OFF THE WALL CHESS TRIVIA
by Bill Wall
2001: A Space Odyssey
Movie made in 1968
by Stanley Kubrick. It features an astronaut, Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood),
playing a chess game with the HAL-9000 computer. The game in the movie is from an actual game,
Roesch vs.
Roesch –
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bb4 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.c3 O-O 8.O-O d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nf4
11.Qe4 Nxe5 12.Qxa8 Qd3 13.Bd1 Bh3 14.Qxa6 Bxg2 15.Re1 Qf3 and White resigns
since 16.Qc8 (if 16.Bxf3 Nxf3 mate; if 16.Re2 Nh3 mate) Rxc8 17.h3 Nxh3+ 18.Kh2
Ng4 mate 0-1
This may have been
the first movie with a chess scene. The
movie was made in 1903 by R. W. Paul (Paul’s Animatograph Works of
Aagaard, Jacob
(1973- )
Jacob Aagaard was
born on July 31, 1973. He is grandmaster
(2007) from
Schmied – Aagaard,
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5
3.c4 e6 4.Bg5 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Qxc4 c5 7.Nc3 a6 8.a4 cxd4 9.Nxd4?
(9.Qxd4) Ne5 0-1
Aaron, Manuel (1935- )
Aaron - Suer,
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 O-O 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 c5 7.d5 Na6 8.O-O Nc7 9.h3 a6 10.a4 Rb8 11.Bf4 Nd7 12.Re1 Ne5 13.Nxe5 Bxe5 14.Bxe5 dxe5 15.Bg4 f5 16.exf5 gxf5 17.Bh5 Qd6 18.Qe2 e4 19.f3 b5 20.axb5 axb5 21.fxe4 fxe4 22.Qxe4 b4 23.Nd1 e6 24.dxe6 Bxe6 25.Ra7 Bf5 26.Qe7 Qd4+? (26...Qxe7) 27.Kh1 Ne8?? (27...Rbc8) 28.Bf7+ (28...Kh8 29.Qxf8 mate; 28...Kg7 29.Bxe8+ Kg8 30.Re5 wins) 1-0
Aarseth, Sverre (1934- )
Chess master from
Aarseth - Rittner, 6th World Correspondence Championship 1971
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Qg4 Ne7 6.dxc5 Nbc6 7.Nf3 d4 8.Bb5 Qa5 9.Bxc6+ bxc6 10.Qxg7 (10.Qxd4) 10...Rg8 11.Qxh7 Ba6 12.Ng5 Bxc3+ 13.Kd1 O-O-O 14.Nxf7 d3! (15.Nxd8 Qa4 16.b3 Qg4+ 17.f3 Qxg2 18.cxd3 Qxh1+ 19.Kc2 Rg2+ 20.Kxc3 Nd5+ 21.Kd4 Qg1+ 22.Ke4 Re2+ 23.Be3 Qxe3 mate) 0-1
Abdelnabbi, Imed (1963-
)
International Master
(1985) and
Domingos –
Abdelnabbi, Abuja 2003
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5
3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 c5 5.e3 Nc6 6.a3 a6 7.Bd3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 b5 9.Bd3 Bb7 10.O-O Rc8
11.dxc5 Bxc5 12.Qe2 Qc7 13.Ne4 Ne5 14.Nxf6+ gxf6 15.Nxe5 Qxe5 16.f3 Rg8 17.Kh1
Bd6 18.f4? (18.g3) Rxg2! 0-1
Abdulaziz, Al Mahmoud (1972- )
Champion of
Abdulaziz – Talal
Abas, Beruit 2001
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6
3.Bg2 Bg7 4.O-O O-O 5.d3 d5 6.Nbd2 c5 7.c4 Nc6 8.a3 b6 9.Rb1 Bb7 10.b4 cxb4
11.axb4 dxc4 12.Nxc4 Nd4 13.Nxd4 Bxg2 14.Ne6 Qd5? (14…exf6) 15.Nf4 1-0
Abolianin, Arthur (1966- )
International Master
from
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5 Ng8 9.Bd4 f6 10.f4 Nh6
11.exf6 exf6 12.Bc4 d5 13.Qe2+ Kf7 14.O-O-O Bg4
0-1
Abonyi, Istvan (1886-1942)
Hungarian master
from
Abonyi – Hromadka,
1,e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.Ba4 c6 6.O-O Bc5 7.Nxe5 d6 8.Nd3 Bg4 9.Qe1 Nf3+ 10.gxf3
Bxf3 11.e5 O-O 12.exd6 Ng4 13.Qe7 Bxd6
0-1
Abrahams, Gerald (1907-1980)
British lawyer (barrister), chess master and chess author. His eight chess books include Teach Yourself Chess (1948), The Chess Mind (1952), Handbook of Chess (1960), Technique in Chess (1961), Test Your Chess (1963), Pan Book of Chess (1966), Not Only Chess (1974), and Brilliancies in Chess (1977). He introduced the Abrahams variation (also called the Noteboom variation) of the Queen’s Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Bb4 6.e3 b5 7.Bd2 a5) in 1925 (Allcock-Abrahams, England 1925). In 1933 he finished in 3rd place in the British Championship. In 1946, he defeated Viaschelav Ragozin (who later became the second World Correspondence Champion) in the Anglo-Soviet radio match, winning one game and drawing one game.
Unknown - Abrahams,
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 Bb4 5.Bd3 e5 6.dxe5 dxe4
7.Bxe4 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 Qxd1+ 9.Kxd1 Be6 10.Rb1 Na6 11.Rxb7? (11.Be3) 11...O-O-O+! (12.Kc2 Kxb7 wins) 0-1.
Abramovic,
Bosko (1951- )
Serbia/Montenegro
Grandmaster (1984). He won at
Abramovic – Chiburdanidze,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.c3 g6 8.d4 exd4 9.e5 Ne4 10.Re1 Nc5 11.cxd4 Nxb3 12.Qxb3 Nb4 13.Nc3 Nd3 14.Ne4 Bxe4 15.Bg5 Be7 16.Bxe7 Qxe7 17.Rxe4 1-0
Abreu, Aryam (1978-
)
International Master
from
Abreu – Van
Riemsdijk, Columbia 2001
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 b5 7.e5 b4 8.Qf3 Ra7 9.exf6 bxc3 10.Qxc3
gxf6 11.Be3 Rc7 12.Qd2 Nd7 13.Be2 Bb7 14.Ne6 Qc8 15.Nxc7+ Qxc7 16.O-O Rg8
17.Bf3 f5 18.Bd4 d5 19.Rae1 e6 20.Bh5 Qc6 21.Rxe6+ Qxe6 22.Re1 Kd8 23.Rxe6 fxe6
24.Bf7 1-0
Acers, Jude (1944- )
Jude Acers was born in
Steers - Acers,
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb4 5.Qa4+ N8c6 6.a3 Na6! 7.d5 Nc5 8.Qb5 b6 9.dxc6 a5 10.b4 Ba6 11.bxc5 Bxb5 12.cxb5 Qd4 (13.Ra2 Qe4+ 14.Ne2 Qxb1) 0-1
FIDE master and former champion of
Acevedo –
Fischer, Siegen 1970
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. c3 g6 4. g3 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Re1 d5 9. Ne5 Nc6 10. Ndf3 Rc8 11. Nxc6 Bxc6 12. Bh3 Bd7 13. Bf1 Bc6 14. Ne5 Bb7 15. a4 Ne4 16. f3 Nd6 17. e3 Qc7 18. a5 f6 19. axb6 axb6 20. Nd3 e5 21. Nf2 e4 22. f4 Ra8 23. Bd2 Rxa1 24. Qxa1 Ra8 25. Qb1 Qc6 26. b3 Ba6 27. Qb2 Bxf1 28. Rxf1 c4 29. b4 Qa4 30. Rb1 Bf8 31. Kf1 Nb5 32. Ke2 f5 33. Nd1 Kf7 34. Nf2 Qa2 35. Nd1 Ke6 36. Qxa2 Rxa2 37. Rb2 Ra1 38. Be1 Kd7 39. Bd2 Kc6 40. Be1 Na3 41. Kd2 Kb5 42. Bf2 Ka4 43. Be1 Be7 44. Bf2 Nb5 45. Kc2 Ka3 46. Rb1 Ra2+ 47. Rb2 Nxc3 48. Kxc3 Ra1 0-1
Peter Acs was born May 10, 1981 in
Van Wely – Acs, Netherlands 2002
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Ne2 Re8 8.O-O Bd6 9.a3 Ng4 10.h3 Nh2 11.Re1 Nf3+ 12.gxf3 Qg5+ 13.Kh1 Qh4 14.Nf4 Bxh3 15.Ncxd5 Re6 16.Nxe6 Bf5+ 17.Kg1 Qh2+ 18.Kf1 Bg3 0-1
Acs – Donchenko, Tel Aviv 2001
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Ng4 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg7 10.Be2 h5 11.Nf5 Bxf5 12.exf5 Qa5 13.O-O Bxc3 14.bxc3 f6 15.Rb1 Nc6 16.Rxb7 Rd8 17.Qd3 h4 18.Qc4 Nge5 19.Bxe5 Nxe5 20.Qe6 Nd7 21.Bc4 1-0
Active Chess
Active chess (30 minutes per game) was introduced in 1987 by
FIDE and was mostly used for demonstrations and other unofficial events. The first official Active Chess (30 minutes
per game) tournament was held in
Active Chess Player
In 1995, Robert Smeltzer of
Adams, Michael (1971- )
Michael Adams was born on November 17, 1971. He was the highest rated 13 year old ever, rated 2405 in 1986. In 1988 he was the only winner in a 10-board satellite simultaneous exhibition with Kasparov. He won the 76th British Championship in 1989 at age 17, the youngest ever. In 1989, he became at Grandmaster at 17. In 1997, he tied for first with Matthew Sadler in the British Championship. In 1997 he lost to Anand in the semi-finals of the FIDE World Chess Championship. In 1998 he had an Elo rating of 2715 and was the 5th strongest player in the world. In 2002 he was rated 2757 and was the 4th strongest player in the world (behind Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand). Three times he has reached the semi-finals of the FIDE World Chess Championship. In 2004, he reahed the final in the World Championship, losing out to Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the tie-break games. In 2005, while ranked 7 in the world, he lost a chess match with the Hydra chess program, losing 5 games and drawing one game. In 2008, he is number 13 in the world and the number one British chess player with a 2735 Elo rating.
Wickert - M. Adams, Islington 1992
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 c5 4.d5 Qb6 5.Nd2 Qxb2 6.Ngf3? (6.Nxe4 Qxb4+ 7.c3) 6...Nc3 7.Nc4? (7.Qc1 Qxc1+ 8.Rxc1 Bxa2) 7... Nxd1 (8.Nxb2 Nxb2) 0-1
Ziemann – M. Adams,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.Re1 Ng5 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Rxe5+ Ne6 8.Ng5 Bd6 9.Qh5 g6 10.Nxf7 Kxf7 11.Qf3+ Qf6 12.Re3 Qf6 13.Qe4 Bf5 0-1
Adams, Weaver
Weaver Warren Adams was born on April 28, 1901 in
Weinstock - W.
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 d6 8.e3 Qe7 9.Be2 g5 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.Bg3 Ne4 12.Qd4 O-O 13.O-O Nxc3 14.bxc3 Bc5 15.Qd3 f5 16.Rae1 Kh8 17.Bd1 Ba6 18.Bb3 Rae8 19.Kh1? (19.Qxf5) 19...f4 (20.exf4 Qxe1) 0-1
W. Adams – Santasiere, Baltimore (49th US Open) 1948
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 c6 4.d4
Bb4 5.dxe5 Nxe4 6.Qd4 d5 7.exd6 O-O 8.Bf4 Re8 9.Ne2 Bc5 10.Bxf7+ Kf8 11.Qc4 b5
12.Qb3 Bxf2+ 13.Kf1 Nc5 14.Qa3 Nba6 15.b4 Kxf7 16.Kxf2 Ne4+ 17.Nxe4 Rxe4 18.Qf3
Qe8 19.Be5 1-0
Adamski, Andrzej (1939-
)
Polish International Master (1980).
Adamski, Jan (1943-
)
Polish International Master (1976). Polish Champion in 1982. He represented
Adamski – J. Christiansen, Copenhagen 2000
1. Nf3 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. Nc3 d6 7. d4 Qe8 8.b3 Nc6 9. d5 exd5 10. cxd5 Ne5 11. Nd4 Qh5 12. f4 Neg4 13. h3 Nh6 14. Qd3 Ne4 15. g4 fxg4 16. Bxe4 gxh3 17. Bxh7+ Kh8 18. Kh1 Bh4 19. Qg6 1-0
Adamson, Robby
FIDE master from
Addison, William Grady (1933- )
Considered the best Go player among chess masters. He was born in
Addison - Kostro,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Ne2 d5 6.a3 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.e4 Nxc3 9.Nxc3 c5 10.d5 exd5 11.Nxd5 Nc6 12.Bc4 Bd6 13.O-O Qh4 14.f4 Bg4 15.Qd3 Nd4 16.Rf2 Rae8 17.Be3 Rxe4? (17...b5) 18.Qxe4 Bf5 19.g3 (19...Bxe4 20.gxh4) 1-0
Adianto, Utut (1965- )
First Indonesian Grandmaster (1986) and best chess player in
Adianto - Neamtu,
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bxc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bf5 7.Nc3 e6 8.Nge2 Nc6 9.a3 Be7 10.O-O O-O 11.h3 h6 12.Ba2 Qd7 13.Be3 Rad8 14.Qc1 Na5 15.Bxh6 gxh6 16.Qxh6 Rfe8 (16...Nac4) 17.Ng3 Bf8 18.Qg5+ Bg6 19.Nce4 Bg7 20.Nf6+ Bxf6 21.exf6 Qxd4?? (21...Qd6) 22.Rad1 (22...Qa4 or 22...Qxd1, 23.Qh6 and 24.Qg7 mate) 1-0
Adjournment
First introduced at
Adla, Diego Gustavo (1968- )
International Master from
Adly, Ahmed (1987-
)
Egyptian Grandmaster (2005).
In 2003,he contracted malaria while playing in a chess tournament in
Adorjan, Andras (1950- )
Hungarian chess grandmaster who took 2nd place, behind
Anatoly Karpov, at the 1969 World Junior Championship in
Spassov – Adorjan,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5
3.d5 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.g3 Bg7 6.Bg2 b5 7.cxb5 a6 8.bxa6 Qa5+ 9.Nc3 Ne4 10.Qc2? Nxc3
11.Bd2 Qa4! (12.Qxa4 Nxa4) 0-1
Adorjan - Zsinka,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.Nc3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 b6 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bf4 e5 8.Bg5 Be7? (8...Bb7) 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Qd5 Nc6 11.Qxc6+ Bd7 12.Nc7+ (12...Kf8 13.Qxa8 Qxa8 14.Nxa8) 1-0
Chess was forbidden by the Taliban in
Afifi, Assem (1947-
)
Egyptian International Master. He played in the 1985 Tunis International and took 16th place. He played in the 1990 Manila Interzonal and tied for 60th-63rd place.
Agababean, Naira (1951-
)
Woman Grandmaster from Moldava. She is a former Armenian woman chess
champion. Her daughter is Woman
Grandmaster Almira Skripchenko, who married
Grandmaster Joel Lautier of
Agdestein, Simen (1967- )
Agdestein - Quinteros, Tessaloniki Olympiad 1984
1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 Nf6 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O Nc6 7.Nc3 Bg4 8.d5 Na5 9.Nd2 c5 10.h3 Bd7 11.Rb1 e5 12.a3 b6 13.e4 Ne8 14.b4 Nb7 15.Nb3 f5 16.exf5 gxf5 17.bxc5 Nxc5 18.Nxc5 dxc5 19.d6 e4 20.Nd5 Be6 21Bf4 Nxd6? (21...Kh8) 22.Bxd6 (22...Qxd6 23.Nf6+ and 24.Qxd6) 1-0
Age of Chess players
Capablanca learned the game of chess at age 4 by watching
his father play. Karpov was taught the
moves at age 4. Spassky learned the game
at age 5 and later joined the
Ager Chessmen
Chessmen made of rock crystal that used to be preserved in a
church in Ager,
Agnel, Hyacinth R. (1799-1871)
He was a professor (taught French) and Colonel at the U.S.
Military Academy at
Agrest, Evgenij (1966-
)
Grandmaster now living in
Aguado, Jose Sanz (1907-1969)
Spanish chess champion in 1943.
Agzamov, Georgy Tadzhiyevich (1954-1986)
Uzbekistan Grandmaster (1984) who was killed when he tried
to take a shortcut to go swimming in
Agzamov - Gulko,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 c5 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Rc1 Ne4 8.cxd5 Nxc3 9.Qd2 Qxa2 10.bxc3 Qa5 11.Bc4 Nd7 12.Nf3 Nxc5 13.Be5 O-O 14.O-O f6 15.Ra1 Qd8 16.Bc7 Qd7 17.d6+ e6 18.Nd4 Qf7 19.Ra5 b6 20.Rxc5 bxc5 21.Nb3 Qd7 22.Qd3 Rd8? (22...Qc6) 23.Qe4 (23...Bb7 24.Qxb7 Rab8 25.Bxe6+ Qxe6 26.Bxb8) 1-0
Ahlhausen, Carl (1835-1892)
Librarian of the
Ahues, Carl Oscar (1883-1968)
German International Master (1950). German champion in 1929. He was winning blitz chess tournaments in
Ahues –
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.Nc3 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.O-O exd4 7.Nxd4 Be7 8.Nde2 O-O 9.Ng3 Kh8 10.b3 Qe8 11.Bb2 Bd8 12.f4 Ne7 13.e5 Ng4 14.Bxd7 Qxd7 15.Nce4 Ne3 16.Qh5 Qg4 17.Rf3 N7f5 18.Qxg4 1-0
Ahues, Herbert
(1922- )
Son of Carl Ahues. In 1989 he became a Grandmaster for Chess Compositions.
C. Ahues –
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.Nc3 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.O-O exd4 7.Nxd4 Be7 8.Nde2 O-O 9.Ng3 Kh8 10.b3 Qe8 11.Bb2 Bd8 12.f4 Ne7 13.e5 Ng4 14.Bxd7 Qxd7 15.Nce4 Ne3 16.Qh5 Qg4 17.Rf3 N7f5 18.Qxg4 1-0
AIPE
The Association Internationale de la Presse Echiqueene
(AIPE) was the International Association of Chess Press. It was an organization of chess journalists
founded in 1967 by Jordi Puig of
Aitken, James Macrae (1908-1983)
Scottish player who won the Scottish chess championship 10
times (1935, 1952, 1953, 1955-1958, 1960, 1961, and 1965). He was also
Aitken - Hunter,
1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Bb4 5.O-O Nge7 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 d5? (7...O-O) 8.exd5
Qxd5 9.Nxc6 Qxd1 10.Nxb4+ Bd7 11.Rxd1 (11...Bxa4 12.Nc3) 1-0
Ajeeb
The name of the chess automaton built by Charles Alfred
Hopper, a
Akesson, Ralf (1961-
)
Swedish Grandmaster. He was European Junior Champion in 1980-81. He was Swedish Champion in 1985. His has been rated as high as 2535.
Akhmilovskaya, Elena Bronisklavovna (1957- )
Woman Grandmaster (1977) from
Akhmilovskaya - Dahl,
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 f5 5.g4 fxg4 6.Ne5 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.Nxg4 Nxg4 9.Qxg4 Nf6 10.Qg5 Bd7 11.Bd2 Qe7 12.O-O-O O-O-O 13.f3 c5 14.Be1 cxd4 15.exd4 h6 (15...Bc6) 16.Qe5 Qd6 17.Bg3 Bc6 18.Bh3 dxc4? (18...Kd7) 19.Qa5 (19...Qd7 20.Bxe6 Qxe6 21.Qc7 mate) 1-0
Akhsharumova, Anna Markovna (1957- )
Woman Grandmaster who finished first in the 1976 Soviet
Women's Championship. Her husband, Boris
Gulko, tied for first in the 1977 Soviet Men's Championship. By all rights, she should have won the 1983
Soviet Women's title played in
Rudolph -
1.e4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.Nge2 e6 7.O-O Nge7 8.Be3 Nd4 9.Nf4 O-O 10.Qd2 Rb8 11.Nd1 b6 12.c3 Ba6 13.Nh5 gxh5 14.cxd4 cxd4 15.Bg5 f6 16.Bh4 Ng6 17.Qe2 Kh8 18.Qxh5 Bxd3 19.Re1 Nxh4 20.Qxh4 f5 21.Qh3 e5 22.f3 (22.exf5) 22...fxe4 23.fxe4 Qf6 24.Rc1 Rb7 25.Bf1 Bh6 (26.Rc6 Be3+ 27.Nxe3 Qf2+; 26.Bxd3 Bxc1 27.Rf1 Qg7; 26.Rc8 Bd2) 0-1
Akins, Claude (1926-1993)
Movie and television actor (Sheriff Lobo) and chess enthusiast. He taught Dean Martin how to play chess. He played chess and won several games against John Wayne.
