Meet the Anands: How chess icon Viswanathan Anand's son has taken to art

The Hindu

29-07-2025

Viswanathan Anand hardly has space to play a game of chess inside his house.
Art has taken over a bulk of the space at his luxurious residence in Chennai's Kotturpuram. If a painting of lord Hayagriva is located next to a fancy chess board that was gifted to him abroad, a sketch of a tiger is perched right near a chess board made of paper.
Viswanathan Anand and Akhil interview
Anand does not mind at all... because the brain behind these works is his son, Sai Akhil Anand, who is gearing up for his solo exhibition, Morphogenesis.
'My house is now 50% art, 50% chess,' beams Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand, 'Traditionally, it has always been full of my trophies and newspaper clippings about my achievements. Recently, it has started to fill up with Akhil's budding art journey. I'm happy to share what art means to the family.'
The Anands will do more of that in the first week of August when Morphogenesis opens in Chennai. 'I do a lot of Indian art like Gond, madhubani, worli and cheriyal and connect it with math patterns,' says 14-year-old Akhil about the elements of his show, which has been curated by his teacher, Diana Satish.
The numbers game
Akhil, currently studying in Class IX at Chennai's Beyond 8, might be the son of a champion synonymous with chess, but it was art that appealed to him from a young age. 'I once observed the stripes of a zebra and tiger and noticed its patterns. Ever since, I have been fascinated with patterns.'
His early works were about people – of popular personalities like Newton, Einstein and Gandhi. This fascination grew into a passion during the COVID lockdown a few years ago. Explains Anand, 'With more time in his hands, he (Akhil) got deeper into art. He was deeply inspired by the programmes of David Attenborough that spoke about about patterns and colour in Nature.'
Morphogenesis will feature all that. If the series called the Bindu Bovine involves Akhil's artistic interpretation of a cow using elements of fractal geometry, the UnBinary series – inspired by the geometric works of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian – features subjects in binary colours. So, what's his personal favourite? Akhil states, 'The series on animal superheroes, which talks about a few animals that are endangered and close to extinction.' In that series, close to Akhil's heart, are sketches on animals like Moo Deng, the hippopotamus from Thailand Zoo that went on to become an Internet sensation, and Tajiri, the giraffe at New York's Animal Adventure Park, which has become a symbol for giraffe conservation.
The right moves
The Anands – both Viswanathan Anand and his wife, Aruna – are cheerleaders for their son's pursuit of art. Anand recalls, 'When I was growing up, my father – who worked in the Railways – had a more conventional job, which meant strict working hours. He tried to keep up with my passion for chess, and was very supportive. I think it's the same for me; I try to keep up with Akhil's artistic pursuits.'
He points out that there are many similarities between chess and art. 'In chess, you are forced to sit in front of a board and focus on the job at hand. It's quite similar in art; you have your tools in front of you, and you need to focus. While technology can help with research, you still need to get back to the job at hand and focus,' he explains.
When they are not discussing chess or art, the Anands dig a lot into music; English musician Sting and Irish rock band U2 are among their favourites. Anand explains, 'For me, it was quite surprising that Akhil ended up liking a lot of music from my teenage days. He is well informed of that time. I have the habit of listening to my favourite song from an album and moving on, but he listens to all of them. But, he is also my gateway into modern music and singers.'
Even as Anand keeps up his duties as a mentor to the current crop of rising Indian chess talents, he still plays doting dad at home. Akhil and Anand bond over not just art and music, but also enjoy playing a game of table tennis whenever they find time. And of course, they also play chess. Akhil is yet to win against Anand – but he is currently mastering the hyper accelerated dragon and London System to get one up against the Indian chess legend. He says, 'I play a lot of chess, but my dream is to become an environmental lawyer and bring upon awareness about issues like climate change and global warming. I want to fight against plastic and air pollution. My role model is BR Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution of India.'
Morphogenesis will be on from August 1 to August 7 at ArtSpace by Kalpadruma, located at 37, Gopalapuram 1st Street, Kanakasri Nagar, Gopalapuram, Chennai.