Viswanathan Anand: Chess champion meets Vladimir Putin for tea

Russia's President Vladimir Putin invited world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and runner-up Boris Gelfand to his house for a cup of tea.

Putin is said to have congratulated both players for "an outstanding game," according to the Associated Press.

Anand told Putin he had learned to play chess in a Soviet cultural center in his hometown in India when he was a child, reported The Times of India.

"So we brought this on ourselves!" Putin is said to have replied.

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Runner-up Gelfand was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel in 1998, according to the Pantagraph. He was cheered on at the championship match — which was played at one of Russia's finest museums, the Tretyakov Gallery — like a hometown hero.

Anand beat Gelfand on Wednesday 2.5 to 1.5 in a fast-moving tiebreaker following a 6 to 6 draw, reported the AP.

According to The Times of India, this was Anand's fourth world title win in a row. The India chess wiz claimed the first in 2000, and then won three in a row in 2007, 2008 and 2010. He has been world champion since 2007.

He received a gold medal, $1.4 million worth of prize money, a trophy and a piece of contemporary art showing Anand and Gelfand for his most recent win, reported India's IBN.