1992 in chess
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Top players
FIDE top 10 by Elo rating - January 1992- Garry KasparovGarry KasparovGarry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
2780 - Anatoly KarpovAnatoly KarpovAnatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
2725 - Vassily Ivanchuk 2720
- Nigel ShortNigel ShortNigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
2685 - Viswanathan AnandViswanathan AnandV. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
2670 - Boris GelfandBoris GelfandBoris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
2665 - Alexei ShirovAlexei ShirovAlexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
2655 - Gata KamskyGata KamskyGata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion. He is also the current United States Chess Champion. As of September 2011, he is rated No. 1 in the United States and No...
2655 - Artur YusupovArtur YusupovArtur Mayakovich Yusupov is a German International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer.-Chess career:...
2655 - Valery SalovValery SalovValery Salov is a Russian chess grandmaster.Salov was awarded the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title in 1986. He was the World under-17 Champion in 1980 and European Junior Champion in 1983-84...
2655
Chess news in brief
- Nigel ShortNigel ShortNigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
exceeds expectation by defeating Anatoly KarpovAnatoly KarpovAnatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
6-4 in the Candidates'Candidates TournamentThe Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
semi-final. In the other semi-final, Jan TimmanJan TimmanJan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
defeats Artur YusupovArtur YusupovArtur Mayakovich Yusupov is a German International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer.-Chess career:...
by the same score. Both matches are held in Linares, SpainLinares, SpainLinares is a city located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Spain. It is considered the second most important city in that province and had a population of 62,347 in the most recent census. The altitude is 419 meters and the total area of the municipality is 195.15 km2...
. - Bobby FischerBobby FischerRobert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
returns from twenty years of self-imposed exile, to play a match with Boris SpasskyBoris SpasskyBoris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
. The starting venue is Sveti StefanSveti StefanSveti Stefan, , now Aman Sveti Stefan including the Villa Miločer is a small islet and hotel and resort in Montenegro, approximately southeast of Budva. The resort includes the islet of Sveti Stefan and part of the mainland, where the Villa Miločer part of the resort is located...
, a small seaside resort in war-torn Yugoslavia (nowadays MontenegroMontenegroMontenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
). As the country is subject to UNUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
sanctions, the US State Department forbids Fischer from playing and threatens him with heavy penalties. In defiance of the threats, Fischer plays the match and wins by a score of 10-5, with 15 draws. He earns prize money of $3.5 million, and is titled by the organisers the "Undefeated Champion of the World". The quality of play varies from game to game, but there are some glimpses of Fischer's former glory days. The match concludes in BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. - Boris GelfandBoris GelfandBoris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
and Viswanathan AnandViswanathan AnandV. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
share victory at a strong tournament held in Moscow, each scoring 4½/7. - Garry KasparovGarry KasparovGarry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
wins the Trophée Immopar in Paris, including a first prize of more than $75,000. He defeats Anand in the final series of tie-break rapid games. - Kasparov and Vassily Ivanchuk win at DortmundDortmundDortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
. - The prestigious Linares tournament sees Kasparov triumphant with 10/13, ahead of rivals, Ivanchuk and Timman (both 8/13).
- Anand (6/9) wins a strong Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaReggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
tournament, held at the 1991/92 year end. Gelfand and Kasparov share second place on 5½/9. - Victory at the double-round AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
tournament goes to Anand and Short with 3½/6. - Another double-round tournament is held at Biel. Karpov wins with an impressive 10½/14, whereas Alexei ShirovAlexei ShirovAlexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
manages only 5½ points, a poor return for a young man rising rapidly through the world's top 10 rankings. - Michael Adams wins the TilburgTilburgTilburg is a landlocked municipality and a city in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of Noord-Brabant.Tilburg municipality also includes the villages of Berkel-Enschot and Udenhout....
knockout event. - The Women's InterzonalInterzonalInterzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
in ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
is won by Zsuzsa Polgar, with Nana IoselianiNana IoselianiNana Mikhailovna Ioseliani is a Georgian woman chess player. She has held the FIDE Woman Grandmaster title since 1980, and the International Master title since 1993....
