When Viswanathan Anand won eight rupees as prize money for winning an event

Viswanathan Anand is one of the richest chess players in the country at the moment, having racked up plenty of prize money from his exploits around the world, including winning the coveted World Chess Championship five times. But there was a time when a much younger Anand had won just eight rupees as prize money for winning a junior tournament.
Anand revealed this in an interview with The Bombay Journey recently while being driven around his home city of Chennai. Asked about the costs involved in being an elite grandmaster and the prize money top chess players can make, Anand said: “I remember once in my chess club they had a small tournament and first prize was eight rupees. So I thought I can treat myself. I (won and) took this eight rupees. There’s a hotel right behind the chess club, so I went there had a full dosa and sambar and I had one drink of some juice. I could pay for it with my prize money, so it was a good thing.”
Anand added that this was when he was just an eight-year-old, so the tournament was in the late 1970s. Anand recently ranked at No 36 in The Indian Express’ IE 100 l of most powerful people in India in 2025.
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Anand added: “Back in those days (when I started playing) — first of all, you have to add that I don’t think anyone now remembers such figures — you could have a full meal in Bombay for five rupees, this was those times. So prices were comparable.”
For context, Gukesh, who became the youngest world champion in chess hory last year, took home a total prize money of $15,77,842 (approximately Rs 13.6 crore) in 2024 from all his tournaments combined. For winning the World Chess Championship alone, he earned over Rs 11 crore.