Akobian, Varuzhan (1983- )
International Grandmaster (2004), born in
Akopian,
Armenian grandmaster (1991) who won the World Under-16
Championship in 1986 at the age of 14 won the World Under-18 Championship at 16
and was World Junior Champion in 1991.
He tied for 1st at the U.S. Open in 1991. In 1999 he played without a single loss in
the FIDE knockout world championship at
Steinbacher - Akopian,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e3 Bg7 6.Bc4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 c5 8.Qf3 O-O 9.Ne2 Qc7 10.Bd5 Nd7 11.Bb3 Nf6 12.e4 cxd4 13.cxd4 Bg4 14.Qg3 Qa5+ 15.Bd2? (15.Qc3) 15...Qxd2+ (16.Kxd2 Nxe4+ and 17...Nxg3) 0-1
Al-Adli (800-870)
The first great Arabic chess champion and author. He lived during the reign (847-861) of Caliph Mutawakkil. Al-adli’s chess book (now lost) contained chess problems, endgames and openings.
Al-Modiahki, Mohamad
(1974- )
First Grandmaster from
Al-Mutamid
Moorish poet-king who reigned over
Al-Rashid (?-809)
Abbasid Caliph of
Aladdin (Ala’Addin, As Tabrizi)
The strongest chess player at the end of the 14th
century. He was also known as Ali
Shatrangi (Ali the Chess player). He
could successfully give odds to all other leading players. He was Chinese and a lawyer from
Alapin, Semyon Zinovievich (1856-1923)
Russian chess master and openings analyst. He was born in
Alapin - Marshall, Ostende 1905
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4 4.d3 Nf6 5.dxe4 Nxe4 6.Nf3 Bc5 7.Qe2 f5 8.Nc3 Bf2+ 9.Kd1 O-O 10.Bd2 Nxc3+ 11.Bxc3 Qxd5+ 12.Kc1 Rd8? (12...Bc5) 13.b4 Bb6 14.Qe7 (threatening 15.Qxg7 mate) 14...Qd7 15.Bc4+ Kh8 16.Bxg7 mate 1-0
Alatortsev,
Russian International Master (1950) and honorary Grandmaster
(1983). He had been the city champion of
Alatortsev - Mazel,
1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Bd6 5.O-O O-O 6.c4 c6 7.Nbd2 Nbd7 8.Qc2 Re8 9.Rd1 e5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Rxe5 13.Nf3 Bf5 14.Qb3 Re7 15.Bg5 Be4 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Nd4 Bc5 18.e3 Rc8 (18...Qb6) 19.Bxe4 dxe4 20.Nc6 bxc6 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.Rc1 (22...Rd5 23.Qa4) 1-0
Albero, Roman Toran (1931- )
Spanish International Master (1954). Spanish Champion in 1951 and 1953.
Albin, Adolf (1848-1920)
Romanian chess master (born in
Albin -
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O Nf6 5.c3 O-O 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 Bb6 8.d5 Ne7 (8...Na5) 9.e5 Ne8 10.d6 cxd6 11.exd6 Ng6 12.Bg5 Nf6 13.Nc3 h6 14.Qd3 hxg5? (14...Kh8) 15.Qxg6! Nh7 16.Nd5 fxg6?? 17.Ne7+ Kh8 18.Nxg6 mate 1-0
Alburt, Lev Osipovich (1945- )
Russian Grandmaster (1977) from
Norquist - Alburt, Chicago 1989
1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 Nfd7 4.Nxd5 Nxe5 5.Ne3 Nbc6 6.c3 Nd3+ 7.Bxd3 Qxd3 8.Qe2 Qxe2+ 9.Nxe2 e5 10.f4 Bc5 11.Nd5 Bd6 12.fxe5 Nxe5 13.d4 Nd3+ 14.Kf1 O-O 15.Nef4? (15.Bf4) 15...Nxc1 (16.Rxc1 c6, winning one of the knights) 0-1
Albert –
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.e3 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.a4 O-O 8.Nf3 Bb7 9.Be2 b6 10.dxe6 fxe6 11.Qd6 axb5 12.Bxb5 Ne4 13.Nxe4 Bxe4 14.O-O Rf5 15.Rd1 Qf6 16.Nd2 Rd5? 17.Nxe4 1-0
Alekhine, Alexander (1892-1946)
Winner of the first Soviet Chess Championship (1920) and the
only man to die while holding the world chess championship. He learned chess from his older brother
Alexei (1888-1939). He studied law at
the Sorbonne but failed to get his doctorate as he claimed. He married four times to women 20 to 30
years older than he. He was a prisoner
of war like all the other chess contestants at an international tournament in
Alekhine - De Cassio, Blindfold Simultaneous Exhibition,
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.Bc4 Ne7 4.d3 Nbc6 5.Qh5 O-O 6.Bg5 Qe8 7.Nf3 Ng6 8.Nd5 Bb6 9.Nf6+! (9...gxf6 10.Bxf6, threatening 11.Qh6 and 12.Qg7 mate) 1-0
Alekhine - Vasic, Banja Lika 1931
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bd3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 h6 6.Ba3 Nd7 7.Qe2 dxe4 8.Bxe4 Ngf6 9.Bd3 b6?? (9...c5) 10.Qxe6+! fxe6 11.Bg6 mate 1-0
Alexander Alekhine’s fourth wife. She was born Grace Wishard on October 26,
1876 in
The moves 1.e4 Nf6 were played before Alekhine (analyzed by
Allgaier in 1819), but Alekhine popularized it.
Alexander Alekhine first played this defense at
Alekseev, Evgeny (1985-
)
Russian Grandmaster (2002). He won the Russian Junior Championship twice.
Alexander, Conel Hugh O'Donel (1909-1974)
Irish-born (
Alexander - E. Brown,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.O-O d6 8.cxd4 Bb6 9.Nc3 Na5 10.Bg5 Ne7 11.Nd5 f6 12.Bxf6 gxf6 13.Nxf6+ Kf8 14.Ng5 Nxc4 15.Qh5 Ng6?? (15...Kg7) 16.Qh6+ (16...Ke7 17.Qg7 mate) 1-0
Alexandre, Aaron (1766-1850)
Author of Encyclopedie des Echecs, the first book
containing the collection of all opening variations then known. Published in 1837, he introduced the
algebraic notation and the castling symbols O-O and O-O-O. The rules of the
game were published in four languages in this book. He also wrote Collection des Plus Beux
Problems d’Echecs (The Beauties of Chess) in 1846, the first large
compilation of chess problems and endgames, containing over 2,000 chess
problems and solutions. He was a Jewish
rabbi from
Woman Grandmaster (1976) from Soviet
Alfonsi, Petrus (1062-1120)
Physician of Alfonso VI (1030-1109) and author of the Disciplina
Clericalis (Clerks Instruction). He included chess as one of the seven
knightly accomplishments to be mastered.
The other tasks included riding, swimming, archery, boxing, hawking, and
verse writing. Alfonsi was born Moses
Sephardi in
Alfonso Manuscript
A 98-page manuscript ordered by Alfonso the Wise
(1221-1284), King of Castile. It
included chess, backgammon, and games of chance with dice. Compiled in 1283, it is entitled Juegos Diuersos de Axedrez, Dados, y
Tablas con sus Explications, Ordenudos por man Dado Del Rey don Alonso el Sabio. It is the first source mentioning the
pawn's double move on the first move. It
also includes 103 chess problems. The
manuscript was written by the monks of the monastery of St. Lorenzo del
Escorial, near
King of
Algebraic notation
Algebraic notation is a form of chess notation by using a
combination of letters and numbers (a to h horizontally and 1 to 8 vertically
from the White point of view). The first
use of algebraic notation is from a French manuscript written in 1173. The first use of the figurine algebraic
notation occurred in
Ali, Essam Ahmed (1964-2003)
Essam Ahmed Ali was born on March 31, 1964 in
aliyat
Title given by caliph al-Ma'mun to the top four chess players in the early ninth century. The top four players were Jabir al-Kufi, Rabrab, al-Ansari, and abu'n-Na'am. These are the first unofficial grandmasters of chess. Their endgames survive today.
All-Russian Chess Federation
First Russian chess federation, formed in 1914. It had 865 members.
al-Lajlaj (the Stammerer)
First person to analyze and publish works on the openings in 910. He was a pupil of as-Suli, the strongest player of the 10th century. His analysis was carried down from Arabic to Persian to Sanskrit to Turkish to 16th century Italian.
Allen, George (1808-1876)
The grandnephew of Ethan Allen, who wrote The Life of
Philidor, Musician and Chess-Player, in 1858 and had it published in
Allgaier,
Johann (1763-1823)
Author of the
first chess book published in German, Neue theoretisch-praktische Anweisung
zum Schachspiel. It was
published in
Hungarian Grandmaster (1993) at the age of 17. He has won the Hungarian championship five
times. In 2000 he was ranked #23 in the
world. In 1993, he won the World Junior
Championship. In 2005, he became the
first grandmaster to lose to a computer program in Chess960 (random chess),
when he lost an exhibition match to Shredder in
Aloni, Izak (1905-1985)
Izak Aloni (born Itzchak Schaechter) was Israeli champion in 1945, 1961, and 1965.
Alonso, Francisco Javier Sanz (1952- )
Spanish International Master (1977). Spanish Champion in 1973.
Alster, Ladislav (1927-
)
Czech champion in 1956.
Alterman, Boris (1970-
)
Israeli Grandmaster (1992). His FIDE rating is 2562. He is an advisor to the Deep Junior chess program.
Parisian amateur who frequently played 1.Nh3 in the 1930s. 1.Nh3 is sometimes called the Amar or Paris Opening.
Ambrose, Jan (1954-
)
Czech International Master (1980). Czech Champion in 1980.
The first mention of chess in
American Chess Association (ACA)
The American Chess Association was the first national sports
organization formed in the
American Chess Bulletin
Leading American chess magazine from 1904 to 1963. It was edited by Hermann Helms until 1956 and then by Edgar Holladay.
American Chess Congress
The first American Chess Congress, organized by Daniel Fiske
and held in
American Chess Federation
Forerunner of the
American Chess
Foundation (ACF)
Formed in 1955, and leading philanthropic organization in
American Chess
Magazine (ACM)
Name of a chess magazine in 1846-1847 (edited by Charles Stanley), 1872-1874, 1875, and 1897-1899. The June 1897 edition was published by William Borsodi and edited by Charles Devide. Contributors included Pillsbury, Albert Hodgesm Shipley, and Showalter. It lasted for 30 issues.
College located in
In May-June 1964, the Interzonal tournament was held in
Woman Grandmaster from
Anand, Viswanathan (1969- )
Indian Grandmaster (1988) who won the World Junior
Championship in 1987. In 1995 he played
Kasparov for the world PCA championship in
Micalizzi - Anand,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 Bd7 7.Qd2 a6 8.f4 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.f5 (10.Be2) 10...h5 11.Be2 h4 12.O-O Bh6 13.Qd3 Qb6 14.Rad1 Qxd4+ (15.Qxd4 Nxd4 16.Rxd4 Be3+ 17.Kh1 Bxd4) 0-1
Ivanchuk – Anand, Reggio Emilia 1988
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Be7 7.O-O Nc6 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c3 f5 10.Qb3 Qd6 11.Nfd2 O-O-O 12.f3 Bh4 13.Rd1 Bh3 14.Qc2 Qg6 15.Nb3 Rhf8 16.Na3 Rde8 17.Kh1 Nf2+ 18.Rxf2 Bxg2+! 0-1
Anastasian, Ashot
(1964- )
Grandmaster from
Andersen, Borge (1934-
)
Danish International Master (1964). Danish Champion in 1958, 1967, 1968, and 1973.
Andersen, Erik (1904-1938)
Won the Danish Championship 12 times, including 8 times in a row. He was Nordic Champion in 1930.
Andersen – Censer,
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Qb6 5.Qc1 Nc6 6.c3 Be7 7.Nbd2 d5 8.Bd3 O-O 9.h3 Bd7 10.O-O Rac8 11.Re1 cxd4 12.exd4 a6 13.Re3 Rfd8 14.Bc2 Qa7 15.Qd1 b5 16.Ne5 Be8 17.Rg3 Bf8 18.Bg5 Qe7 19.Ng4 Kh8 20.Nxf6 gxf6 21.Qh5 1-0
Anderson, Frank Ross (1928-1980)
Three-time Canadian Champion (1953, 1955, 1958) from
Anderson - Weaver Adams,
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 b6 4.c3 Bb7 5.Bd3 e6 6.Bf4 Ne7 7.Nbd2 d5 8.Qe2 a6 9.h4 h5 10.Ne5 Nd7 11.O-O-O c5 12.exd5 exd5 13.Rde1 cxd4? (13...Nxe5) 14.Nxf7! Kxf7 15.Qe6+ Kf8 16.Bd6 (or 16.Bxg6 Nxg6 17.Bd6+ Be7 18.Bxe7+ wins) 16...Ne5 17.Rxe5! (17...Bxe5 18.Bxg6 threatening 19.Qf7 mate) 1-0
Anderson, Gerald Frank (1893-1983)
British chess problemist, International Judge of Composition (1960), and International Master of Composition (1975). He was the last person to play Alexander Alekhine. He worked in the British Foreign Office.
Anderson, Terry
Former Associated Press correspondent that was held hostage for six years by Lebanese extremists. He credits chess with helping him survive the ordeal. He was held hostage from March 16, 1985 to December 4, 1991. He built chess sets out of aluminum foil before they allowed him to have a regular chess set.
Anderssen, Adolf (1818-1879)
Winner of the first international chess tournament (
Mayet -
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.O-O Bg4 7.h3 h5 8.hxg4 hxg4 9.Nxe5 g3 10.d4 Nxe4 11.Qg4? (11.fxg3) 11...Bxd4 12.Qxe4?? (12.Nd3) 12...Bxf2+ (13.Rxf2 Qd1+ 14.Rf1 Rh1+ 15.Kxh1 Qxf1 mate) 0-1
Anderssen –
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5
3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Nxe5 Bd6 5.Bc4 Bxe5 6.fxe5 Qd4 7.Qe2 Qxe5 8.d4 Qxd4 9.Nc3 Nf6
10.Be3 Qd8 11.O-O h6 12.Bc5 Nbd7 13.Qxe4+!
1-0
Andersson, Ulf (1951- )
Swedish Grandmaster (1972) who is the all-time drawing master. Against top-level opposition, he has drawn 74% of his games, winning 10%, and losing 16%. In 1984 he was the 5th highest rated player in the world. In 1996 he set a world record of playing 310 chessboards simultaneously, winning 268, drawing 40, and losing 2 games in 15 hours and 23 minutes. It is estimated he walked over 7 miles during this exhibition. In 1996 he became a Grandmaster is correspondence chess and is currently the highest rated correspondence player in the world. He was the first person to beat Karpov after Karpov became world champion in 1975.
Anderssen - Portisch,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 4.O-O Bd7 5.Re1 Nf6 6.c3 a6 7.Bf1 e5 8.h3 h6 9.d4 Qc7 10.a4 g6 11.Na3 Bg7 12.dxc5 dxc5 13.Nc4 Rb8 14.b4 cxb4 15.cxb4 Be6 16.Nd6+ Ke7 17.Ba3 Ne8 18.Nxb7 Qxb7 (18...Rxb7) 19.b5+ Kf6 20.bxc6 Qc7 21.Nxe5 (21...Qxe5 22.Qf3+ Bf5 23.exf5 and if 23...Qxf5 24.Be7 mate) 1-0
Angantysson, Haukur (1948- )
Icelandic International Master (1981). He was Icelandic Champion in 1976.
In the 1950s, a scientist at a Soviet research station (Vostok)
in
Anthony, Edwyn
(1843-1932)
Founder (along with Lord Randolph Churchill) and President
of the
Antoshin, Vladimir Sergeyevich (1929- )
Russian Grandmaster (1964) and technical designer. He has played in 5
Hamann – Antoshin,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.Bf4 e5 7.Be3 a6 8.N5c3 Nf6 9.Be2 Be7 10.O-O O-O 11.Nd2 b5 12.a4 b4 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.exd5 Na5 15.f4 exf4 16.Bxf4 Bf5 17.Kh1 Bg6 18.Nf3 Bf6 19.Ra2 Bxc2 20.Qxc2 b3 0-1
Seleznev –
1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 c6 5.Bg2 Qc7 6.Nf3 e5 7.dxe5 dxe5 8.O-O Bb4 9.Qb3 Na6 10.e4 fxe4 11.Ng5 Bxc3 12.Qxc3 Bf5 13.Re1 Nc5 14.b4 Nd3 15.Re2 O-O 16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Bxe4 Bxe4 (17...Qxd3) 18.Rxe4 Nxf2 19.Rxe5 Rad8 20.c5 (20.Bb2) 20...Qf7 21.Bg5 Rd3 (22.Qc2 Qf3, threatening 23...Qh1 mate) 0-1
Antunes, Antonio (1962-
)
Grandmaster from
Apicella, Manuel (1970-
)
Grandmaster from
Appel, Izaak
(1905-1941)
Polish master. He won the Lodz City Chess Championship in 1934. He participated in several Polish championships.
Apscheneek, Fritzis (Franz Apsenieks) (1894-1941)
Latvian master. In
1924, he took 2nd place in the World Amateur Championship in
Arabic
The first references of chess in Arabic occur in 720 in romantic poems by Kutaiyira Azzata and al-Farazdaq. The Arabicized name of the Persian Chatrang became shatranj. The pieces were called Shah (king), Firz (minister or queen), Fil (elephant or bishop), Faras (horse), Rukh (chariot or boat), and Baidaq (foot-soldier).
Araiza Munoz , Jose Joaquin (1900-1971)
Won the Mexican Chess Championship 15 times in a row, from 1924 to 1949. He was a Lt. Colonel in the Mexican Army.
Soto Larrea -
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 e6 4.b3 Bd6 5.Bb2 Nf6 6.d3 Nbd7 7.Nbd2 e5 8.cxd5 cxd5 9.g3 O-O 10.Bg2 Nc5 11.Bf1 Bf5 12.e4 dxe4 13.dxe4 Nxe4 14.Nxe4 Bxe4 15.Be2 Qa5+ 16.Kf1 Rad8 17.Kg2? (17.Qe1) 17...Bc7 18.Qc1 Nd3 19.Qc3 Nxb2 20.Qxb2 Rd2 21.b4 Rxb2 22.bxa5 Rxe2 0-1
Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan (1968- )
Georgian Woman Grandmaster.
In 1986, she was the World Women’s Under 16 Champion. She won the 1995 Women’s Interzonal at
Arbakov, Valentin (1952- )
Russian Grandmaster. He was joint Moscow Champion in 1981. He is one of the strongest blitz players in the world.
Psakhis – Arbakov,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nf3 g6 5.cxb5 a6 6.Qc2 Bg7 7.e4 O-O 8.Nc3 Bb7 9.Bf4 d6 10.Bc4 axb5 11.Nxb5 Nbd7 12.O-O Nb6 13.Be2 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Ra4 15.Nfd4 Bxd4 16.Nxd4 Rxd4 17.Qf3 Nxd5 18.Bh6 Qa8 19.Qg3 Re8 20.b3 Ba6 21.Rfe1 Bxe2 22.Rxe2 Qa6 23.Rae1 Qxe2 0-1
Arbiter
The director of a tournament or match who sees that the laws of chess are strictly observed. The youngest arbiter of a major tournament was Sophia Gorman, who, at age 19, was an arbiter at the World Candidates tournament. FIDE created the International Arbiter (Judge) title in 1951. An arbiter must have a working knowledge of two official FIDE languages (English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish).
Arbues, Pedro de
(1441-1484)
An Dominican member of the Spanish Inquisition, living in Aragon, who ordered victims of persecutions to stand in as figures in a game of living chess played by two blind monks. Each time they captured a piece, they condemned someone to death, usually by burning them alive. Arbues was assassinated in the Saragossa Cathedral in 1484. He was made a saint in 1867.
Ardiansyah, Herman
(Haji) (1951- )
Indonesian Grandmaster (1986). He tied for 1st place at
Cuban Grandmaster who won the 1986 World Junior Chess Championship. He became the 2nd Cuban, after Capablanca, to hold a world chess crown.
In 1860, the first chess club in
English Grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2521. He was once married to WIM Susan Walker, who latter married GM Bogdan Lalic.
