Viswanathan Anand to be feted with Hridaynath Award

Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand will be honoured with the Hridaynath Award, which felicitates and recognises successful individuals across the country from various walks of life. The honour will be a cash award of Rs 2 lakh and a memento.

State Governor C Vidyasagar Rao will present the award to the 46-year-old sportsman at an event here on April 12. The previous recipients of the award include eminent personalities like Lata Mangeshkar, Babasaheb Purandare, Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and A R Rahman.

The guests of honour for the ceremony will be Maharashtra Culture Minister Vinod Tawde and Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, while Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan will be a special guest for the evening.

Born on December 11, 1969, Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former world champion. He became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002 and became the undisputed world champion in 2007.

Other sports personalities like D Prasad, Praveen Thipsay along with his wife Bhagyashree Thipsay, Padmashree Anupama Gokhale, Raghunandan Gokhale, Dhanraj Pullay, Devendra Joshi, Kamesh Mehta and Parnali Dharia will also be felicitated during the ceremony.