Top Of The World

The year 2007 witnessed a golden period for Indian chess with ViswanathanAnand reaching the top of the world ranking list while also becoming WorldChampion.

Anand, who has been consistent in maintaining his top-three position for almostlast 15 years, climbed to the top of FIDE's world ranking list for the firsttime in his over two-decade career and went on to clinch the World Championshiptitle as well as the ELO rating of 2800 to make it a memorable year not only forhimself but for the country as well.

Besides Anand's unparalleled achievements, Koneru Humpy continued where she hadleft off last year, achieving the rare feat of an ELO rating of 2600 to becomeonly the second woman in the world after Hungarian Judit Polgar to do so.

Humpy was also awarded the Padmashree for claiming gold medals in the sport onits debut in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

Humpy repeated her dazzling performance at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau bywinning two gold medals - one each in rapid and blitz - along with a silver inthe classic version.

She also proved her mettle by bagging back-to-back open tournaments at Hilversumin The Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Tania Sachdev, the glamour girl of the sport, won the Asian women's title andthen pocketed the National women's 'A' crown for the second successive year.

Krishnan Sasikiran also reached new heights in his career by crossing the 2700ELO rating mark, albeit for a brief period as he slipped after hisnone-too-impressive performance at the Aerosvit tournament.

He was the only Indian to reach the fourth round of the World Cup at theKhanty-Mansiysk in Russia while citymate R B Ramesh lifted the CommonwealthChess Trophy to end the year on a bright note for the country after Anand hadset the ball rolling with his win in the Amber Rapid and Blindfold tournament.

Anand comfortably won in the rapid format and finished overall second to RussianVladimir Kramnik in the elite field with only Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria givingit a miss.

Anand also won the 14-round prestigious category-20 Morelia-Linares Super GMtournament ahead of Topalov, Peter Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko andLevon Aronian to be at the top of the FIDE rankings.

Anand won the Mainz rapid title for 10th time by defeating Aronian in the final.The Indian ace, however, finished runner-up to the Armenian in his debut in'Chess960' rapid world championship at the same venue.

The 38-year-old Chennai-born finished second to Ivanchuk in the World BlitzChampionship. His happy hunting ground at Wijk Aan Zee was not so lucky for himthis time as Anand finished fifth after losing to Kramnik and Topalov at theCorus Super Grandmasters tournament.

Meanwhile, Delhi prodigy Parimarjan Negi tied for the top position but finishedthird after the tie-break in the World Youth Star competition while G N Gopaland teenager Abhijeet Gupta became the 16th and 17th Grandmasters of the countryapart from many others earning various title norms.

Prominent among the norm-makers included IM G Rohit, MS Thejkumar who earned GMnorms, while 12-year-old Sahaj Grover claimed his first IM norm along with PKarthikeyan, Sasikant Kutwal and Nisha Mohta, Amruta Mokal, N Kirthika and RPreeti earned their respective WIM norms.

If the seniors were at their best, the junior brigade was also exemplary withthe national team winning the World Youth (Under-16) Chess Olympiad gold medal.

The team members -- R Ashwath, B Adhiban, P Shyam Nikhil, Swayam Mishra and SNitin -- also won individual medals.

Adhiban bagged the bronze on first board, Nikhil pocketed the silver medal onfourth board and Mishra received bronze on the reserve board.

In the age-group division, Ivana Furtado hogged the limelight for bringing thegold medal for the second time in world girls' Under-8 category at the Youthchampionships.

Prince Bajaj was the boys' Under-10 bronze winner while Shalmali Gagare camethird in girls' Under-14.

However, none of the Indians could be successful at the Junior Worldchampionships as bright young stars - GM Parimarjan Negi, GN Gopal, AbhijeetGupta, Ashwin Kamparia, Deepan Chakravarty, D Harika, Eesha Karvade -- failed towin a medal.

It was particularly disappointing that top seed Harika lost the last three gamesin a row after leading in the initial rounds of the girl's event.

Similar was the story for the seniors as all Indians, except Sasikiran, lost inthe first round in World Cup chess. Grandmasters Abhijeet Kunte, Harikrishna,Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GN Gopal fell at the first hurdle.

Sasikiran finally lost in the fourth round of the premier event.