Arkhipov, Sergey (1954-
)
Russian Grandmaster (1992). His FIDE rating is 2505.
Westerinen – Arkhipov,
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3 Qh4+ 4.Ke2 Ne7 5.Nf3 Qh5 6.d4 g5 7.Kf2 d6 8.Be2 Bg7 9.Nb5 Na6 10.c3 g4 11.Ne1 Bh6 12.Kg1 Rg8 13.h3 f3 14.hxg4 f2+ 0-1
Arlauskas, Romanas (1917- )
Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess (1965). He finished 3rd in the 4th
World Correspondence Championship (1962-1965).
He tied for first place in the 1943 Lithuanian chess championship. He migrated from
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 g6 4.Qb3 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bg7 6.e4 O-O 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bf4 c5 9.dxc5 Ba6 10.Nb5 bxc5 11.Rd1 Qa5+ 12.b4 Qxb5 13.Qxb5 Bxb5 14.Bxb5 Nxe4 15.Rd3 cxb4 16.O-O Nc3 17.Bc4 Ne2+ 0-1
The first Armed Forces Championship in the
Arnason, Jon (1960-
)
Icelandic grandmaster (1986). He was winner of the first World Championship
for juniors under 17, in 1977 (ahead of Jay Whitehead and Kasparov). He won the championship of
Grandmaster from
Aronin, Lev (1920-1982)
Soviet International Master (1950). He played in eight Soviet championships, taking 2nd in the 18th USSR Championship in 1950. He won the Moscow Championship in 1965. His occupation was a meteorologist.
Aronin – Kantorovich,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 b6 4.d4 Bb7 5.Bc4 d5 6.exd5 Bxd5 7.Qa4+ Bc6 8.Ne5 1-0
Art
There are at least 20 paintings called
"Checkmate." The first known
painting depicting a chess game is kept at the Cappella Palatina in
Arteaga, Eldis Cobo (1929- )
Cuban International Master (1967). Cuban Champion in 1950.
Arulaid, Alexander (1924- )
Estonian Champion in 1948, 1955, and 1964.
Asanov, Bolat (1961-
)
Grandmaster from
Ascher, Jacob (1841-1912)
Canadian Chess Champion in 1878 and 1883. He was a chess columnist for the New Dominion Monthly.
Aseev, Konstantin (1960-2004)
Russian Grandmaster. He was Leningrad Champion in 1985. His peak FIDE rating was 2591. He was the chess trainer for Maya Chiburdanidze, Nana Aleksandria, Andrei Kharlov, and Evgeny Alekseev. He played in four USSR Championships.
Icelandic Champion in 1931, 1933, 1934, 1944, 1945, and 1946.
Ashley, Maurice (1966- )
In 1993, he became the first African-American International
Master in
Berkovich -
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 O-O 5.Nf3 c5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.Qxc3 cxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qh4 d5 10.b4 dxc4 11.Qxc4 e5 12.Bb2 Be6 13.Qh4 Qd5 14.Qg5 Qb3 15.Rb1 Rfd8 16.g3 (16.Qe3) 16...Nxb4 17.axb4 Ne4 18.Nd2 (18.Qxe5 Qxb4+) 18...Nxd2 19.Qxe5 f6 (20.Qc3 Nxb1) 0-1
Asmundsson, Ingvar (1934- )
Icelandic Champion in 1979.
as-Razi
Champion of Persia in 847 after defeating al-Aldi in the presence of the caliph Matawakkil. He wrote a book of chess problems of which two survive today.
Assiac
Pseudonym of Heinrich Fraenkel (1897-1986), chess author. He wrote a weekly chess column for the New Statesman.
Association
The Canadian Chess Association is the oldest (first) national chess association in the world, founded in 1872. The Scottish Chess Association is the second oldest in the world, founded in 1884.
as-Suli (880-946)
Turkish player who defeated al-Mawardi, the resident master of the caliph al_Muktafi, to become the champion of the known world in the 10th century. His superiority was recognized up to Renaissance times.
Asztalos, Lajos (1889-1956)
Hungarian player and International Master (1950). He won the Hungarian championship in 1913. He was a professor of philosophy (PhD) and a journalist. From 1951 to 1956 he served as President of the Hungarian Chess Federation.
Atahualpa (1500-1533)
12th and last Inca emperor of
Atalik, Suat (1964-
)
First and only Turkish Grandmaster (1994). His FIDE rating is 2561.
Atkins, Henry (1872-1955)
British schoolmaster who won the British Championship 9 times out of 11 appearances, 7 times in a row (1905-1911, 1924, and 1925). Only Penrose has won it more often (10 times). In 1950 he was awarded the International Master title at the age of 78.
Atkins -
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 c5 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.Qa4+ Nd7 7.Ne5 Bf5?? (7...Nf6) 8.Nxd7 (8...Qxd7 9.Bb5) 1-0
George Atwood was born in 1746. He was an English mathematician and lecturer
at
Czech International Master (1976). Czech Champion in 1965.
Chess author who helped write Bobby Fischer Teaches Cbess. He also wrote The Genesis of Power Chess.
Ault, Robin (1941-1994)
The first person to win the U.S. Junior Championship three
times (1959-1961). The 1961 US Junior
Championship was held in
The first Australian chess championship was held in
Auto da Fe
Novel written by Nobel Prize winner for Literature (1981),
Elias Canetti (1905-1994). It was his only work of fiction. The main character is a man named Fischer, a
mad visionary, who dreams of becoming
world chess champion and buying clothes from the best tailors in the
world. The book was written in
1935. The book was translated into
English, entitled
Automatons
Machines that give the illusion of playing chess. The first automaton was Wolfgang von Kempelen's The Turk (1769), followed by Hooper's Ajeeb (1868), then Gumpel's Mephisto (1878).
Averbakh, Yuri (1922- )
Endgame expert and grandmaster (1952). He was the Soviet Chess Federation president
from 1972 to 1977. His daughter married
Grandmaster Mark Taimanov. He was the
editor of the principal Soviet chess magazine, Schachmatny v SSSR. He played in the USSR Championship 15 times
between 1949 and 1969. In 1954 he won
the
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.Bg5 Bb4 6.e4 c5 7.Bxc4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qc7 9.Qb3 Bxc3+ 10.Qxc3 Nxe4 11.Nb5 Qc5 12.Qxg7 Rf8 13.Bh6 Qxf2+? (13...Nd7) 14.Kd1 Nd7 15.Re1 Nef6 16.Bxe6 Qxb2 17.Rc1 (17...Qxb5 18.Bc4+) 1-0
AVRO
Algemeene Veerenigde Radio Oemrop (AVRO), a Dutch
broadcasting company, which sponsored the world's strongest tournament held up
to that time from November 5th to the 27th of November,
1938. The top eight players in the world participated (Keres, Fine, Botvinnik,
Alekhine, Reshevsky, Euwe, Capablanca, and Flohr). First place was equivalent to $550 (shared by Fine and
Keres). Alekhine, for the first time in
his life, came ahead of Capablanca.
Capablanca, for the first time in his life, fell below 50%. He lost four games in this event. Flohr, the official challenger who was
expected to play a world championship match with Alekhine, came last without a
single victory in 14 rounds. Each round
was played in a different Dutch city that rotated between
Avrukh, Boris (1978-
)
Grandmaster from
Axedrez
The Spanish word for chess. The Portuguese player Damiano wrote a Spanish book suggesting chess was invented by Xerxes and should be named after Xerxes, hence, the word Axedrez.
Azmaiparashvili, Zurab (1960- )
Grandmaster (1988) from Soviet
Stangl - Azmaiparashvili,
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.c3 c5 5.dxc5 Ne4 6.Be3 O-O 7.Bd4 d5 8.cxd6 Qxd6 9.Nbd2 Nf6 10.e4 Qc7 11.Be2 Nc6 12.O-O Rd8 13.Qb1 Bh6 14.Nc4 Nh5 15.Be3 Nf4 16.Bxf4 Bxf4 17.Ne3 Be6 18.Bc4 Bxc4 19.Nxc4 b5 20.Na3 Ne5 21.Nxb5? (21.Nxe5) 21...Nxf3+ 22.gxf3 Qd7 (23.Nd4 Qh3 24.Rd1 Bxh2+ 25.Kh1 Bg3+ 26.Kg1 Qh2+ 27.Kf1 Qxf2 mate) 1-0
Babula, Vlastimil (1973- )
Grandmaster from the
Baburin, Alexander (1967 - )
Russian player who moved to
Stefansson - Baburin,
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 a6 4.a4 Nf6 5.e3 Bg4 6.Bxc4 e6 7.h3 Bh5 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.O-O Bb4 10.g4 Bg6 11.Nh4 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Ne4 13.Nxg6 hxg6 14.Kg2 Qh4 15.Qf3 O-O-O 16.Rh1 f5 17.Bxe6+ Kb8 18.gxf5 Rh5 19.Qf4 Rg5+ 20.Kf3?? (20.Kf1) 20...Qxf2+ 21.Kxe4 Qc2+ (22.Kf3 Qg2 mate) 0-1
Bachmann, Ludwig (1856-1937)
German author and
chronicler of chess. He worked for the
Bavarian railway. In his spare time, he
collected information on chess events and put them in yearbooks (Schach-Juhrbuch),
from 1891 to 1930. His nickname was the
‘Chess Herodotus’. He was the first
person to issue a yearbook on chess.
Bacrot, Etienne (1983- )
Youngest FIDE master at age 10. He won the World under 12
championship in
Bacrot -
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.Nf3 Bb7 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.O-O O-O 7.d5 b5 8.Qb3 Qc8 9.Qxb5 c6 10.dxc6 Bxc6 11.Qa5 Qb7 12.Nc3 Na6 13.Rd1 Rfc8 14.Rb1 Nc5? (14...d6) 15.Qxc5 Ne4 16.Nxe4 Bxe4 17.Qxe7 Re8 18.Qd6 Bxb1 19.Nd2 Qb8 20.Nxb1 Rxe2 21.Qd5 (21...Re8 22.Qxa8 Qxa8 23.Rxa8 Rxd7) 1-0
First international tournament in
First international tournament in
Bagirov,
Russian Grandmaster (1978) who competed in nine Soviet championships
between 1960 and 1978. His best result
was 4th place in 1960. He became a
Grandmaster in 1978 at the age of 42. In
1998 he won the 8th World Senior Chess Championship, held in
Buhman -
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bc5 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Qa4+ Nbd7 8.Nc3 O-O 9.Qxc4 Ng4 10.Qe2 Nxe3 11.Qxe3 Nf6 12.Rd1 Ng4 13.Qd2 Qf6 14.f3 (14.Na4) 14...Rd8 15.Nd5 Rxd5! 16.exd5 Qe5+ 17.Be2 Ne3 18.Kf2 Nf5 (19.f4 Qxd5 and 20...Bxd4) 0-1
Bagley, Clarence (1843-1932)
First chess champion of
Philippine city that hosted the 1978 World Championship
match between Karpov and Korchnoi. No
flags were present because Korchnoi had defected from the
Bain, Mary Weiser (1904-1972)
1937 challenger to the World’s Women Championship (she was
born in
Baird, David Graham
(1854- )
Charter member of the chess club that eventually evolved in
the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1880, he
tied for 2nd place in the minor section of the 5th
American Chess Congress in
Baird, Edith Helen
(1859-1924)
She was born Winter Wood.
She was the most famous female chess composer. She
published her problems using the name “Mrs. W.J. Baird. She composed over 2,000 problems. In 1902, she wrote 700 Chess Problems.
Baird, John
Washington (1852- )
Charter member of the chess club that eventually evolved in
the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1889, he
participated in the 6th American Congress in
Former FIDE General Secretary from 1972 to 1982. When Florencio Campomanes was elected FIDE President, she resigned. She was appointed Honorary Member of FIDE by its general assembly.
Bakulin, Nikolac (1926-
)
Balanel, Ion (1926-
)
Romanian International Master (1954). Romanian Champion in 1950, 1953, 1955, and 1958.
Balashov, Yuri (1949- )
Russian Grandmaster (1973) from
Balashov -
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 Nce7 8.Ng5 Bd7 9.f4 exf4 10.Bxf4 h6 11.Nf3 g5 12.Be3 Ng6 13.Bd4 Nf6 14.e5 dxe5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.Bxe5 O-O 17.O-O Ne4?? (17...Ne8) 18.Bxg7 (18...Kxg7 19.Nxe4; 18...Nxc3 19.Bxc3) 1-0
Balcarek, Wiktor (1915-
)
Polish Champion in 1950.
Balcerowski, Witold (1935- )
Polish Champion in 1962 and 1965.
Balinas, Rosendo (1941-1998)
Philippine lawyer and Grandmaster (1976) who was
Krause - Balinas,
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 e4 5.Ng5 Bb4 6.d5 Na5 7.Qa4 Qe7 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 b6 10.Nh3 Qc5 11.Qb4 Nxc4 12.e3 Ba6 13.a4 (13.Qxc5) 13...Nxd5 14.Qxc5 bxc5 15.Bd2 Rb8 16.Ng5 f5 17.f3 h6 18.fxe3 Ndxe3 (19.Bxe3 Nxe3 20.Bxa6 Nc2+) 0-1
Balla, Zoltan von (1883-1945)
First official Hungarian chess champion (
Von Balla – Ritzen, 1914
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.O-O Nge7 5.c3 f5 6.d4 Bb6 7.d5 fxe4 8.Ng5 Nb8 9.Ne6 1-0
Ballet
The first ballet with a chess theme was Ballet des Echecs, performed for Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France. A ballet called Checkmate, composed by Sir Arthur Bliss and choreographed by Ninette de Valois in 1937, was performed at the Paris World Exhibition. The first ballet on ice was included in the pantomime, Sinbad the Sailer (1953), where skaters played out the Morphy - Duke of Brunswick game. In 1986 the musical Chess, by Tim Rice, was produced. In 2002, a chess ballet opened the Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia.
Balogh, Csaba (1987-
)
Grandmaster from Hungary.
His FIDE rating is 2537.
Balogh, Janos
(1892-1980)
Romanian Champion in 1930. Correspondence International Master (1953).
Bana Bhatta (595-655)
One of the foremost poets of India. His two most important works are Harsacarita (Deeds of Harsa) and Kadambari, which is a romantic love story. Both were written in Sanskrit. Both works mentioned Chaturanga, an early form of chess.
Banikas, Hristos (1978-
)
Grandmaster from Greece. His FIDE rating is 2548.
Banks, Newell (1887-1977)
U.S. checker champion who was also a chess master. He defeated the U.S. chess champion, Frank Marshall, and he leading challenger, Isaac Kashdan, at the Chicago Tournament in 1926. In his lifetime he traveled over a million miles playing chess and checkers and played over 600,000 games of chess and checkers. He was considered the world’s best checker player from 1917 to 1922 and 1933-1934.
Jordan – Banks, USA 1917
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.Nxf7?? Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4 7.Be2 Nf3 mate 0-1
Baragar, Fletcher (1955- )
Canadian FIDE Master
from Manitoba. In 1987, he took last
place at the Zagreb Interzonal. He won 1
game, drew 1 game, and lost 14 games.
Barasz, Zsigmond
(1877-1935)
Hungarian Champion (with Zoltan Von Balla) in 1911.
Barbero,
Gerardo (1961-2001)
Argentine Grandmaster (1988) who died of eye cancer. He was Argentine champion in 1984. He won at Montpellier 1986 and at Prokupje in 1987. He also won the Kecskemet Open in 1987.
Barbero - Aalto, Argentina 1993
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.Nf3 g5 5.d4 g4 6.Bc4 gxf3 7.O-O d5 8.exd5 Bg4 9.Qd2 Na5 10.Bb5+ c6 11.Qxf4 Qd7 (11...Nf6) 12.Qe5+ Ne7 13.Ne4 O-O-O?? (13...fxg2) 14.Bf4 (threatening 15.Qb8 mate) 1-0
Barcza, Gideon (1911-1986)
Hungarian professor of mathematics and Grandmaster (1954). He won the Hungarian championship eight times. He was editor of the chess magazine Magyar Sakkelet. He played on seven Hungarian Olympiad teams. The opening 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 is called the Barcza System.
Kiss - Barcza, Debrecen 1930
1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Nc3 Bxf3 6.Nxd5 Bxd1 7.Nxc7+ Kd7 8.Nxa8 Bxc2 9.Bf4 e5 10.dxe5 Bb4+ 11.Ke2 Nge7 12.e6+ fxe6 13.Nc7?? (13.Nb6+) 13...Nd4+ 14.Ke3 Nef5 mate 0-1
Barczay, Laszlo (1936-
)
Hungarian Grandmaster (1967) and Correspondence Grandmaster (1979). He took 17th place in the 1967 Sousse Interzonal. He took 1st place at the 1967 Asztalos Memorial, 1st at Polanica Zdroj 1969, and 1st at Astor 1982.
Barda, Olaf (1909-1971)
Norwegian International Master (1952) and Correspondence Grandmaster (1953). He won the Norwegian championship six times (1930, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, 1957). He took 4th in the first World Correspondence chess championship (1950-1953).
Bardeleben, Curt von (1861-1924)
Strongest German player of the late 19th century, openings expert, and player of Grandmaster strength. Against Steinitz, he had a losing position, so he just got up and left the playing hall without resigning and did not return. Steinitz had to sit and watch the clock to end the game. Bardeleben did leave a note on the table that said, “Saw it, went home,” referring to Steinitz’s combination. Bardeleben was in the habit of leaving the tournament room, allowing his clock to run out of time, rather than resign. He committed suicide at the age of 62 by jumping out of an upper window of his boarding house in Berlin where he lived in poverty. He was a lawyer.
Barden, Leonard
(1929- )
British Champion (with Alan Phillips) in 1954. He played on four English Olympiad teams. He has written a chess column for the Guardian since 1956. He has written several chess books.
Bareev, Evgeny (1966- )
Russian Grandmaster (1989) who was World Under 16 Champion in 1982. In 1999 he was ranked 3rd in the world, behind Kasparov and Karpov.
Bareev - Yakovich, Tallinn 1986
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Qd5 9.g3 Be6 10.Bg2 Qb7 11.O-O Bd5 12.e6 Bxe6 13.Ng5 Bd5 14.Bxd5 Qxd5 15.axb5 e6 16.Re1 Nd7 (16...axb5) 17.Qh5 g6?? (17...e5) 18.Nxe6! (18...gxh5 19.Ng7+ Kd8 20.Re8 mate; 18...c6 19.Nc7+ Kd8 20.b6! Nxb6 21.Nxd5 gxh5 22.Bg5+ Kc8 23.Nxb6+) 1-0
Barendregt, Johan (1924- )
Dutch International Master (1962). He was a medical doctor and lectured in clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam. He died of lung cancer.
Barker, Malcolm N.
Malcolm Barker was British Under-18 chess champion in 1949, 1950, and 1951. In the first World Junior Chess Championship, he took 2nd place, behind Boris Ivkov, and ahead of Bent Larsen and Friderick Olafsson. After the tournament, he gave up chess and took up bridge.
Barlov, Dragan (1957-
)
Yugoslav Grandmaster
(1986). He won the Yugoslav championship
in 1986. He took 15th place
at the 1987 Zagreb Interzonal.
Benjamin – Barlov,
Hallsberg 1975
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5
3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6 exd6 6.h3 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.Be3 Bf5 9.Nc3 Nc6 10.Be2 d5
11.b3 Bb4 12.Qc1 dxc4 13.Bxc4 Nxc4 14.bxc4 Bd3 15.a3 Ba5 16.c5 Re8 17.Kd1 b6
18.cxb6 cxb6 19.Ra2 Bc4 20.Rd2 Bb3+ 21.Ke2 Qc8 22.Kf1 Ne7 23.Rb2 Bxc3 24.Rxb3
Qc4+ 0-1
Barnes, Thomas Wilson (1825-1874)
One of the strongest English players in the 1850s. He scored more wins than anyone else against Paul Morphy, defeating him 8 times. He went on a diet and lost 130 pounds in 10 months, causing his death.
Barnes - Owen, London 1857
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qf6 8.O-O Nh6 9.e5 Qg6 10.Ba3 dxc3 11.Nxc3 Bxc3 12.Qxc3 b6? (12...Nf5) 13.e6 fxe6 14.Bxe6 Bb7 15.Nh4 Qf6 16.Bxd7+ Kxd7 17.Qh3+ Kd8 18.Rfe1 Re8 19.Rad1+ Nd4 20.Rxd4+ Qxd4 21.Rxe8+ Kxe8 22.Qe6+ (22...Kd8 23.Ba7+ Ke8 24.Bd6+ Kd8 25.Qe7 mate) 1-0.
