Today, becoming a Grandmaster is not so difficult, there are about 15 Grandmasters.

In those days it was considered to be next to impossible and the tournaments were won by either Anatoly Karpov or Garry Kasparov , and nobody else could manage to win.

Anand won the Regio Emilia in 1991 and defeated Ivanchuk and made a clear sign that he was not going to be content with just the Grandmaster title and he proved the expectations that he would be something like the best in the world.

Anand contested a match with Garry Kasparov for the PCA World Chess Championship in 1995, but lost. Three years later he won a knockout tournament in Groningen to qualify to play for the FIDE title against Anatoli Karpov, but was defeated in rapid tie-breaks.

In 1998, he won the strongest Linares tournament ever, with an average rating of 2752, making it a category 21 event.

In 2000, he beat Alexey Shirov to become the FIDE World Chess Champion. His prowess at quick-play chess earned him the nickname "The Lightning Kid." 

He is a four-time winner of the Chess Oscar award and the 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion. In spring of 2006, following a record-extending fifth victory at Corus Wijk aan Zee (2006), Anand became only the fourth player ever to crack the 2800-Elo mark in FIDE ratings, following Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov.

The year 2007 was a year of two memorable milestones for Anand. First, he achieved his longtime goal of becoming "The World Number 1" in ratings. After winning his second victory at Linares-Morelia (2007), he overtook Topalov to claim first place on FIDE's April list.

His second great success came at the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Leading throughout the event, Anand captured the unified World Chess Champion title with an undefeated +4 score. His first title defense will be a match with the previous champion, Vladimir Kramnik , scheduled for 2008.