Viswanathan Anand has been the World Champion since 2007,
winning the title in an 8 player double round robin tournament.
Since then he has defended his title in match conditions three
times, defeating former Champions Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin
Topalov 3-1 with 7 draws and 3-2 with 7 draws respectively. His
most recent defence came in May 2012 against Boris Gelfand. Tied
1-1 with 10 draws, the match was decided by tie break games which
Anand won 1-0 with 3 draws.
Anand is scheduled to defend his title again in Autumn 2013,
against the winner of a candidates tournament contested by Boris
Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Teimour
Radjabov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk and Peter
Svidler.