Barry, Denis (1929-2003)
Former President of the U.S. Chess Federation (1993-1996). He organized the U.S. Open in Atlantic City in 1972 and in Somerset, New Jersey in 1986. He established the US Amateur Team East Chess Championship, which is held annually in Parsippany, New Jersey. He was the captain and guide for the US Blind Team in three Blind Chess Olympiads. He organized the third USCF Blind Championship in 1977, and was the first to use Braille wallcharts at that tournament.
Barry, John (1873-1940)
Boston lawyer and strong amateur.
Barua, Dibyendu (1966-
)
Grandmaster from India. He was India’s first chess prodigy. He became India’s 2nd grandmaster, after Anand.
Basman, Michael (1946- )
International Master (1980) from England who specializes in irregular openings. He tied for 1st place in the 1973 British Championship, but lost the playoff to Bill Hartston. He organizes the British Chess Challenge, which is probably the largest chess tournament in the world, with 71,000 school children participating.
Basman – NN, Paris 1982
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Qe2 Nc6 4.c3 d6 5.d4 Qh4+ 6.Kd1 g5 7.Nf3 Qh5 8.Qb5 g4 9.Qxh5 1-0
Battell, Jack Straley
(1909-1985)
Former USCF correspondence chess director (1969-1978). In the 1937-38 Marshall Chess Club Championship, he scored no wins and 11 straight losses, for the worse score in Marshall Chess Club history. In 1946 he was the highest rated postal player in the United States and won the 1946 Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) championship. He was a photographer, English teacher, riding master, and restaurant manager. He died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Bauer, Christian (1977-
)
French Grandmaster (1997). His FIDE rating is 2641. In 1977, he won the French championship.
Bauer, Johann (1861-1891)
Czech master. In 1887, he won a tournament in Frankfurt to earn the master tile played in the German Hauptturnier. He died of tuberculosis.
Baumbach, Friedrich
(Fritz) (1935- )
German correspondence player who won the 11th World Correspondence Championship, which ended in 1989. In 1970 he won the East German championship. He was awarded the Correspondence Grandmaster title in 1973. He is a chemist and a Ph.D.
Baumstark, Gertrude (1941- )
International Women’s Master (1970). Romanian Women’s Champion in 1967 and 1981.
British Chess Federation, founded on May 7, 1904. It was the governing body of chess in England from 1904 until 2005. In 2006, it was renamed the English Chess Federation. The first BCF champion was William Ewart Napier.
Beatles
In 1966 the U.S. Open was held at the Seattle World's Fair Grounds. The Beatles were on hand to give a concert. At the Open the tournament director drew the curtains over the playing hall. The hundreds of Beatle fans, seeing the hall shrouded by the drapes, assumed the Beatles were inside. They began pounding on the windows until someone opened the drapes to reveal a chess tournament was taking place. Ringo Starr and John Lennon played chess. Yoko Ono also plays chess.
Becker, Georg
Albert (1896-1984)
International Master (1953). He played for Austria (1931), then Germany (1939), on their chess Olympiad team. He was editor of Wiener Schachzeitung from 1926 to 1935. He settled in Argentina after the outbreak of World War II. In 1929 at Carlsbad , Becker said “I propose to open the Vera Menchik Club, whose members will be solely masters defeated by the lady world champion.” Before the tournament at Carlsbad in which Menchik was playing, he said that he would go onstage as a ballerina if Menchik scored more than 3 points. At Carlsbad (won by Nimzovich), she finished last with 2 wins, 2 draws (3 points) and 17 losses. She beat Becker (the first member of the Vera Menchik Club) and Saemisch. He was Austrian champion in 1925.
Becker – Norman-Hansen, Munich 1936
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3 Nxe4 7.Bxe4 Nf6 8.Bd3 Be7 9.Qe2 O-O 10.Bg5 g6 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Qe4 1-0
Beauharnois, Eugene (1781-1824)
Stepson of Napoleon and Prince and Viceroy of Italy. He purchased the Turk from Maelzel for 30,000 francs (equivalent to $60,000) in 1811. The Prince stored it at his residence in Milan. He sold the Turk back to Maelzel in 1817 for the same price.
Bednarski, Jacek (1939-
)
Polish International Master (1964). Polish Champion in 1963.
Beechey-Rowland, Frideswide (1843-1919)
First woman to write a chess column and the first woman to win a prize as a composer of chess problems (1882). She authored a book called Chess Blossoms in 1883 and Chess Fruits in 1884.
Begin, Menachem (1913-1992)
Former Prime Minister of Israel (1977-1983) and Nobel Peace Prize recipient who played chess every day when he was imprisoned by the British and the Russians. He said chess helped him keep his mental powers in shape. In 1940, he was playing chess at home with his wife when Russian troops (NKVD) burst in to arrest him. As he was being dragged away, he called out to his wife that he was resigning his game to her. While at Camp David in 1978, he played chess regularly with National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzesinski.
Beim, Valery (1950-
)
Grandmaster originally from Russian and now living in Austria. His FIDE rating is 2534. He is the author of Chess Recipies from the Grandmaster’s Kitchen.
Beim – Wagman, Aosta 1990
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 c5 4.d5 e6 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Bxc4 exd5 7.Nxd5 Nxd5 8.Bxd5 Be7 9.Nf3 O-O 10.O-O Nd7 11.Qe2 Qc7 12.e5 Nb6 13.Be4 Be6 14.Re1 Rae8 15.Ng5 Bxg5 16.Bxg5 Bd5 17.Bxh7+ Kxh7 18.Qh5+ Kg8 19.Bf6 1-0
Belakovskaia, Anjelina (1969- )
Woman Grandmaster (1993). U.S. Women’s Chess Champion in 1995 (with Sharon Burtman), 1996, and 1999. She was born in the Ukraine and won the Women’s Championship of the Soviet Union and the Ukraine. She has a Master’s Degree in Mathematics.. She came to the USA in 1991. She had a bit role in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer.” She won the New York Women’s Chess Championship three times. She played on the US women’s team in the Chess Olympiads in 1994, 1996, and 1998. She is now a real estate agent in Arizona.
Heaton - Belakovskaia, Las Vegas 1995
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c5 6.O-O cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nc6 8.Nc2 d6 9.Nc3 Be6 10.b3 Qd7 11.Re1 Bh3 12.Bh1 Ng4 13.Bb2 Qf5 14.f3 Qxc2 15.Qxc2 Bd4+ 16.e3 Nxe3 17.Qf2 (17.Qe4) 17...Nc2 18.Qxd4 N6xd4 19.Rxe7 Nxa1 20.Nd5? (20.Bxa1) 20...Nac2 21.g4 Rfe8 (22.Nf6+ Kf8 23.Rxe8+ Rxe8 24.Nxe8 Kxe8) 0-1
Belavenets, Sergey (1910-1942)
Chess champion of Moscow in 1932, 1937, and 1938. He won the Russian championship in 1934 and took 3rd in the USSR Championship in 1939. He died in the siege of Leningrad. His daughter, Ludmilla (born in 1940), won the 4th Women’s World Correspondence Chess Championship in 1992.
Freymann – Belavenets, Kiev 1938
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c4 e5 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.h3 g6 6.d3 Bg7 7.Nd5 f6 8.Be3 Nh6 9.Qd2 Nf7 10.Be2 Be6 11.h4 h5 12.Bd1 a6 13.Ba4 Rb8 14.b4 b5 15.Bb3 Bxd5 16.exd5 Nd4 17.Bxd4 cxd4 18.a4 Bh6 19.Qe2 O-O 20.O-O f5 21.axb5 axb5 22.c5 Re8 23.g3 Qf6 24.Rfd1 e4 25.dxe4 d3 26.Qa2 fxe4 0-1
Belgrade GMA 1989
The Belgrade Grandmaster's Association 1989 tournament had 98 grandmasters participating, a world record for number of GMs in one tournament. This was the strongest Swiss of all time. The tournament was funded by Yugoslav Airlines with $100,000 prize fund. The winner was Yugoslav
Grandmaster Krunoslav Hulak.
Beliavsky, Alexander (1953- )
Grandmaster (1975) from Slovenia who won the World Junior Championship in 1973, held in Teesside, England. In 1973 he took last place in the USSR championship. The next year, he won it. He tied for first place (with Tal) at the USSR Championship in 1974, and won the USSR Championship in 1990. In 1983, he lost against Kasparov in the quarterfinals for the World Championship. In 1997 he lost to Nigel Short in the FIDE world championship knockout matches.
Beliavsky - Stean, Lucerne 1982
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Nb3 Nbd7 10.Bd3 b5 11.O-O Nc5? (11...b4) 12.Nxc5 dxc5 13.Bxf6 gxf6 14.Rab1 Qa3 15.Nxb5! (15...axb5 16.Bxb5+ Ke7 17.Rfd1, threatening 18.Qd6 mate; 15...Qxa2 16.Nc7+ Ke7 17.Nxa8) 1-0
Belkhodja, Slim
Grandmaster from Tunisia. He is Tunisia’s 2nd grandmaster, after Bouaziz.
BELLE
In 1980, BELLE won the World Computer Chess Championship in Linz, running on a PDP 11/23. In 1981, BELLE won the 12th annual North American Computer Championship. Ken Thompson and Joe Condon, both of Bell Labs, created BELLE. In 1982 Ken Thompson traveled to Moscow and thought BELLE was traveling with him in a crate to compete in a tournament. However, the U.S. Customs Service confiscated the chess computer at Kennedy Airport as part of Operation Exodus, a program to prevent illegal export of high technology items to the Soviets. It took over a month and a $600 fine to retrieve BELLE from customs. In 1983 BELLE became the first computer to gain an established master’s rating.
Bellin, Jana Malypetrova Hartston Miles (1947- )
Top British woman player. She is also an anesthesiologist who she says is an appropriate specialization for a chess player - "it's like time trouble, you only have four minutes." Formerly married to Bill Hartston and Tony Miles, top British chess players.
Bellin, Robert
(1952- )
British International Master (1977) and British Champion in 1979. He is married to Dr. Jana Malypetrova (Hartston Miles Bellin).
Bellon Lopez, Juan
Manuel (1950- )
Spanish Grandmaster (1978). He was Spanish Champion in 1969, 1971, 1974, 1977, and 1984. He is married to Grandmaster Pia Cramling from Sweden.
Bellon – Ljubojevic, Palma de Mallorca 1972
1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 g6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Nxd4 Nf6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 O-O 9.Nd2 a5 10.a4 Re8 11.O-O Nd5 12.Bxg7 Kxg7 13.Bd3 Nc3 14.Qf3 Ba6 15.Bxa6 Rxa6 16.e4 Qf6 17.Qd3 Raa8 18.f4 1-0
Benedict, Clare (1871-1961)
Granddaughter of James Fenimore Cooper who moved to Switzerland and became a chess patroness of a team tournament of European countries. The first Clare Benedict International Team Tournament was held in 1953 and won by the Dutch.
Beni, Alfred
(1923-1995)
Austrian
International Master (1950). Austrian
Champion in 1947.
Benini,
Clarice (1905-1976)
International Women’s Master (1950). She was a Women’s World Championship Challenger in 1937 and 1949-50.
Benjamin, Joel (1964- )
Winner of the National Elementary (1976), Junior High School (1978), and High School Championships (1980-81), U.S. Junior Championship (1980, 1982), U.S. Open Championship (1985), and U.S. Championship (1987, 1997). He was the editor of CHESS CHOW, a monthly chess magazine. He defeated his first master at age 11 and was the first 11-year old U.S. Expert. At 13 years and 3 months, he broke Bobby Fischer’s record (13 years, 5 months) for becoming the youngest U.S. master up to that time. He was the youngest Manhattan Chess Club champion at 14, and became a Grandmaster in 1986. He assisted the IBM DEEP BLUE team that helped defeat Garry Kasparov in the DEEP BLUE computer vs. Kasparov chess match in April, 1997.
Benjamin - Gamboa, Philadelphia 1995
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e4 d5 4.e5 d4 5.exf6 dxc3 6.bxc3 Qxf6 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bd3 Bd7 9.Be4 Bc6 10.Qe2 Bxe4 11.Qxe4 Nc6 12.Rb1 O-O-O 13.d4 Rd7 14.Bf4 Qg6?? (14.Bd6) 15.Qxc6+! (15...bxc6 16.Rb8 mate) 1-0
Benko, Pal (1928- )
French-born Hungarian player who won the Hungarian national championship in 1948 at the age of 20. He was secretly involved in the 1956 Hungarian revolt. He spent a year and a half in a Hungarian political prison. The Hungarian Secret Police once suspected he was a spy because of his coded letters. The coded letters were correspondence chess games and the code was chess notation. He was permitted to play first board on Hungary's team in the 1957 Student Olympiad in Iceland where he defected to the U.S. He became a Grandmaster in 1958. In 1965 he was the first American Open Champion. In 1970 he yielded his interzonal place at Palma de Mallorca to Bobby Fischer, who went on to become World Champion. He has won or tied for first place in eight US Open tournaments. His book, Pal Benko My Life, Games and Compositions won the 2004 British Chess Federation Book of the Year.
Benko - Sawyer, New York 1964
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7 4.c3 a6 5.Bc4 h6 6.d4 d6 (6...b5) 7.Qb3 Na5?? (7...d5) 8.Bxf7+ Kd7 9.Nxe5+! (9...dxe5 10.Qe6 mate) 1-0
Benoni Defense
The opening name
after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5. It was first
analyzed by Aaron Reinganum in 1825, who called ii Ben-Oni (child of my tears,
in Hebrew). His book was Ben-Oni oder die Vertheidigungen die
Gambitzüge im Schach.
Berdichevski, Igor (1964- )
Grandmaster from
Russia. His FIDE rating in 2546.
Berend, Elvira
(1965- )
Woman Grandmaster
from Luxembourg. Her FIDE rating is
2350.
Berg, Emanuel
(1981- )
Grandmaster from
Sweden. His FIDE rating is 2539.
Berger, Johann (1845-1933)
Chess master, author, and educator from Graz. In 1870 he won the first major tournament in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1873 he helped create the Sonnenborn-Berger tie-breaking system (first used in 1882). In 1886 he won the world championship chess problem-solving contest. He played in a correspondence chess tournament sponsored by Monde Illustre from 1889 to 1992 and won it with 45 wins, 3 losses and no draws. From 1898 to 1911 he was editor of Deutsche Schachzeitlung. In 1890 he wrote Theorie und Praxis der Endspiele and revised it in 1922. He also wrote Probleme, Studien und Partien 1862-1912. He was an Austrian high school administrator.
J. Berger – Froelich, Graz 1922
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 d6 4.Bb5 Bg4 5.Nd5 Nge7 6.c3 a6 7.Ba4 b5 8.Bb3 Na5 9.Nxe5 Bxd1?? 10.Nf6+ gxf6 11.Bxf7 mate 1-0
Bergkvist, Nils
Valentin (1900-1993)
Former Stockholm City Chess Champion. He played on the Swedish Chess Olympiad team in 1936, 1939, and 1950.
Bergraser, Volf (1904-1986)
Won the French chess championship in 1957 and 1966. He became a Correspondence Grandmaster at the age of 77.
Handel - Bergraser, Correspondence 1985
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nge2 Bg4 7.Be3 N8d7 8.b3 Ba3 9.Qd2 Qe7 10.h3 Bh5 11.Ng3 exd4 12.Qxd4 O-O-O 13.Nxh5 Nf6 14.Qf4 Bb2 15.Rd1? (15.Nb5) 15...Bxc3+ 16.Ke2 Nxh5 17.Qf5+ Kb8 18.Qxh5 Qe4 (19.Qxf7 Qc2+ 20.Kf3 Rxd1) 0-1
Bergs, Teodors
(1902-1962)
In 1926, he took 2nd in the Latvian Chess Championship. In 1934, he won the Riga, Latvia City Chess Championship.
Berkes, Ferenc (1985-
)
Grandmaster from Hungary. In 2002, he won the World Under-18 championship. His FIDE rating is 2619.
Berliner, Hans (1929- )
Computer scientist specializing in Artificial Intelligence and winner of the 5th world correspondence championship (1965-68). His 3-point margin of victory (14-2) was the greatest margin of victory ever achieved in a World Championship final round, and his winning percentage was also the greatest of any World Champion. His game with Yakov Estrin was voted the best game in the history of correspondence chess. In 1979 he developed a backgammon-playing program that defeated the reigning World Backgammon Champion. This was the first time that a World Champion had ever been beaten by a computer. He was the first U.S. correspondence Grandmaster. He helped develop the chess machine/program called Hitech, one of the strongest chess machines in the world. It was the first computer program to become a US Chess Federation Senior Master. Berliner wrote a chess program as part of his Ph.D. dissertation at Carnegie-Mellon University. He won the Golden Knights Postal Chess Championship three times (1955, 1956, 1959).
Berliner - Rott, Montreal 1956
1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.e4 Nb6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.d5 Ne5? (7...Bxf3) 8.Nxe5! Bxd1 9.Bb5+ c6 10.dxc6 Qb8 11.c7+ Nd7 12.Bxd7 mate 1-0
Bernstein, Ossip (1882-1962)
Russian Grandmaster (1950). In 1903, he took 2nd (behind Chigorin) in the third Russian Championship. In 1906, he earned a Doctorate in law at Heidelberg and became a successful financial lawyer. In 1918 Ossip Bernstein was arrested in Odessa by the Cheka and ordered shot by a firing squad just because he was a legal advisor to bankers. As the firing squad lined up, a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners' names. Discovering the name of Ossip Bernstein, he asked whether he was the famous chess master. Not satisfied with Bernstein's affirmative reply, he made him play a game with him. If Bernstein lost or drew, he would be shot. Bernstein won in short order and was released. He escaped on a British ship and settled in Paris. Bernstein's son was President Eisenhower's official interpreter because he spoke almost every European language. At age 74, he was still playing in international tournaments.
O, Bernstein - Unknown, Berlin 1903
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 e6 4.Ne5 Bf5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Qb3 b6? (6...Nc6) 7.e4 Bxe4 8.Bb5+ Ke7 9.Bc6 (and 10.Bxa8) 1-0
Bernstein, Sidney Norman (1911-2004)
He took 1st
place in the Marshall Club Championship in 1930, 1939, 1957, and 1958. In 1942, he tied with Fred Reinfeld in the
Manhattan Chess Club Championship. He
played in the U.S. Championship nine times, from 1936 to 1962. In 1951, his USCF rating was 2358.
Berry, Jonathan (1953-
)
Canadian chess player, organizer, and author. International FIDE Aribiter (1975 – at age 21), FIDE Master (1984), and ICCF Grandmaster (1985). He was Canadian Correspondence Champion in 1978 and 1980. He was North American Correspondence Champion in 1982. He represented Canada in the 1982 Chess Olympiad. For many years, he was the technical editor for Inside Chess magazine.
Bertin, Joseph (1695-1736)
Chess author. In 1735 he published The Noble Game of Chess, Containing Rules and Instructions for the Use of those who have already a little Knowledge of this Game. It was the first worthwhile chess book in English and, at the time, only available at Slaughter’s Coffee House (founded by John Slaughter in 1692). Bertin had 19 rules to follow during play. One of them was: to free your game, take off some of your adversary’s men, if possible for nothing.
Bertok, Mario
(1929- )
Yugoslav
International Master (1957).
Beshukov, Sergei (1971-
)
Russian Grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2470.
Best Game
The 16th game of the second Karpov-Kasparov World Championship Match in Moscow 1985 was chosen by an international jury of Grandmasters as the best game ever played in the past 30 years.
Karpov-Kasparov, Moscow (16) 1985
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 d5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.exd5 Nb4 11.Be2 Bc5 12.O-O O-O 13.Bf3 Bf5 14.Bg5 Re8 15.Qd2 b5 16.Rad1 Nd3 17.Nab1 h6 18.Bh4 b4 19.Na4 Bd6 20.Bg3 Rc8 21.b3 g5 22.Bxd6 Qxd6 23.g3 Nd7 24.Bg2 Qf6 25.a3 a5 26.axb4 axb4 27.Qa2 Bg6 28.d6 g4 29.Qd2 Kg7 30.f3 Qxd6 31.fxg4 Qd4+ 32.Kh1 Nf6 33.Rf4 Ne4 34.Qxd3 Nf2+ 35.Rxf2 Bxd3 36.Rfd2 Qe3 37.Rxd3 Rc1! 38.Nb2 Qf2 39.Nd2 Rxd1+ 40.Nxd1 Re1+ and White resigned 0-1
Best Game Prize
A prize for the best game of a tournament or match. The first best game prize was awarded to Gunsburg for his game against Mason, New York 1889.
