngest world champion in the sport recently. Anand also wields considerable power in global sport as the Deputy President of FIDE, the international governing body of chess.
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Anand is also currently shaping India’s current golden generation of chess players like Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali Rameshbabu among many others through the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, a chess academy modelled on the lines of the legendary Botvinnik School of Chess and the Samford Fellowship. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Anand started the chess fellowship at WACA, under which he handpicked players like Gukesh to help them get training from world-class grandmasters.
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Anand has also played sporting matchmaker for many players, like asking Gukesh to hire Grzegorz Gajewski as his full-time trainer, a partnership that led to India having its second world champion in the sport.
The IE 100 l also has three cricketers: India captain Rohit Sharma (ranked 48th, rising up 20 spots from last year), Virat Kohli (No 72, down from No 38 last year) and Jasprit Bumrah (No 83).
With Gukesh becoming world champion, there is anticipation in chess circles that the challenger in 2026 for the World Championship crown could be another one of Vishy’s children.
His role in shaping India’s current generation of stars was aptly summed up one-time rival, Garry Kasparov with a single line when Gukesh won the World Championship last year: “The era of ‘Vishy’s children’ is truly upon us!”
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