Bhat, Vinay (1985-
)
In 1995, America’s youngest master at 10 years, 6 months (since broken by Hikaru Nakamura). Jordy Mont-Reynaud set the old record as youngest master in 1994. He tied for first place in the 1998 U.S. Cadet Championship (under 16) with national master Dmitry Schneider. In April 2000, he became an International Master (IM) at age 15, becoming the youngest IM in the United States at the time (since broken by Hikaru Nakamura).
Bhend, Edwin (1931-
)
Swiss International Master (1960). Swiss Champion in 1966.
Bielicki, Carlos (1940- )
Argentine International Master (1959) who was Junior World Champion in 1959.
Bigelow, Horace
Ransom (1898-1980)
In 1923, he took last place in the 9th American Chess Congress in Lake Hopatcong, New York (won by Marshall and Kupchik). In 1929, he won the Marshall Chess Club Championship. He was a journalist for the American Chess Bulletin.
Bilek, Istvan (1932- )
Hungarian Grandmaster (1962). He won the Hungarian Championship in 1963, 1965, and 1970. In 1979 at an international tournament in Skupsk, he had a bye in the first round, drew his next 10 games in 13, 14, 12, 9, 12, 13, 17, and 9 moves, taking 5, 12, 15, 26, 7, 4, 5, 12, 18, and 5 minutes, respectively. Thus, he made only 125 moves in 109 minutes in this 11 round master event. When he won the Hungarian championship in 1970, he wife won the Hungarian women's championship.
Bilek - Bachtiar, Beverwijk 1966
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 g6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5 Nh5 9.Qf3 e6 10.exd6 Qxd6 11.O-O Bb7 12.Rd1 Qc5 (12...Qb4) 13.Qd3 Qe7 14.Bg5 f6 15.Be3 Kf7 16.Qd7 (16...Bc8 17.Bxe6+ Kg7 18.Qxc6 Bb7 19.Qc4 Rd8 20.Rxd8 Qxd8 21.g4) 1-0
Bilguer, Paul Rudolf von (1815-1840)
Author of the Handbuch des Schachspiels, the most influential chess book for over 90 years. The first edition was completed in 1843, after his death at the age of 24, by Baron Tassilo Heydebrand von der Lasa . Von der Lasa also edited the next four editions. He was an Army Lieutenant and one of the seven German Pleiades.
Binet, Alfred (1857-1911)
French psychologist who began the first intelligence
quotient (IQ) tests. Alfred Binet
conducted the first serious psychological study of the game of chess in
1894. He studied blindfold chess players
as a subset of his investigations into memory.
He wrote Psychologie des
grands calculateurs et joueurs d’echecs.
Binham,
Timothy (1956- )
Finnish International Master (1983). Finnish Champion in 1984.
Bird, Henry Edward (1830-1908)
An accountant and strong amateur player from England. He wrote six different books on chess. He won the first brilliancy prize (a sliver cup) for his victory over James Mason, New York 1876. he favored the opening 1.f4, now called Bird’s Opening. He played chess at the London coffee house, Simpson’s Divan, for over 50 years, from 1846 until it closed in 1903.
Bird - Em Lasker, Newcastle 1892
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2 Qg5 6.Nf3 Qxg2 7.Rg1 Bb4+?? (7...Qh3) 8.Ke2 Qh3 9.Bxf7+ Kd8 10.Bxg7 Ne7 11.Ng5 Qh4 12.Ne6 mate 1-0
Birnboim,
Nathan (1950- )
Israeli International
Master (1978). Israeli Champion in 1976
and 1980.
Bischoff,
Klaus (1961- )
German Grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2560. In 2003, he became the first German Internet Champion.
Bisguier, Arthur (1929-
)
American Grandmaster (1956). Winner of the U.S. Junior Championship in 1946 and 1949, U.S. Championship in 1954, winner of three U.S. Opens (1950, 1956, 1959), and represented the U.S. in five Olympiads. He won the U.S. Senior Open in 1989, 1997, and 1998. In 2005, he was named Dean of American Chess.
Donovan - Bisguier, Detroit 1950
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.a3 d6 6.e3 Bf5 7.exd6 Bxd6 8.Be2 Qf6 9.Nd4?? (9.Nc3) 9...Nxf2 10.Kxf2 Bc2+ 11.Nf3 Bxd1 12.Rxd1 Ne5 13.Nbd2 Ng4+ 14.Kg1 Bxh2+ (15.Nxh2 Qf2+ 16.Kh1 Qxe2) 0-1
Bishop
The origin of the name of the chess bishop is obscure. It was introduced in the 15th century, taking the move of the courier and placed where the alfil used to be at the set up of the chess pieces on a chessboard. The appearance of the Muslim fil was formless but with two protuberances said to symbolize the elephant from which the piece derives its name. Perhaps these suggest the Bishop’s mitre, hence Bishop, the name used in English-speaking countries since the new game gained acceptance. The original move of the bishop was only three squares diagonally. By 1500 it could move to any open square diagonally.
Biyiasas, Peter (1950-
)
Canadian Grandmaster (1978) who later moved to the United States. He has won the Canadian championship twice (1972, 1975). In 1978 he won the World Open. In 1981 Bobby Fischer stayed at Biyiasas’s home. They played hundreds of blitz and bullet chess games. Biyiasas got one draw and lost all the rest. He is married to International Master Ruth Haring.
Bjelica, Dimitrije (1935- )
Yugoslav chess journalist and master that may have played the greatest number of games at one time. In 1982 he played 301 games at once, winning 258, drawing 36, and losing 7 in nine hours. He is a former champion of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has interviewed and filmed every world champion since Botvinnik. He has written over 80 chess books with 190 editions and produced 35 chess videos. He is the founder of the World Children’s Chess Olympiad.
Blackburne, Joseph Henry (1841-1924)
English player of grandmaster strength. He learned the game at age 19. He won the British championship in 1868. His nickname was the Black Death, given to him by a comment in the tournament book of Vienna 1873. He was also known for his temper. After losing to Steinitz in a match, he threw him out of a window. Luckily for Steinitz that they were on the first floor. From 1870 to 1888 he was one of the top 5 chess players in the world. He was once arrested as a spy because he sent chess moves in the mail and it was thought the moves were coded secrets. He tied for first in the British Championship of 1914 at the age of 72. During a simultaneous exhibition at Cambridge University, the students thought to gain the advantage by placing a bottle of whisky and a glass at each end of the playing oval. In the end he emptied both bottles and won all his games in record time. During the temperance movement in England, he declared that whisky drinking improved one's chess because alcohol cleared the brain and he tried to prove that theory as often as possible. It is estimated he played 100,000 games of chess in his career.
Blackburne - Fleissig, Vienna 1873
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.Bc2 d5 8.exd5 Qxd5? (8...Ne7) 9.d4 Bd6 10.Bb3 Qe4 11.Qxe4 Nxe4 12.Bd5 1-0
Blackmar, Armand (1826-1888)
Music professor, music publisher, and amateur chess player. He established a music house in New Orleans during the Civil War. He wrote Southern patriotic music such as the Dixie War Song (1861), the Beauregard Manassas quick-step (1861), Southern Marseillaise (1861), and the Bonnie Blue Flag (1862). The bonnie blue flag was the first Confederate flag. He became the major wartime publisher of songs, issuing about half of the songs brought out during the Civil War. However, the city was captured in 1862 and occupied by Union forces. His brother moved to Augusta, Georgia to carry on music publishing for the Confederacy. Blackmar was arrested and imprisoned for publishing Confederacy music such as Bonnie Blue Flag.. The Union soldiers burnt his publishing company to the ground and confiscated all his Confederate States’ copyrights. In 1881-1882 he analyzed and published the Blackmar Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.f3) in the July 1882 issue of Brentano’s Chess.
Blake, Joseph (1859-1951)
Tie for 1st in the 1909 British Championship, but lost the play-off. He was British Correspondence Champion in 1922.
Blatny, Pavel (1968-
)
Grandmaster from the Czech Republic. His FIDE rating is 2533. In 1998, he tied for 1st (with Cyrus Lakdawala) at the American Open. In 2002, he tied for 1st (with Yuri Shulman) at the American Open. In 2003, he tied for 1st (with Atalik and Akobian) at the American Open.
Blau, Max (1918-1984)
Swiss International Master (1953). Swiss Champion in 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1967.
Bledow, Ludwig (1795-1846)
German professor of mathematics (PhD). He founded the first German chess association in 1827. He was the first person to suggest an international chess tournament (in a letter to von der Lasa in 1843). In 1846, he founded of the first German magazine, Deutsche Schachzeitung. He was the founder of the German Pleiades. He was a chess book collector. When he died, he had over 14,000 volumes of chess books, the largest private chess library in the world.
Horowitz –
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Bb6 5.d4 Qe7 6.d5 Qe7 7.Be2 d6 8.h3 f5 9.Bg5 Nf6 10.Nbd2 O-O 11.Nh4 fxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Bxe7 Bxf2+ 14.Kf1 Ng3 mate 0-1
Perhaps the first master chess game played on a blimp
occurred on the opening day of the 1932 Pasadena International Chess Congress
(won by Alekhine). On the opening day in
August, Isaac Kashdan and Arnold Dake played an exhibition game over
Blind Chess players
In 1950 Sir. T. Thomas was the first blind player to play in
a chess Olympiad (
Blindfold Checkers
Blindfold checkers is more difficult than blindfold chess. The greatest number played blindfold simultaneously is 28. The uniformity of checkers makes it harder to reach distinctive positions.
Blindfold Chess
Buzecca, a Muslim, was the first blindfold player in Europe, playing two games blindfold in Florence in 1265. It took 518 years before three games were played blindfold, by Philidor in 1783. One newspaper wrote 'This exertion of Mr. Philidor's abilities appear one of the greatest of which the human memory is susceptible. That record stood for 74 years. In 1857 Louis Paulsen played four games blindfold simultaneously (see simultaneous). In 1930, blindfold chess was once forbidden by law in the Soviet Union because it is considered artistically pointless and harmful to one's health.
International Master (1982). 12-time Ohio Champion.
Bloodgood, Claude Frizzel (1937-2001)
Claude Frizzel Bloodgood (born Klaus Frizzel Bluttgutt III) was born in La Paz, Mexico on July 14, 1937 (some sources say he was born in 1924). He was the author of The Tactical Grob, Blackburne-Hartlaub Gambit(1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6), and Nimzovich Attack: The Norfolk Gambits. In the late 1950’s, he was editor of the Viriginia Chess News Roundup and the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Association. In 1958, he started the All Service Postal Chess Club (ASPCC). In 1970 he was sentenced to death for killing his stepmother by strangulation in 1969, apparently in a fight about an inheritance and bad-check charges. While on death row (prisoner 99432), he played over 2,000 postal games simultaneously. The postage was paid by the State of Virginia. He was scheduled for execution 6 times, but received a reprieve on all occasions. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1972 and the state stopped paying postage. He was allowed to play in chess tournaments outside the prison, accompanied by a guard. In 1974, Bloodgood escaped after he and another chess player (Lewis Capleaner – a murderer inmate) overpowered a guard (George Winslow) who was escorting them to a chess tournament. Bloodgood cuffed the guard, stole his guns, and fled to New York. When he was recaptured after several weeks at large, his correspondence privilege was taken away from him at Virginia State Penitentiary. His escape led to the resignation of Virginia’s director of prisons, no more prisoners taken to outside chess tournaments, and the Virginia Penitentiary Chess program dismantled. The guard was also arrested for his involvement in the escape. In 1996 he was the 2nd highest USCF ranked player in the country (2702), just behind Gata Kamsky. His actual strength was much less (perhaps weak expert). He built up a high numerical rating by organizing chess tournaments and matches in prison, and consistently beat the other weaker players. Each time he won another tournament, he accrued a few more rating points. From 1993 to 1999, he played 3,174 rated chess games, winning over 91 percent of his games. His rating pointed out a flaw in the USCF rating system. He participated in the 15th U.S. Correspondence Championship, which began in June, 2000, scoring 3 wins and 9 losses (he died before finishing his last game). He died of lung cancer in the hospital of the Powhatan Correctional Center near Richmond, Virginia on August 4, 2001.
Blumenfeld, Beniamin (1884-1947)
Born in Volkovisk, Russia who invented the Blumenfeld Counter Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nf3 b5). He became a student of chess psychology and received a doctorate for a thesis on the nature of blunders in chess. He died in Moscow in 1947.
Blumenfeld – NN, Russia
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.Nb5 Bxe3 7.fxe3 Qd8 8.Qg4 g6 9.Qf4 d6 10.Bc4 Ne5 11.O-O Be6 12.Bxe6 fxe6 13.N1c3 Kd7?! (13...Ne7) 14.Rad1 Kc8? (14...Ke7) 15.Qxe5! (15...dxe5 16.Rxd8+ Kxd8 17.Rf8+ Kd7 18.Rxa8) 1-0
Blumin, Boris (1907-1998)
He won the Montreal
City Championship in 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1939. Canadian Chess Champion in 1936 and
1937. He moved to New York in 1939.
Bobotsov, Milko (1931- )
First Bulgarian to be awarded the title of International Grandmaster (1961). He was Bulgarian champion in 1958. He played in 8 Bulgarian Chess Olympiads.
Saborido - Bobotsov, Bulgaria 1969
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 O-O 5.Be3 d6 6.f3 Nc6 7.Nge2 a6 8.Qd2 Rb8 9.g4 Re8 10.O-O-O b5 11.Ng3 e5 12.Nce2 Nxd4 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Be6 15.Nf5 Bxf5 16.gxf5 c5 17.Be3 bxc4 18.fxg6 hxg6 19.Bxc4 d5 20.exd5 Nd7 21.b3 Qf6 22.Bf4?? (22.Rde1) 22...Qa1+ (23.Kc2 Qxa2 24.Kc1 Qa1+ 25.Kc1 Qa3+ 26.Kb1 Rxb3+ 27.Bxb3 Qa1+ 28.Kc2 Qb2+ 29.Kd3 Qxb3+ 30.Qc3 Qxc3 mate) 0-1
Boden, Samuel (1826-1882)
English chess player. In 1858, Paul Morphy declared that Boden was the strongest of all English players. Against Morphy, he won 1 game, drew 4 games, and lost 6 games. From 1858 to 1873, he edited a chess column for The Field. He worked for the railway company and was an amateur painter and art critic. He died of typhoid fever.
Schulder – Boden, London 1853
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 f5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d4 fxe4 6.dxe5 exf3 7.exf6 Qxf6 8.gxf3 Nc6 9.f4 Bd7 10.Be3 O-O-O 11.Nd2 Re8 12.Qf3 Bf5 13.O-O-O d5 14.Bxd5 Qxc3+ 15.bxc3 Ba3 mate 0-1
Boensch, Uwe
(1958- )
German Grandmaster (1986), born in East Germany. He is the headmaster of the FIDE Trainer Academy.
Boey, Josef (1934-
)
Belgian International Master (1973) and Correspondence Grandmaster (1975). He took 2nd place in the 7th World Correspondence Championship, 1972-1975. In the 8th World Correspondence Championship, 1975-1980, he placed 11th-12th. He did not play in the 9th World Correspondence Championship, but took 7th place in the 10th World Correspondence Championship, 1978-1984.
Bogart, Humphrey (1900-1957)
Before becoming a movie star, Humphrey Bogart hustled strangers at 5-minute chess for 50 cents a game in chess parlors in New York Times Square during the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1930s depression, Bogart, Reshevsky, and Denker were in adjacent department store windows playing passerbys for dimes. In 1943 the FBI prevented him from playing postal chess, thinking the chess notation were secret codes. He was a USCF tournament director and active in the California State Chess Association. He once drew a game against Reshevsky in a simultaneous exhibition. He made 75 films and chess appears in several of his movies. He and his wife, Lauren Bacall, appeared on the cover of Chess Review in 1945 playing chess with Charles Boyer. Bogart rated his friends according to their ability to play chess.
Bogdanovic, Rajko (1931- )
International Master (1963) from Bosnia. He played in 10 Yugoslav championships. His occupation was journalist and radio reporter.
Bogdanovski, Vlatko
(1964- )
Grandmaster from Macedonia. His FIDE rating is 2443.
Bogoljubow, Efim (1889-1952)
Grandmaster (1951), born in Kiev, who once spent over two hours over his 24th move against Steiner, Berlin 1928, and then chose a move that lost a piece. In 1928 he defeated Max Euwe in a match in the Netherlands (won 3, lost 2, drew 5). The match was for the title of FIDE champion, so Bogoljubow was the first FIDE world champion. This was stated in the minutes of the FIDE’s 5th chess congress at The Hague in 1928. He played Alexander Alekhine in 1929 and 1934 for the World Chess Championship and lost both matches by a wide margin. His most famous statement was "When I'm White I win because I'm White. When I'm Black I win because I'm Bogoljubow." He died in Triberg, Germany after concluding a simultaneous chess exhibition. He was USSR Champion in 1924 and 1925. He left the USSR in 1925 and settled in Germany. He renounced his USSR citizenship in 1926 and became a German citizen in 1927. He was then denounced as a political renegade in the Soviet Union. He won the German championship in 1925, 1931, 1933, and 1949.
Bogoljubow – Meister, France 1951
1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 Nd7 3.Bc4 g6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Kf6 6.Qf3+ 1-0
Bogoljubow - Prokes, Baden 1922
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.e4 h5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nh3 d6 7.Bg5 Qd7 8.exd6 Bxd6 9.Be2 f6 10.Bf4 Nce5 11.f3 Nh6 12.Be3 Qf7 13.Nf4 Nxc4? (13...O-O) 14.Qa4+ (and 15.Qxc4) 1-0
Bogatirchuk, Feodor (1892-1984)
Russian International Master (1954) from Kiev who emigrated from the USSR to Canada in 1949 and was the first persona non grata in Soviet chess. In 1912, he tied for 2nd in the championship of Czarist Russia. He was the author of the first chess book in Ukrainian in 1926. He won the USSR championship in 1927 (tied with Pyotr Romanovsky). He played in 6 Russian championships. He was a medical doctor and professor of radiological anatomy. During World War II he was head of the Ukrainian Red Cross. He was nominated by Canada for the Grandmaster title, but the Soviet representatives to FIDE protested this title, which he never received but deserved.
Boi, Paolo (1528-1598)
One of the leading players of the 16th century. He was also a poet, soldier and sailor from Syracuse. In 1549 he defeated Pope Paul III in a chess match. The Pope offered to make him cardinal, which he refused. In 1574 he defeated Ruy Lopez at the court of King Phillip II of Spain. The King showered him with great rewards including an official appointment in Sicily that paid 500 crowns a year. He was renowned for his ability to play three chess games at once without sight of board. In 1576 he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave to a Turk. He played chess for his master that brought in a lot of money. He later gained his freedom back by teaching his master chess. In 1598 he played a chess match with Salvio in Naples and lost. Three days later he died in his lodgings. Some sources (Murray) say he was poisoned. Other sources say he caught a cold when hunting and died as a result of it. He was 70 years old.
Bolbochan, Jacobo (1906-1984)
Former Argentine chess champion (1932 and 1933) who became an International Master in 1965 at the age of 59. Brother of Julio Bolbochan.
Bolbochan, Julio (1920-1996)
Argentine Grandmaster who received the title in 1977 at the age of 57. He was Argentina champion in 1946 and 1948. He played on 7 Argentine Chess Olympiad teams. Brother of Jacobo Bolbochan.
Bond - Bolbochan, Los Angeles 1991
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qd3 Nbd7 9.Nf3 b5 10.b4 Bb7 11.O-O-O (11.a4) 11...Rc8 12.h3 Qc7 13.Kb2 O-O 14.g4 Nb6 15.Bxb6 Qxb6 16.a3 Rxc3 17.Qxc3 Nxe4 18.Qb3 Bf6+ 19.Kc1 Nc3 (20.Rd2 Qb6 21.Re1 Nxe2+ 22.R1xe2 Qxf3) 0-1
Boleslavasky, Isaac (1919-1977)
Soviet International Grandmaster (1950). He was a Candidate in 1950 (tied for first) and 1953 (10th-11th). He was Bronstein second in 1951. He was Smyslov’s second in 1956. He was Petrosian’s second in 1963, 1966, and 1969. He played in 11 USSR Championships. His daughter married Grandmaster David Bronstein.
Boleslavsky – Lilienthal, Moscow, 1941
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nxe5 Qe7 4.d4 f6 5.Nd3 dxe4 6.Nf4 Qf7 7.Nd2 Bf5 8.g4 Bg6 9.Bc4 Qd7 10.Qe2 Qxd4 11.Ne6 Qb6 12.Nxe4 Nd7 13.Bf4 Ne5 14.O-O-O Bf7 15.N4g5 fxg5 16.Bxe5 Bxe6 17.Bxc7 1-0
Bologan, Viorel (1971-
)
Grandmaster (1991) from Moldavia, currently living in Germany. In 2003, he won the Aeroflot Open in Moscow and the Dortmund supertournament. He graduated from Moscow Physical Culture and Sports Institute with a PhD. His doctoral thesis was entitled, “Structure of Special Preparation of High-Level Chess Players.” He won the New York Open in 1997.
Bonch-Osmolovsky, Mikhail (1919-1975)
Soviet national master (1951). Soviet chess judge.
Boncourt, M (1770-1845)
Strong French master
who drew a match with Szen in 1835. For
a time, he was the hidden operator in Maelzel’s The Turk automaton. He almost revealed how The Turk worked when
he sneezed during a game. This prompted
Maelzel to install a noisy spring to cover up any future coughs and sneezes.
Bondarevsky, Igor (1913-1979)
Soviet Grandmaster (1950) and Correspondence Grandmaster (1961). He played in the USSR championship 9 times, sharing 1st with Lilienthal in the 1940 championship. He tied for 6th in the 1948 Saltsjobaden Interzonal, becoming a Candidate. However, he withdrew from the Candidate’s tournament before it started. He was Spassky’s trainer in 1961 and his second in 1966 and 1969. He was an economist.
Sliwa – Bondarevsky, Hastings 1960
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Qb3 Nxc3 10.Qxc3 b6 11.Rc1 Ba6 12.g3 Nd7 13.Bg2 Rac8 14.Nd2 c5 15.Qa3 cxd4 16.Rxc8 Rxc8 17.b4 Qxb4 0-1
Bonin, Jay (1955- )
International Master (1985) who has won the New York State Championship, the Manhattan Chess Club Championship, and the Marshall Chess Club Championship, all in the same year (1997).
Bonner, Gerald (1941-
)
Scottish Champion in 1967, 1970, and 1972.
Bonus Socius (Good Companion)
A manuscript written around 1275 by Nicholas de St. Nicholai
of
Bezviner - Bonin,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 O-O 6.Be3 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Bxc5 Nc6 10.Nge2 Nd7 11.Be3 Nde5 12.Nf4 Nb4 13.Rc1 Be6 14.a3 Nbd3+ 15.Nxd3 Nxd3+ 16.Bxd3 Rxd3 17.Nd1 Bxb2 18.Rb1 Bxa3 19.Rxb7 Bxc4 20.Bxa7? (20.Rxa7) 20...Rxa7 (21.Rxa7 Bb4+ 22.Kf2 Bc5+ and 23...Bxa7) 0-1
Book, Chess
The first European book on chess is Juegos Axedrez, dados
y tablas, written in the 13th century.
The first hardback book dealing with chess, Dass Goldin Spil, was
published in
Book, Eero Einar (1910-1990)
Finnish International Master (1950) and engineer. He won the Finnish national championship six times (1931, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1945-46, and 1963) and won the Nordic Championship in 1947. He was given the title Emeritus Grandmaster in 1984.
Book – Heidenheimo, Helsinki 1925
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Qh5 Ng5 5.d4 Ne6 6.d5 g6 7.dxe6 gxh5 8.exf7+ Ke7 9.Bg5+ Kd6 10.O-O-O+ Kc5 11.Rd5+ Kxc4 12.b3+ Kb4 13.Rb5+ Ka3 14.Nb1+ Kxa2 15.Ra5+ Ba3+ 16.Rxa3 mate 1-0
Borisek, Jure (1986-
)
International master from Slovenia. His FIDE rating is 2509.
Borisenko, Georgi (1922- )
Ukranian
Correspondence Grandmaster (1965). He
played in eight Soviet championships. He
took 2nd place (behind Zagorovsky) in the 4th World
Correspondence Championship, 1962-1965.
In 1966 he was awarded the Correspondence Grandmaster title.
Borisenko –
Bertholdt, Leningrad 1960
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6
3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 O-O 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 c5 7.e3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Bd3 d5 10.cxd5
exd5 11.O-O Bxc3 12.bxc3 Ne5 13.Rb1 b6 14.Bb5 Bd7 15.f4 Neg4 16.Re1 Re8 17.Qf3
g5 18.fxg5 Ne4 19.g6 f6 20.h3 Nd2 21.Qxd5+
1-0
Borochow, Henry (1898-
)
U.S. Master
Emeritus. He won the California State
Championship in 1930 and 1931. In 1932,
he took 6th in the Pasadena International Tournament (won by
Alekhine). He won the Western
Championship. He was a Vice President of
the U.S. Chess Federation.
Borochow – Fine,
Pasadena 1932
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5
3.d4 Nc6 4.c4 Nb6 5.d5 Nxe5 6.c5 Nbc4 7.f4 e6 8.Qd4 Qh4+ 9.g3 Qh6 10.Nc3 exd5
11.fxe5 1-0
Bosnia
In 1993, a person was shot and killed while playing a chess game in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the first to die from sniper fire while playing chess. The first chess championship of Bosnia-Herzegovina was held in 1994, won by Rade Milovanovic. In 1996 a chess match was held to help raise funds to assist in clearing Bosnia of leftover landmines. The match was staged between two Norwegian Grandmasters (Agdestein and Gausel) and two Bosnian Grandmasters (Sokolov and Nikolic). The match ended in a draw.
Botsari, Anna-Maria (1972- )
Woman Grandmaster from Greece. Her FIDE rating is 2297. She once held the record of most opponents in consecutive chess games. In 2001, she played 1,102 consecutive games against different opponents, with 1,094 wins and 7 draws. The event has at Kalavryta, Greece. In 2004, she tied for 1st in the Greek Women’s championship. In 2005, Susan Polgar played 1,131 consecutive games.
Botterill, George (1949- )
British International Master (1978). Welsh Champion in 1973 and 1974. British champion in 1974 and 1977.
Botvinnik, Mikhail (1911-1995 )
6th world chess champion (1948-1957, 1958-60, 1961-1963) who was the only man to win the title three times. He has played every world champion of this century and the early trainer of Karpov and Kasparov. He has a PhD (1951) in Electrical Engineering and now works on computer chess programs. He received $5,000 for winning his first world championship. In 1970 he gave up tournament chess in order to concentrate on the development of chess computers. He learned chess at age 12. By age 15 he was one of the strongest players in the USSR, taking 5th place in the USSR championship. In 1931 he won the USSR championship at age 19. Botvinnik did not play in the 15th USSR championship in 1947 in protest over the cancellation of the world championship. The match-tournament was held in 1948, and Botvinnik won it, becoming the 6th official world chess champion.
Mazel - Botvinnik, Leningrad 1938
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 c5 4.f4 Nc6 5.Nf3 d5 6.e5 Ng4 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Qb3 Nb4 9.a3? (9.h3) 9...c4 10.Qa4+ Bd7 11.Qd1 Qb6 (threatening 12...Qf2 mate; if 12.Qe2 Nd3+ 13.Kd1 Qb3 mate) 0-1
Bourdonnais-MacDonnell match
Match played in London in 1834 by Louis-Charles de La Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell. At least 85 games were played, the largest number of games ever played successively in match conditions. Neither knew a word of the other's language. There was no time limit and McDonnell sometimes spent over an hour and a half on a move. The match was really a series of six matches. Labourdonnais won 45 games, drew 13 games, and lost 27 games. The match lasted over four months. McDonnell was considered the best player in England and Bourdonnais was the best player in France. The match was played at the Westminster Chess Club.
Bourdonnais,
Louis-Charles Mahe de La (1795-1840)
French master and strongest chess player of his time. He learned chess in Paris in 1814 while attending school. He was undisputed champion of France in the 1820s. In 1834 he played a series of matches with England’s strongest player, Alexander McDonnell, and won. In 1836 he became editor of the world’s first chess magazine, Le Palamede. He died in London and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery and was buried near McDonnell.
Jouy – Bourdonnais, Paris 1836
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.Ne5 Qh4+ 6.Kf1 f3 7.Nxf7 Nc6 8.d4 Bg7 9.c3 Nf6 10.Nxh8 d5 11.exd5 Ne4 12.Qe1 g3 13.Bd3 fxg2+ 14.Kxg2 Bh3+ 15.Kg1 Nxd4 16.Qxe4+ Qxe4 17.Bxe4 Ne2 mate 0-1
Born in Vietnam, he was French Champion 6 times (1945, 1950, 1954, 1955, 1959, and 1967).
Dutch International Master (1954) and mathematics teacher. He was appointed the first official coach of the Royal Dutch Chess Federation. From 1956 to 1968, he was editor of Losbladige Schaakberichten. He came in 2nd place in the 1957 and 1967 Dutch Championships. He later became a Grandmaster in Correspondence Chess.
Donner – Bouwmeester, Amsterdam 1948
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.f4 O-O 9.f5 Qb6 10.Bg5 Nxe4 0-1
First Grandmaster from
First editor of Chess Life magazine and business manager of the US Chess Federation. Author of Profile of a Prodigy. Editor and publisher of Chessworld magazine. He has a PhD in Communications from NYU.
Norwegian Champion in 1919, 1920, 1923, and 1925.
Breyer, Gyula (Julius) (1893-1921)
Hungarian of Grandmaster strength, he set a new blindfold
record of 25 opponents (won 15, drew 7, lost 3) in 1921 in
Breyer - Ballai, Pistyan 1912
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 f5 4.d4 fxe4 5.Nxe5 Nf6 6.Bc4 d5 7.Nxd5 Nxd5 8.Qh5+ g6 9.Nxg6 hxg6? (9...Nf6) 10.Qxg6+ Kd7 11.Bxd5 Qe8 12.Bf7 Qe7 13.Bg5 Ne5 14.Qf5+ (14...Kc6 15.Qxe4+ and 16.Bxe7) 1-0.
Bridge
Chess masters who
are/were also strong bridge players include Gerald Abrahams, James Aitken, Hugh
Alexander, Mary Bain, Arthur Bisguier, Efim Bogoljubov, Wolfgang Heidenfeld,
Charles Kalme, Emanuel Lasker, Irena Levitina, Tony Miles, Rossetto, Gideon
Stahlberg, and Simon Webb.
Brinck-Claussen,
Bjorn (1942- )
Nordic Champion in
1963. Danish Champion in 1966, 1970, and
1977.
Brinckmann, Alfred (1891-1967)
German International
Master (1953). He authored several
chess tournament books.
Brinckmann –
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5
3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Ng3 e5 6.Nf3 exd4 7.Nxd4 Bc5 8.Qe2+ Be7 9.Be3 O-O
10.O-O-O Qc7 11.Ndf5 Be6 12.Nxe7+ Qxe7 13.Bg5 h6 14.Nf5 Qb4 15.Rd4 Qc5 16.Nxh6+
gxh6 17.Bxf6 Qf5 18.Qf3 1-0
British Chess Association (BCA)
The first national body to promote chess in
British Chess Federation (BCF)
British Chess Federation, founded on May 7, 1904. It was the governing body of chess in
British Chess Magazine
First chess magazine to complete 100 years of continuous publication (1881 to 1981). It began as a monthly chess magazine in October, 1872 called Huddersfield College Magazine. On January 1, 1881 it became the British Chess Magazine.
Broadbent, Reginald (1906- )
Took 1st place in the British Championship in 1947 (lost the play-off) 1948, and 1950.
Brodsky, Michail (1969-
)
Grandmaster from the
Bronstein, David (1924-2006)
Grandmaster (1950) and winner of the first Interzonal in
1948 at Saltsjobaden who survived an
assassination attack during the tournament.
On the last day Bronstein was playing Tartakover. Suddenly, a Lithuanian
made a lunge at Bronstein to kill him.
Several spectators grabbed him.
He wanted to murder all Russians because he claimed the Russians were
responsible for sending his sister to
Bronstein - Tomic, Vinkovci 1970
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.c3 Qb6 5.Ba4 Bg7 6.O-O e5 7.Na3 Nge7 8.b4 cxb4 9.Nc4 Qc5 10.d3 bxc3 11.Rb1 c2 (11...Nd4) 12.Qxc2 Nd4? (12...a6) 13.Nxd4 (13...Qxd4 14.Be3; 13...exd4 14.Ba3 Qh5 15.Nd6+) 1-0
Bronstein – I.
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4
3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Nf6 5.Bc4 Nxd5 6.O-O Be6 7.Bb3 Bd6 8.c4 Ne7 9.d4 Ng6 10.c5 Be7
11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Re1 O-O 13.Rxe6 Bxc5? 14.Qb3 Bxd4+ 15.Nxd4 Qxd4+ 16.Be3! 1-0
Bronstein, David (1879-1940)
Original name of Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary. He was the commissar for war who created the
Red Army and came to power with Lenin.
He spent much of his time during World War I playing chess in
Browne, Walter Shawn (1949- )
Six-time
Browne - Polstein,
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.N1e2 e5 7.dxe5 Qa5+ 8.Bd2 Qxe5 9.Bc3 Qc7 10.Qd2 f6 11.O-O-O Ne7 12.Nf4 Bf7 13.Qe3 Nd7 (13...Qb6) 14.Nf5 Ne5? 15.Bxe5 (15...fxe5 or 15...Qxd5 16.Nd6+; 15...Nxf5 16.Bxc7+ Nxe3 17.fxe3 Bxa2 18.b3) 1-0
V. Bhat – Browne, San Francisco 2000
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Nxd7 5.O-O Ngf6 6.Qe2 e6 7.b3 Be7 8.Bb2 O-O 9.c4 a6 10.d4 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Re8 12.Nc3 Qa5 13.Rad1 Rac8 14.Kh1 Bf8 15.f4 Qh5 16.Qe3 Qxh2+ 0-1
Bruce, Rowena (1919-1999)
The only player to have played two world champions in a
tournament on the same day. In the
Bruehl, Hans (John) Moritz von (1736-1809)
Hans (John) Moritz von Bruehl was born on December 19, 1736
in
First Swiss Grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2480.
Trachsel - Brunner,
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 O-O 6.Nd5 Re8 7.Be2 e4 8.Ng1 Bd6 9.a3 Nxd5 10.cxd5 Qg5 11.g3 Qxd5 12.f3? (12.Bc4) 12...Nd4 13.exd4 exf3 (14.Nxf3 Qxf3) 0-1
Women’s Grandmaster (1985). European Junior Women’s Champion in 1980. World Junior Women’s Champion in 1982.
Cuba’s youngest grandmaster and the 2000 World Junior Chess Champion. 1n 1999, he became a grandmaster 32 days after becoming an International Master. He was eliminated in the first round in the 2004 Tripoli FIDE World Championship. He won the Cuban Championship in 2004 and 2005.
Brynell, Stellan (1962-
)
Grandmaster from Sweden. His FIDE rating is 2484.
Bryson, Douglas (1957-
)
British Correspondence Champion in 1983, 1984, and 1985.
Buchholz Score
The Buchholz Score, used by FIDE, is the sum of the score of
each of the opponents of a player. It is
used in tiebreaking of chess scores. The
idea is that the same score is more valuable if achieved against players with better
performances in a given tournament. In
the
Buck, Charles Francis
(1841-1918)
Born in Durrheim, Grand Duch of
Buckle, Henry Thomas (1821-1862)
Winner of the first modern chess tournament, the Ries Divan
knockout tourney of 1849. He spent his
time writing History of Civilization in England, which he published in
1857 (volume 1). He was a British
historian who studied 19 languages (he could speak seven languages and read
twelve languages). He had a library of
over 22,000 books. He died of typhoid
fever in
Buckle - Unknown,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Bc4 Nc6 5.d3 Nge7 6.Bg5 Bg4 7.Nd5 Nd4 8.Nxe5 Bxd1?? (8...dxe5) 9.Nf6+ gxf6 10.Bxf7 mate 1-0
Yugoslav Grandmaster (1976). In 1975, he tied for 1st place at the Kostic Memorial in Vrsac.
Bukic – Damjanovic, Skopje 1967
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 O-O 8.d5 f5 9.Qc2 Bf6 10.Nxe4 fxe4 11.Qxe4 exd5 12.Qc2 Re8 13.O-O a5 14.cxd5 Rxe2 15.Rfe1 Rxe1+ 16.Rxe1 d6 17.Ng5 Bxg5 18.Bxg5 Qxg5 19.Qxc7 Nd7 20.Qxd7 1-0
German national team chess tournament. It is the strongest team championship in the world. Grandmasters from around the world are recruited to play in these team events and paid as much as $50,000.
Buoncompagni (Boncompagni), Giacomo (1548-1612)
Duke of Sora and Arce, and leading patron of chess in the 17th century. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagni of Bologna). It was Pope Gregory who adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Most of the great players of the period (such as Ruy Lopez and Polerio) played in his palace and were liberally rewarded for doing so. The King of Spain appointed Giacomo general in his army. Giacomo was made a cardinal and his father tried to make him king of Ireland.
International Master (with two GM norms) who took last place in the 1969 U.S. Chess Championship, with 4 draws and 7 losses. He was a medical doctor and a former chess teacher to Bobby Fischer at the Manhattan Chess Club. He played chess in over 20 countries and 47 of the 50 states. In 1993 he won the Georgia State Championship.
Burger – Suttles, New York 1965
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.f4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.e5 Ng4 8.e6 fxe6 9.Ng5 Bxb5 10.Qxg4 Bd7 11.Nxh7 Kf7 12.Ng5+ Kg8 13.Nxe6 cxd4 14.Qxg6 Bxe6 15.Qxe6+ Kf8 16.Ne4 1-0
Burgess, Graham (1968-
)
FIDE master. In 1994, he set a world record for playing marathon blitz chess. He played 500 games in three days.
Chess arrived in Burman in the 8th century via the kingdoms of Arakan and Mon. The game was perceived as a quasi-religious game symbolizing the battle between good and evil. Burmese chess (sittuyin) was played in the royal courts during the Pagan period (1044-1287). The Myanmar Chess Federation joined FIDE in 1990.
Burmakin, Vladimir (1967- )
Grandmaster from Russia. His FIDE rating is 2590.
Burn, Amos (1848-1925)
One of the world’s top ten chess players between 1886 and 1912. He was a cotton broker and a sugar broker from Liverpool and remained an amateur chess player. He started his international chess career at the late age of 37. He edited a chess column in The Field from 1913 to 1925. He was a member of the Liverpool Chess Club from 1867 to 1925, serving as its president for many years. His nickname was Bulldog or “The Highwayman.” In 1871, he tied for 1st in the British Championship, but lost the play-off to Wisker. He was analyzing a chess game for his chess column when he died of a stroke.
Burn – Owen, Liverpool 1874
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.Be2 O-O 6.h4 Nc6 7.h5 e5 8.hxg6 fxg6 9.Nf3 Ng4 10.Bc4+ Kh8 11.Ng5 Bh6 12.Qxg4 Bxg4 13.Rxh6 Kg7 14.Rxh7+ 1-0
NN – Burn, England 1866
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7 4.c3 d5 5.Nxe5 dxe4 6.Qa4 Qd5 7.f4 Bd7 8.Nxd7 Kxd7 9.O-O Nf5 10.b4 a5 11.Kh1 axb4 12.Bxc6+ bxc6 13.Qxa8 Bc5 14.Qxh8 Ng3+ 15.hxg3 Qh5 mate 0-1
Butnorius, Algimantas (1946- )
International Master
(1983) from Lithuania.
Bykhovsky, Avigdor (1955- )
Russian Grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2457.
Bykova, Yelizavyeta (1911-1989)
Women’s World
Champion from 1953 to 1956, and from 1958 to 1962. From 1956 to 1958 she lost her title to Olga
Rubtsova. In 1962 she lost her title to
Nona Gaprindashvili. She was USSR
Women’s champion in 1947, 1948, and 1950.
She earned the Women’s Grandmaster title in 1976.
Byrne, Donald (1930-1976)
Winner of the 1953 US Open.
He was on three US Olympiad teams (1962, 1964, 1968). He was an associate professor of English at
Byrne, Robert (1928-
)
Grandmaster (1964) and a graduate of Yale who became a philosophy teacher, then gave it up to become a chess professional. He won the 1972 U.S. Championship and was third place finisher at the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal (behind Karpov and Korchnoi). As a result, he became only the third American (after Fischer and Benko) to ever qualify for the Candidates. He was 45 at the time. He is a chess correspondent for the New York Times.
R. Byrne -
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3 b6 7.Qe2 Be7 8.Bf4 Bb7 9.O-O-O Qc8 10.Ne5 h6 11.h4 a6 12.Rh3 Bd6 13.Rg3 Bf8 14.Re1 Qd8? (14...Nd5) 15.Nxf7! (15...Kxf7 16.Ng5+ Ke8 17.Bg6+ Ke7 18.Qxe6 mate) 1-0
cable match
In 1895, the first
transatlantic cable match (moves transmitted by telegraph) was played between
the British Chess Club and the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1897 a cable match between the British
House of Commons and the U.S. House of Representatives resulted in a draw. In 1899 a cable match between American
universities and British universities took place. It was won by a single game by the British
universities. Between 1896 and 1911,
Cabrilo, Goran (1958-
)
Grandmaster from
Cafe de la Regence (Coffee House)
Perhaps the most famous of coffee house where chess was
played. This coffee house was opened up
in
Cafferty, Bernard (1934- )
British Boys’ Champion in 1952 and British Junior Champion
in 1954. He was British Correspondence
Champion in 1960 and 5-time British Lightning Champion from 1964 to 1969. He took part in every British championship
from 1957 to 1970. Former editor of the British
Chess Magazine.
Cafferty – Corbin,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.O-O Bb6 9.Ba3 d6 10.Bb5 Be6 11.Qa4 Bd7 12.cxd4 a6 13.Nc3 Qf6 14.e5 Qg6 15.exd6 cxd6 16.Rfe1+ Kd8 17.Nd5 Ba5 18.Bxc6 Bxe1 19Rxe1 1-0
Caissa
The muse or goddess of chess, originally a wood-nymph, in a poem by Sir William Jones written in 1763 (and published in 1772) called Caissa. It was inspired by Vida’s Scacchia Ludus (written in 1513 and published in 1535), the poem that tells about the invention of chess by Mars.
Calvi, Ignazio (1797-1872)
Italian chess master and chess problem composer who stayed
in
Calvo Minguez, Ricardo (1943-2002)
Spanish journalist,
chess historian, medical doctor and International Master (1973) who was
censured by FIDE for writing articles that were critical of the world chess
federation. He played for
Calvo - Korchnoi,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 7.c4 Na6 8.O-O Qh4 9.N1d2 Nge7 10.c5 Ne5 11.Be2 b6 12.f4 N5c6 13.Nc4 bxc5 14.g3 Qh6? (14...Qh3) 15.f5 Qf6 16.fxe6 Qxe6 17.Nd6+ Kf8 18.Bc4 1-0
Longest running annual match in chess. The traditional series began in 1873 with the
help of future world champion Wilhelm Steinitz (won by
Campomanes, Florencio (1927- )
First non-European elected FIDE President (1982-1995). He played Board 2 for the
Campora, Daniel
(1957- )
Argentine Grandmaster (1986). He was Argentinian champion in 1986 and 1989. He led the Argentine team at the 1984 Chess Olympiad.
Campora –
1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.O-O Be7 7.Re1 exd4 8.Nxd4 O-O 9.Bxc6
bxc6 10.Qf3 Re8 11.e5 Ng4 12.e6 1-0
Chess has been played in
Canal, Esteban (1896-1981)
Peruvian International Master (1950) who received an
honorary Grandmaster title in 1977 at the age of 81. Canal lived in
Canal - Unknown,
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Bg5 Bb4 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ne2 O-O 8.O-O Be7 9.Re1 Nb4 10.Ng3 Nxd3 11.Qxd3 c6 12.Nh5 Be6 13.Nf4 h6 (13...Ng4) 14.Bxh6 gxh6 15.Rxe6 fxe6? (15...Nd6) 16.Qg6+ Kh8 17.Nxe6 1-0
Canute (995-1035)
King of
Capablanca y Graupera, Jose Raoul (1888-1942)
Cuban-born, Capablanca was American-educated and sent to a
private school (Woodycliff School of South Orange) in
Reti -
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.c3 a6 5.Ba4 f5 6.d4 fxe4 7.Ng5 exd4 8.Nxe4 Nf6 9.Bg5 Be7 10.Qxd4 (10.Bxc6+) 10...b5 11.Nxf6+ gxf6 12.Qd5 bxa4 13.Bh6 Qd7 14.O-O Bb7 15.Bg7 O-O-O 16.Bxh8 Ne5 17.Qd1 Bf3! 18.gxf3 Qh3 (threatening 19...Rg8+) 0-1
Cardoso, Ruth (1934-2000)
Ruth Cardose was born in
Cards and chess
The division of
cards into fours suits originated from chess.
At one time, it was thought that cards were based in the Indian 4-handed
chess (chaturanga).
Carlsen, Magnus (1990-
)
Norwegian child prodigy who gained the Grandmaster title
(2004) at the age of 13 years, 4 months and 26 days. He became the 2nd youngest GM in
chess history, behind only Sergey
Karjakin. He was trained by
Carlsen – Ibraev, Calvia 2004
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Nf3 Qb6 7.e3 Qc7 8.b3 b6 9.Bb2 Bb7 10.Nb5 Qd8 11.O-O-O O-O 12.Ng5 Re8 13.h4 e5 14.Nd6 Bxd6 15.Rxd6 h6 16.Qf5 Nc6 17.Rxf6 1-0
Horatio Caro (KAH-ro) was an was born in
Caro –
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 3.c4 c6 4.Qb3 Qc8 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Nc3 e6 7.Bf4 a6 8.Na4 Ra7 9.Nb6 Qd8 10.Bxb8 Qxb8 11.Qa4+ Ke7 12.Rc1 g5 13.Ne5 Nh6 14.Nc8+ 1-0
Carr, Neil (1968-
)
Youngest player to beat a grandmaster in a clock simultaneous exhibition. In 1978 at the age of 10 he beat a grandmaster. He won the World under-14 championship.
Carroll, Charles (1737-1832)
The last survivor of the 56 signers of the Declaration of
Independence (he represented
Carroll, Lewis (1832-1898)
Author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
and Through the Looking-Glass (1872),
the story of
Born in
Castling is the only time in the game when more than one
piece may be moved during a turn.
Castling can only occur if there are no pieces standing between the king
and the rook. Neither king nor rook may
have moved from its original position.
There can be no opposing piece that could possible capture the king in
his original square (you cannot castle while you are in check), the square he
moves through, or the square that he ends the turn (you cannot castle into
check). Castling was invented around the
1500s to speed up the game. In 1561, a
book by Ruy Lopez published in
Caxton, William (1438-1491)
The first English printer.
He is the publisher of the second book to be printed in English, The
Game and Playe of the Chesse, in
1475. The book consisted of 72 pages,
with no illustrations and printed in
Caze, M. (1650-1710)
Author of the first manuscript on the King’s Gambit, in
1706. It was his opinion that accepting
the King’s Gambit would lead to a forced draw.
He was the first to propose a type of random chess, by moving the king
and queen around in the back rank. He
also wanted to take away the advantage of the first move by playing the pawn
only one square up. He was the first to
record chess games played by other players, then reprint them. He recorded the games of the best chess
players in
CCLA
Correspondence Chess League of
Cebalo, Miso (1945- )
Yugoslav (now Croatia) Grandmaster (1985). He tied for 1st place in the 1985 Yugoslav championship, but lost the play-off to Marjanovic. He tied for 6th-7th in the 1985 Taxco Interzonal. He is currently rated 2511.
In 2003, former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov was kicked
out of a chess tournament because his cell phone rang during the course of a
match. As per article 13.4 of the laws
of chess, he was disqualified when his cell phone rang during a games against
GM Evgeny Agrest of
Cessolis, Jacobus de (1275-1322)
Dominican monk who wrote De Moribus Hominum ed de
Officiis Nobilium Super Ludo Scaccorum (On the Customs of Men and Their
Noble Actions with Reference to the Game of Chess). This is the best known of all chess
moralities, written around 1300. The
moralities deal with all sorts and conditions of men, allegorically represented
in their various ranks by chess pieces.
In 1474 William Caxton translated the French version into English and
printed it under the title The Game of Chess. It was the second book printed in the English
language (Caxton translated and published a history of
Chadwick, Henry
(1824-1908)
Born in
Chajes, Oscar (1873-1928)
Oscar Chajes (KHAH-yes) was born in
Grandmaster (1983).
He won the 1975-76
Fedorowicz –
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bc4 Bg7 5.Qe2 Nc6 6.e5 Nd7 7.e6 fxe6 8.Nf3 d5 9.Bb5 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.h4 c6 12.Bd3 e5 13.h5 e4 14.hxg6 hxg6 15.Rxh8+ Bxh8 0-1
Charles, Ray (1930-2004)
Blind musician (born Ray Charles Robinson) who learned chess in 1965 after being busted twice and hospitalized for heroin addiction. He learned chess in the hospital where he went cold turkey after 17 years of drug use. He used a peg set made for the blind. He appeared on the cover of Chess Life in September 2002 and was interviewed by Larry Evans. Ray Charles stated that chess was his favorite game. One of his chess opponents was Willie Nelson, who mentioned Ray Charles’ chess skills at his funeral. He also played chess with Dizzy Gillespie. In the film, Ray, there is a scene of Ray Charles playing chess in the hospital with the doctor while recovering from his addiction. He died of liver disease.
Ray Charles – Larry Evans, Reno 2002
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bc5 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Qe2 O-O 8.Be3 Bxe3 9.Qxe3 Re8 10.f3 d5 11.Qd3 a5 12.O-O-O Ba6 13.Qd2 Bxf1 14.Rhxf1 dxe4 15.Qxd8 Raxd8 16.Rxd8 Rxd8 17.Rd1 Rxd1+ 18.Kxd1 exf3 19.gxf3 Kf8 20.Kc1 Be7 21.Kd2 Ke6 22.Ke3 Nd5+ 23.Kd4 Nxc3 24.Kxc3 Kd5 0-1
Charlick, Henry (1845-1916)
Henry Charlick was born in
Charousek, Rudolf (1873-1900)
Chess master born in
Charousek –
Makovets,
1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5
3.Nf3 d6 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.Bc4 Bb6 7.d4 Bg4 8.fxe5 dxe5 9.Bxf7+ Kf8 10.Ba3+
Ne7 11.O-O exd4 12.Qb3 g6 13.Bxg6 1-0
Chaturanga
The earliest chess precursor that can be clearly defined,
dating back to the 7th century in
Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342-1400)
His romantic poem, Book of the Duchesse, written in 1369, has many references to chess. Chaucer was the first person to use the word checkmate, derived from Arabic. He introduced the word “fers” as the name for the queen chess piece.
Chauvenet, Louis Russell “Russ” (1920-2003)
Check
Up until the early 20th century, it was mandatory to
announce a check. Up until the late 19th
century, it was mandatory to say 'check to the queen' or 'gardez' when she was
attacked. At one time, if the King and
other piece were simultaneously attacked by a piece, it was customary to
announce the fact by saying check to both pieces. Up until the early 19th
century, an unannounced check could be ignored.
In 1991, the game Wegner-Johnsen in Gausdal had 100 checks for White and
41 checks for Black, for a total of 141 checks in the game. In 1995, the game Rebickova-Voracova in the
Chekhov, Valery
(1955- )
Russian Grandmaster .
In 1975 he won the World Junior Championship. He became an IM in 1975 and a GM in
1984. He teaches chess at a children’s
center in
Chekhov – Razuvaev,
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.e4 Nc6 5.dxc5 Qa5+ 6.Bd2 Qxc5 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Be2 d6 9.O-O O-O 10.h3 Be6 11.Na4 1-0
Chekhover, Vitaly
(1908-1965)
Soviet International Master (1950). He played in the
Cheparinov, Ivan (1986-
)
Grandmaster (2004) from
Chernev,
Chess master and author of 18 chess books. He learned chess at the age of 12 from his
father. He played in the U.S.
Championship in 1942 and 1944 and played in numerous
Chernin, Alexander
(1960- )
Russian Grandmaster. He was European Junior Champion in 1979-1980. He tied for 1st place in the 1985 USSR Championship, but lost the play-off. In 1985, he tied for 4th-5th at the Tunis Interzonal. He became an IM in 1984 and a GM in 1985.
The purse from the Karpov-Kasparov 1986 London-Leningrad
match ($900,000) was donated to the victims of the nuclear disaster in
Cheron, Andre (1895-1980)
French champion in 1926, 1927, and 1929 and one of the great
endgame analysts and study composers of all time. He played Board 1 for
Cheron - Polikier,
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 Nd7 5.Bc4 Nf6? (5...Nb6) 6.e5 dxe5 7.dxe5 Nh5 8.Bxf7+ Kxf7 9.Ng5+ Kg8 10.Qd5+ (10...e6 11.Qxe6+ Kf8 12.Qf7 mate) 1-0
Chess
Chess is also known as ash-shatranj (Arabic), sittuyin (Burmese), sah (Croatian), sach (Czech), siang (Chinese), schak (Danish), echecs (French), schach (German), zatrikion (Greek), shitranj (Hindustani), sakk (Hungarian), scac (Icelandic), scacchi (Italian), shogi (Japanese), tiyang keni (Korean), scaci (Latin), chator (Malay), shatara (Mongol), shatranj (Parsi), chatrang (Persian), szach (Polish), xadrez (Portuguese), schamat (Russian), chaturanga (Sanskrit), ajedrez (Spanish), schack (Swedish), makruk (Thai), chandaraki (Tibetan), and skaki (Turkish).
CHESS 4.6
Chess computer program written at
CHESS the magazine
British monthly chess magazine published by Sutton
Coldfield,
CHESS the musical
Most expensive musical play ever put together, costing over $4 million in 1986. The musical was written by Tim Rice in 1984 and music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (formerly of ABBA). The musical revolves around the romantic triangle of an American chess champion, his girlfriend, and a Russian opponent. A Broadway production opened in 1988, but it lost 6 million dollars and closed after only 68 performances.
The rules of Chess960 are mostly the same as orthodox chess,
but the setup is different. The pawns
begine where they always do. The pieces
are arranged at random, with the proviso that bishops must end up on opposite
colors, and the king is set up between the two rooks. The black pieces are lined up to mirror the
white pieces. That makes for 960
different starting positions in the game.
The point of Chess960 is to free chess from memorization and book
moves. Bobby Fischer unveiled this chess
variant at a 1996 press conference in
Chessboard
The first chessboard of alternating light and dark squares
appear in
Chess Fever
(Shakmatnaya Goryachka)
The most important chess film of the silent era. It was made in
Chess is My Life
Title of an autobiography by both Karpov (1981) and Korchnoi (1977).
Chess Life
Chess Life magazine first appeared as the official publication of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) on September 5, 1946. Its first editor was Montgomery Major. A single issue cover price was 10 to 15 cents in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1969 it merged with Chess Review (1933-1969), which was edited by Isaac Kashdan, and was called Chess Life and Review. In 1980 it reverted back to Chess Life.
Chess Made Easy
The first American published book on chess. It was published in 1802 in
Chess players
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) estimates there are over 600 million chess players in the world. There are 7.5 million FIDE registered chess players in 160 countries.
Chess Review first appeared in January, 1933. The first Editor in Chief was Isaac
Kashdan. I.A. Horowitz was the
associated editor. Otto
Chess sets
In 1971, a chess set landed an antiques dealer, Trevor
Stowe, in court in
Chess World
First English-language chess magazine published in a
non-English-speaking country. It was
edited by George Koltanowski in
Chevalier,
In 1927, he won the Boston Chess Championship. He was a former Harvard College Champion. He wrote a chess column in The Christian Science Monitor.
Chiburdanidze, Maya (1961- )
Six-time World’s women champion for 13 years, from 1978 until her defeat by Xie Jun of China in 1991. Her coach had been Eduard Gufeld. She was USSR women’s champion at 15, won the women’s Interzonal at 16, defeated three of the best women in the world (Alexandria, Akhmilovskaya, and Kusnir) in matches at 17, and world champion (defeating Gaprindashvili) at age 17, the youngest of any world champion in chess. She was awarded the title of International Woman Master in 1974 at the age of 13, making her the youngest title holder in the history of chess up to that time. She didn’t even have a FIDE rating.
Muara -
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.f3 O-O 7.Be3 e5 8.Nb3 d5 9.Bc5? (9.Bd2) 9...Bxc5 10.Nxc5 d4 11.Ne2 Qa5+ (and 12...Qxc5) 0-1
Chigorin, Mikhail (1850-1908)
Founder of the Russian school of chess. He was the first public chess worker,
organizer, and journalist in
Schlezer - Chigorin,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 Nc6 4.Bb5 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nxe5 Bxf5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Qxh8 Qe7+ 10.Kd1 Bxf2 11.Qxg8+ Kd7 12.Qc4 Re8 (threatening 13...Qe1+ 14.Rxe1 Rxe1 mate) 0-1
Chigorin – Walbrodt,
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5
3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Nxe5 Bd6 5.Qe2 Qe7 6.Qxe4 f6 7.d4 fxe5 8.fxe5 c6 9.Bc4 Bc7 10.O-O
Be6 11.Bg5 Qxg5 12.Bxe6 Nh6 13.Bc8 1-0
Chikvaidze, Alexander (1932- )
Replaced former cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastianov in 1986 as
President of the Soviet Chess Federation.
He was a Georgian career diplomat who served as former Ambassador to
The Chinese Emperor Wen-ti executed two foreign chess
players after learning that one of the pieces was called
"Emperor." He was upset that
his title of Emperor could be associated with a mere game and forbade the game. Chinese chess is played on a board 9 squares
by 8 and the pieces move on the intersections of the lines rather than the
squares, so that the actual playing area is 10 by 9. One of the pieces as a cannon, unknown
anywhere else. Chess was not listed as a competitive sport in
Christiansen, Larry (1956- )
Player who become an International Grandmaster without ever
being an International Master first. In
1977 he was awarded the title after winning an international tournament in
Christiansen - Karpov, Wijk aan Zee 1993
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.Bf4 Nh5 11.Be3 Bd6? (11...Bc5) 12.Qd1 (threatening 13.Qxd6 and 13.Qxh5) 1-0
Chuchelov,
Grandmaster from
Churchill, Lord Randolph (1849-1895)
Winston Churchill's father was elected vice president of the
British Chess Association in 1885 (the British Chess Association became the
British Chess Federation on 1904). Lord
Tennyson was the President of the British Chess Association. He took chess lessons from Zukertort and
William (Wilhelm) Steinitz. He was the
co-founder of the Oxford University Chess Club.
He was one of the financial backers of the great 1883
Cifuentes-Parada,
Roberto (1957- )
Grandmaster
from Chile. He was the champion
of
Ciocaltea, Victor (1932-1983)
Romanian chess player who became an International Master in 1957 and took 21 years to become a Grandmaster in 1978. He won the Romanian championship 8 times during 1952-1979.
Hutemann - Ciocaltea,
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 g6 4.h3 Bg7 5.Nf3 Nh6 6.Bd3 O-O 7.O-O f6 8.Bf4 Nf7 9.e5 fxe5 10.Bxe5 Nxe5 11.dxe5 Nd7 12.Re1 Nc5 13.b4 Ne6 14.Ne2 Rxf3 15.gxf3 Ng5 16.f4 Nxh3+ 17.Kg2 Qf8 18.Kg3? (18.Qd2) 18...Bxe5 (19.fxe5 Qxf2 mate) 0-1
Ciric, Dragoljub (1935-
)
Yugoslav (now
Ciric –
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.a3 b5 8.Ba2 Bb7 9.Qe2 Nbd7 10.O-O Rc8
11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 Qb6 13.Rad1 Be7 14.Kh1 g5 15.Bg3 Ne5 16.f4 gxf4 17.Rxf4 Rg8
18.Bh4 Ng6 19.Rxf6 Nxh4 20.Rxf7 Rxc3 21.bxc3 Rxg2 22.Qh5 Bxe4 23.Rxe7+ 1-0
Clarke, Peter (1933-
)
English player who
placed 2nd in five British Championships. He played on 8 English Chess Olympiad teams. He was British Correspondence Champion in
1977. He became a Grandmaster in
Correspondence Chess in 1980.
Clarke – Toran,
Hastings 1956
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 e5 7.Nf3 Nbd7 8.Bc4 Be7 9.a4 O-O 10.Qe2 b6
11.O-O Bb7 12.fxe5 dxe5 13.Bg5 Nh5 14.Rad1 Bc5+ 15.Kh1 Qc7 16.Rxd7 Qxd7 17.Nxe5
Qc7 18.Nxf7 g6 19.Nd5 Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Ra7 21.Nd6 Kg7 22.Rxf8 1-0
Clean Score
A perfect 100% score.
Capablanca achieved perfect scores three times:
Clock, Chess
The first mechanical chess clock was invented by Thomas
Wilson in 1883. Prior to that,
sandglasses were used. Sandglasses were
first used in
Club, Chess
The world's first chess club was organized in
Cochrane, John (1798-1878)
Scottish master and lawyer who spent half his life in
Cochrane –
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Nxd4 4.Nxe5 Ne6 5.Bc4 c6 6.O-O Nf6 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.f4 Qa5 9.Nxf7 Kxf7 10.f5 Qc5+ 11.Kh1 Qxc4 12.fxe6+ Qxe6 13.Qh5+ g6 14.Qh4 Bxc3 15.bxc3 Rf8 16.Bh6 1-0
Code breakers and chess
During World War II some of the top chess players were also code breakers. British masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and C. H. O'D. Alexander was on the team which broke the Nazi Enigma code. In September 1939, the British chess team had just qualified for the finals in the Buenos Aires Olympiad. When war broke out, they were ordered home on the next ship out. During one watch keeping at night, Milner-Barry sent out an alarm to the rest of the ship when he thought he spotted a U-boat. It turned out to be a porpoise.
Cohen, Lewis
Lewis Cohen never lost a game in the National Elementary Championships, scoring 40-0. He was the 1974 and 1975 Junior High School champion.
Colle, Edgar (1897-1932)
Six time
College
The first college chess club in
Collijn, Ludwig
(1878-1939)
Swedish author and organizer. He was President of the Swedish Chess Association from 1917 to 1939. He organized and directed the 1937 Stockholm Chess Olympiad. He, and his brother Gustaf (1880-1968), wrote Larobok i Schack, a book on openings and endings.
Collins, John (Jack) W. (1912-2001)
Chess teacher to Bobby Fischer, Robert Byrne, William
Lombardy, Donald Byrne, Sal Matera, Ray Weinstein, Lisa Lane, and Rachel
Crotto. He has won the U.S.
Correspondence Chess Championship (1943), the Marshall Chess Club Championship
(1953), and the New York Championship (1952).
He was the first postal chess editor of Chess Review. He reached the finals of the first ICCF
World Chess Championship in 1953. His
first house was on
Column, Chess
The first newspaper to publish a chess column was the Liverpool
Mercury. The chess column appeared
on July 9, 1813 and ended on August 20,1814.
Egerton Smith (1774-1841), founder of the Mercury in 1811, wrote
the chess column from July 9, 1813 to August 20, 1814. The first chess column to appear in a
magazine was written by George Walker for the Lancet in 1823. Due to a lack of popularity, it disappeared
after less than a year. The first column
to establish itself was that of George Walker in Bells Life. It ran from 1834 to 1873. A chess column first appeared in the weekly Illustrated
London News on June 25, 1842. Howard
Staunton was its chess columnist from February,1845 to 1878. The last major chess columnist was B. H.
Wood, who was its chess columnist until 1979.
Chess coverage ended in 1987. The
first American chess column appeared in 1845 in the New York Spirit of the
Times. It was written by
Commons, Kim (1951-
)
1971
Computers
The first chess effort on the part of a computer is a mate
in 2 programmed in 1949 on a Ferranti digital machine. The first computer program that played proper
chess was written at MIT by Alex Bernstein in 1959. The Massachusetts Amateur Championship marked
the first time a chess computer played chess against human beings under
tournament conditions in 1967. MacHack
VI, from MIT, ended up with a 1239 provisional rating. The first chess
tournament in which the only players were computer programs was held in
Conquest, Stuart (1967-
)
Grandmaster from
cook
A composition term for an alternative key not intended by
the composer. Named after Eugene Cook
(1830-1915) of
Cook Eugene Beauharnais (1830-1915)
The foremost American problemist of his day. He had many of his chess problems published
in
Cook, Nathaniel
Designer (along with John Jacques) of the
Cooke, H. I.
Author of the first chess book written by a woman, The
ABC of Chess, by a Lady. It appeared
in
Correspondence Chess
Perhaps the first reputed correspondence game of chess was
played in 1119 by King Henry I (1068-1135) of
Corzo, Juan (1873-1941)
Juan Corzo was born in
Cox, James R.
Winner of the first New York State Championship in 1878.
Cozio, Carlo
Francesco (1715-1780)
Italian Count of Montiglio and Count of Salabue. He was the author of a two volume chess book, Il giuoco degli scacchi o sia Nuova idea di attacchi, difese e partiti del Giuoco degli Scacchi, published in 1740. The Ruy Lopez variation 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7 is called Cozio’s Defense.
Cramer, Fred
(1912-1989)
Former USCF Membership chairman and USCF President
(1961-1964). In the 1970s, he was the
FIDE vice-president. He was Bobby
Fischer’s manager during the 1972 World Championship Match. He was a lighting contractor. He got involved in chess when he provided
better lighting to the 1953 US Open in
Cramling, Pia (1963- )
Grandmaster from
Skripchenko - P. Cramling,
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Qb6 6.e5 Bc5 7.Be3 Nd5 8.Nxd5 exd5 9.Nf5 Qxb2 10.Bxc5 Qc3+ 11.Ke2 Qxc5 12.Nd6+ Kf8 13.f4 Nc6 14.Kf3 (14.Qd3) 14...f6 15.Nxc8 (15.c4) 15...fxe5 16.fxe5 Nxe5+ 17.Kf4?? (17.Ke2) 17...Rxc8 18.Kxe5 Re8+ 19.Qf3 Qe7 (threatening 29...g6 mate) 0-1
Cray Blitz
The first computer to win a state championship (
Crisan, Alexandru (1962- )
Grandmaster (1997) from
Crittenden, Kit (1935- )
On August 29, 1948 Kit Crittenden won the
A Croatian legend is that the Croatian king Suronja beat the
Venetian doge in a chess game for a number of Croatian islands. The Croatian coat of arms was supposed to
have been evolved from the chess board of 64 squares. The first written trace of chess in
Crotto, Rachel (1958-
)
In 1972 she was one of the youngest girls ever to play in
the U.S. Women's championship, at age 13.
She was U.S. Women’s Champion from 1977 to 1979. She took 12th-13th
place at the 1979
Crum, John (1842-1922)
First Scottish chess champion. He won the event, held in
Csom, Istvan
(1940- )
Istvan Csom (Chom) was born in
In 1952 there was an international tournament in
Cvitan, Ognjen
(1961- )
Yugoslav Grandmaster (1987). In 1981 he won the World Junior (Under 20) Championship, ahead of Nigel Short and Salov. His name is pronounced Og-nhien Cvhie-than. His highest rating has been 2633, ranked 69th in the world in 1994.
Cvitan – Short,
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 c5 5.d5 Ba6 6.Qc2 exd5 7.cxd5 Bb7 8.e4 Qe7 9.Bd3 Nxd5 10.O-O Nc7 11.Nc3 Qd8 12.Nd5 Ne6 13.Ne5 Nc6 14.f4 Nxe5 15.fxe5 Be7 16.Qe2 h6 17.Qh5 Rf8 18.Bxh6 gxh6 19.Rxf7 Rxf7 20.Rf1 Ng5 21.Bc4 Kf8 22.Rxf7+ Nxf7 23.Nf6 1-0
In 1910 the Cyprus Chess Association was founded and the
first
Czerniak, Moshe (1910-1984)
International Master (1952) and
Czerniak - Constantinou, Lugano 1968
1.e4 c5 2.b3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Bb2 d6 5.exd6 exd6 6.Na3 Nc6 7.Nc4 Nf6 8.Nf3 Be7 9.d4 O-O 10.d5 Nb4 11.Ne3 Re8 12.Be2 Bd7 13.O-O Bf8 14.Re1 Ne4 15.a3 Na6 16.Bxa6 bxa6 17.Qd3 Rb8 18.Nf1 Bf5 19.Qxa6 c4 (19...Re7) 20.Qxc4 Rc8 21.Qd4 Rxc2? (21...Qd7) 22.Ne3 (23...Rxb2 24.Nxf5, threatening 25.Qxb2 and 25.Rxe4) 1-0
Dadian (Salome Dadian de Mingrelie) (1848-1913)
Prince of Mingrelia and sponsor of the 1903
Dake, Arthur (1910-2000)
Arthur Dake became a bridge toll collector, then a highway
auto controller, and finally an automobile inspector for the state of
Dake - Schmitt, Seattle 1949
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Nc3 O-O 8.f4 Nc6 9.d5 Nb8 10.Nf3 e6 11.Bc5 Re8 12.d6 N6d7 13.Ba3 cxd6 14.Bxd6 Qb6 15.Qd2 e5 16.Bc4 exf4? (16...Bh6) 17.Bxf7 Kxf7 18.Ng5+ (18...Kg8 19.Qd5+ Kh8 20.Nf7+ Kg8 21.Nh6+ Kh8 22.Qg8+ Rxg8 23.Nf7 mate) 1-0
Daly, Harlow B. (1883-1979)
Perhaps the oldest person to win a state chess
championship. In 1968 he won the
Championship of Maine at age 85. He had
previously won in 1961 at the age of 77 and in 1965 at the age of 81. He played in the New England Open every year
from 1908 (when he won it) to 1971. He
won the Massachusetts State Championship in 1940 and 1942. He was still playing chess in his 90s. At 90, in 1973, he won a New Hampshire Open
tournament with a perfect 5-0 score. He
died at the age of 95. He played chess
for 75 years. He won the championships
of
Damiani, Petrus (Peter) (1007-1072)
Cardinal bishop of Ostia, Italy who wrote to Pope Alexander II in 1061 urging the pope to forbid chess from the clergy and to punish a bishop in Florence for wasting his time playing chess in the evenings. Damiani associated the game with frivolity and the sin of gambling.
Damiano, Pedro (1470-1544)
Portuguese apothecary (pharmacist) and author of Questo
Libro e da imparare giocave a scachi et de li partiti, the first chess
(modern chess) book in
Damjanovic, Mato
(1927- )
Yugoslav Grandmaster (1964). He was 1st at
Damjanovic – Tudev,
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 c5 8.Ne2 Bb7 9.Nbc3 f5 10.exf5 Bxg2 11.Rg1 Bb7 12.Nf4 Qf6 13.Ne6 Rc8 14.Qe2 Kd7 15.Be3 Qxf5 16.Nxc5+ dxc5 17.O-O-O+ Bd6 18.Rxg7+ Kc6 19.Qc4 Qf6 20.Rf7 Qg6 21.Ne4 Rb8 22.Bxc5 1-0
Damljanovic, Branko (1961- )
Grandmaster from Serbia/Montenegro. His FIDE rating is 2612. He is the highest rated player from
Danielsen,
Henrik (1966- )
Grandmaster from Denmark. His FIDE rating is 2511.
Dao Thien Hai (1978-
)
Grandmaster from
Darga, Klaus (1934-
)
German Junior Chess Champion in 1951. In 1953 he tied with Oscar Panno in the 2nd
World Junior Championship, held in
Darin, Bobby (1936-1973)
Born Walden Waldo Cassotto, he was one of the most popular rock and roll American teen idols of the late 1950s. In late 1972, he planned the Bobby Darin International Chess Classic. It would have been the richest chess tournament ever, and he was putting up $25,000 of his own money, but he died before it could take place. Darin was a chess enthusiast. The Bobby Darin Show featured a weekly chess problem. He played chess his whole life, including the day before he died on the operating table during surgery to replace a heart valve. He taught his wife, Sandra Dee, to play chess. While he worked, she played chess with the cast or crew, and was very good, defeating most of her opponents.
Dautov, Rustem (1965-
)
Grandmaster from
Davies, Nigel (1960- )
English grandmaster. His FIDE rating is 2521. He is a former British Open Quickplay champion. He has written at least 10 chess books.
Dawson, Thomas
(1889-1951)
British problemist who composed over 6,000 chess problems. He specialized in fairy chess and invented the grasshopper (upside down queen) – it moves like a queen but must hop over a piece and land on the next square beyond. He was president of the British Chess Problem Society from 1931 to 1943.
Day,
Canadian International Master (1972). In 2004 he won the first Canadian Senior (over 50 years old) Chess Championship with a perfect 5-0.
Day –
1.Nf3 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Ng5 Nf6 5.Bc4 e6 6.O-O Qd4 7.Qe2 Nbd7 8.d3 exd3 9.Bxd3 Ne5 10.Rd1 Nxd3 11.Be3 Nf4 12.Qf3 Nh3+ 13.gxh3 Qe5 14.Rd8+ Ke7 15.Rad1 1-0
American Grandmaster (1985).
He was
De Firmian -
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.e5 Ng4 8.e6 fxe6 9.Ng5 Bxb5 10.Nxe6 Bxd4 11.Nxb5 Qa5+ 12.Qd2 Bf2+ 13.Kd1 Qa4 (13...Ne3+) 14.Qe2 Kf7 15.b3 Qa6 16.Ng5+ Kg7 17.Qxe7+ Kh6 18.Nf7+ (18...Kg7 19.Nxd6+ Kh6 20.Nf5+ gxf5 21.Qg5 mate) 1-0
de Groot,
Dutch psychologist and chess master who did the first psychological enquiry into the minds of chess players. His 1965 book, Thought and Choice in Chess, showed the different abilities of masters and amateurs. He found that masters can recall 93% of all the pieces on a board of a chess position from a game (not random) after looking at it for 4 seconds. Experts remembered 72% and weaker chess players were able to recall only 51% of the pieces. When random positions were shown, all levels of players recalled the same percentage of pieces. This suggested that masters were able to use some form of chunking, or pattern-matching, that allowed them to recall the positions. He played on the Dutch Olympiad team in 1936, 1937, and 1939.
de Riviere, Jules
(1830-1905)
Leading French master of his day. He was a frequent opponent of Morphy and they were good friends. Morphy pawned his watch that was given to him by the Brooklyn Chess Club to de Riviere, who loaned Morphy a large sum of money. Morphy never paid de Riviere back. Morphy and de Riviere set out to write a book on chess openings, but they never completed or published the book.
de Vere, Cecil (1845-1875)
Cecil Valentine Brown, later known as Cecil de Vere, was
born in February 14 (Valentine’s Day), 1845.
In 1857, at the age of 12, he was taught who to play chess by a strong
Burn - de Vere,
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Bd6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.O-O Nf6 7.Re1+ Be6 8.Bf5 O-O 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.Rxe6 Ne4 11.c4 Rxf3 12.gxf3 Qh4 13.Rxd6? (13.fxe4) 13...Qxf2+ 14.Kh1 Nxd6 15.cxd5 Re8 16.Bd2 Re2 0-1
Medical doctor.
Founder and President Emeritus of Chess Collectors International. He is the owner of one of the largest
collection of chess sets in the world.
He owns the only Faberge chess set in existence, perhaps the most
valuable chess set in the world. His
chess sets were exhibited at the Karpov-Kasparov World Championship match at
the Macklowe Hotel in
Death Of Chess Players
Georgy Agzamov (1954-1986) died after falling down between
two rocks at a beach. Alexander Alekhine
(1892-1946) choked to death on a piece of meat.
Curt Von Bardeleben (1861-1924) committed suicide by jumping out of an
upper window of his boarding home. Efim
Bogoljobov (1889-1952) died of a heart attack after a simultaneous
exhibition. Paolo Boi (1528-1598) was
poisoned. Jose Capablanca (1888-1942)
died of a stroke after watching a skittles game at the Manhattan Chess
Club. Edgar Colle (1897-1932) died after
an operation for a gastric ulcer. Ed
Edmondson (192001982) had a heart attack while playing chess on the beach. Janos Flesch died in a car wreck in
1983. Karen Grigorian jumped out a
window. Nikolai Grigoriev (1895-1938)
died after an operation for appendicitis.
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky (1894-1941) got hit by an artillery shell on a
barge in
DEEP BLUE
IBM’s chess supercomputer that calculates over 200 million moves per second or 50 billion moves in 3 minutes. In May, 1997 it defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov with 2 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. Kasparov had defeated Deep Blue in February, 1996 with 3 wins, 1 loss, and 2 draws. Deep Blue has been IBM‘s chess project since 1989. The computer is now on display at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian).
DEEP JUNIOR
Strongest chess computer program in the world. In 2001 it won the World Micro Computer Chess
Championship 2 points ahead of all its competition, with a score of 8 out of
9.. World Computer Chess Champion in
2002. It is the world’s first commercial
chess program to run on machines with multi-processors. The program is based on Junior6, the 1997
Microcomputer World Champion. It played
a match against Kasparov in January-February, 2003 in
DEEP THOUGHT
Once the strongest chess playing computer in the world. It searched approximately 2 million chess positions per second. Deep Thought became the first computer to defeat a grandmaster in tournament play by defeating Bent Larsen at the 1988 U.S. Open. Deep Thought tied for first place in the U.S. Open with Tony Miles. Deep Thought became the world computer champion in 1989 and defeated David Levy in a match later that year.
Del Rio
Angelis, Salvador G. (1978- )
Grandmaster from Spain. His peak Elo rating was 2509.
Delmar,
Eugene Delmar was born in
DeMaro, Barbara
Managing director of the United States Chess Trust, the
charitable arm of the United States Chess Federation. She administers the Samford Fellowship
(current
Demonstration Board
The first demonstration board was designed in 1857 by Lowenthal. The first use of a demonstration board in a World Championship match was for the Steinitz-Zukertort match in 1886.
Denker,
A onetime boxer and boxing manager (won three successive
Golden Gloves bouts by knockouts). He
won the
Denker -
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 d5 6.Qa4 Qd7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.Nb5 Qd7 10.Bd2 e5 (10...a6) 11.O-O-O Bc5? (11...a6) 12.Bg5 Qf5 13.Nc7+ Kf8 14.Rd8+ Nxd8 15.Qe8 mate 1-0
Dervishi, Erald (1979-
)
Deschapelles,
Alexandre Louis Honore Lebreton (1780-1847)
Probably the strongest player in the world from 1800 to
1824. He claimed to have mastered chess in four days of study. He lost his right arm fighting the Prussians
in Napoleon’s army. He gave up chess and
took up whist when he could no longer beat his opponents at odds. George Perigal, after interviewing him,
wrote: "M. Deschapelles is the greatest chess player in
Deutsche Schachzeitung
Leading chess
periodical in Germany. It is the
oldest chess magazine still in existence.
It was founded in 1846 by Ludwig Bledow and edited by Adolph
Anderssen. The magazine was then called Schachzeitung
der Berliner Schachgesellschaft. It
changed its name upon the unification of
DiCamillo, Attilio
(1917-1962)
He played in three U.S. Chess Championships. He took 10th-11th place in 1944. He took 13th-16th place in 1946. He took 12th-13th place in 1957-58.
Diemer, Emil Josef (1908-1990)
German master who contributed to the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit,
1.d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3.f3 or 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e4. In 1935/36 and 1936/37 he took first place in
the Premier Reserves Major Tournament at
Diemer – NN,
1.d4 d5 2.a3 a6 3.Nc3 e6 4.e3 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.b4 Be7 7.Bb2 Bf6 8.Nf3 b5 9.e4 Qc7 10.e5 Bxe5 11.Nxb5 1-0
Diesen, Mark (1957-
)
International Master (1976),
Diez del Corral,
Jesus (1933- )
Spanish Grandmaster (1974). He won the Spanish Chess Championship in 1955 and 1965. He is an accountant by profession.
Dilaram’s Mate
The most famous of the Shatranj compositions. In old Arabic manuscripts a nobleman was playing chess and staked his favorite wife, Dilaram (heart’s ease), on one of the games. Unfortunately, the game went badly for the nobleman, and defeat seemed unavoidable. Dilaram shouted to her nobleman how to avoid mate. She said “Sacrifice your two rooks, but not me!” That’s what he did and he won the game.
Dimitrov,
Grandmaster from
Ditt, Egon (1931-2005)
FIDE Vice President from 1990 to 1994. FIDE Executive Council from 1994 to 1998. Honorary President of the German Chess Federation. He was treasurer of the European Chess Union.
Divinsky, Nathan
(1925- )
Canadian mathematician, chess master, and author. In 1945, he was 3rd in the
Canadian Championship. He played on the
1954 and 1966 Canadian Olympiad chess team.
He was the editor of Canadian
Chess Chat,
Divorce
In 1963 a wife of a chess player in
Dizdar, Goran (1958-
)
Grandmaster from
Dizdarevic, Emir
(1958- )
Yugoslav (
Philippe – Dizdarevic, Arandelovac 1985
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 c6 4.f3 Qb6 5.Na4 Qa5+ 6.c3 Nbd7 7.Nh3 e5 8.Bd2 b5 0-1
Djurhuus, Rune (1970-
)
Grandmaster from
Djuric, Stefan (1955-
)
Yugoslav (
Djuric – Szabo,
Oberwart 1979
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5
3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.e4 Bb7 6.d3 Be7 7.Bg2 O-O 8.O-O d6 9.b3 Nc6 10.d4 d5 11.exd5
exd5 12.cxd5 Nb4 13.dxc5 Nbxd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Bb2 Bxc5 16.Ne5 f6 17.Nd3 Rf7
18.Nxc5 bxc5 19.Qh5 Nb4 20.Bxb7 Rxb7 21.Qxc5 Rc8 22.Rad1 Qe8 23.Qf5 Nxa2
24.Rfe1 Qc6 25.Rd6 1-0
Dlugy, Maxim (1966-
)
Maxim Dlugy was born in