in second place. - The 30th Chess OlympiadChess OlympiadThe Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
, held in ManilaManilaManila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, attracts 102 teams, including Philippines A, B and C. The event is dominated by a strong Russian team scoring 39/56, a full four points ahead of Uzbekistan (35/56) and Armenia (34/56). Kasparov's 8½/10 is eclipsed only by the performance of exciting new prospect Vladimir KramnikVladimir KramnikVladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, as he scores 8½/9 to take an individual gold medal as first reserve. His tournament rating performance of 2958 (Elo) earns him another gold medal, despite having not yet earned the International Master title. Uzbekistan's second place is a complete surprise, particularly as they have no world-class players, yet it seems that the break-up of the Soviet Union may have the opposite effect to that predicted by many chess commentators. It was widely assumed that western nations would be the beneficiaries of greater medal prospects, but few pundits had stopped to consider the latent strength of each of the states that made up the former Union. In the women's event, Georgia (30½/42) predictably dominate (it was the home country of most of the USSR's top women players), ahead of Ukraine (29/42) and China (28½/42). China are led by Women's World Chess Champion Xie JunXie JunXie Jun is a chess grandmaster from China. She had two reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001. Xie is only the second woman to have two reigns, the other being Elisabeth Bykova....
, whereas the Hungarian team, despite finishing fourth, contains none of the Polgar sisters. - Unusually, the European Team ChampionshipEuropean Team ChampionshipThe European Team Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9...
(ETC) coincides with an Olympiad year. The event, held in DebrecenDebrecenDebrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
, is another resounding success for Russia, with Kasparov and Kramnik again topping the performance table, ahead of Adams. Final result: Russia 25/36 (gold), Ukraine 22½/36 (silver) and England 21½/36 (bronze). Notably, Debrecen also plays host to the inaugural Women's European Team Championship, which runs alongside the main competition. The winners are Ukraine (13½/18), turning the tables on Georgia (13/18), with Azerbaijan (12½/18) taking third place. The runaway star of the event is Ukraine's Alisa GalliamovaAlisa GalliamovaAlisa Galliamova is a Russian chess player, who was born to Russian father and Tatar mother. She holds the FIDE titles Woman Grandmaster and International Master. In 1988 she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship...
, with a rating performance of 2689. Galliamova is married to GM Vassily Ivanchuk, although they later separate. - The first Melody AmberMelody AmberThe Amber chess tournament was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo...
tournament is held at RoquebruneRoquebruneRoquebrune may refer to the following communes in France:* Roquebrune, Gers, in the Gers département* Roquebrune, Gironde, in the Gironde département* Roquebrune, the former name for Roquebrune-Cap Martin, in the Alpes-Maritimes département...
, Monaco and is won by Ivanchuk. An exciting new entry to the chess calendar, the tournament quickly develops into a major attraction for the world's elite players, due to its glamorous setting (from 1993, Monte CarloMonte CarloMonte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
) and generous prize money. Starting life as a rapidplay event, the organisers later add a rapidplay 'blindfold' section to make it a unique, dual format event with a demanding, but entertaining schedule. - Anand plays a match against Ivanchuk in Linares. There is considerable media interest, as both are seen as prospective future world champions. Anand is the victor by a score of 5-3.
- Patrick WolffPatrick WolffPatrick Gideon Wolff is a United States chess Grandmaster. The son of philosopher, Robert Paul Wolff, and brother of law professor, Tobias Barrington Wolff, Wolff won the United States Chess Championship in 1992 and 1995.-Chess career:...
wins the US Chess Championship, held in DurangoDurangoDurango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...
. - Gregory KaidanovGregory KaidanovGregory Kaidanov is a Grandmaster of chess.As of April 2007, his Elo rating was 2587, making him the #9 player in the US and the 179th-highest rated player in the world. His peak rating was 2646 in 2002....
has a good year, celebrating double successes at the US Open in DearbornDearborn-Places:In the United States, all named after Henry Dearborn :* Dearborn, Michigan* Dearborn, Missouri* Dearborn County, Indiana* Fort Dearborn * Fort Dearborn , in present-day Odiorne State Park...
and the World Open in Philadelphia. - John FedorowiczJohn FedorowiczJohn Peter Fedorowicz from the Bronx area of New York is an American International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer....
wins the National Open in Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. - The World Youth Chess ChampionshipWorld Youth Chess ChampionshipThe World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also...
takes place in DuisburgDuisburg- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
, Germany. Konstantin SakaevKonstantin SakaevKonstantin Sakaev is a Russian chess Grandmaster , from St Petersburg and Russian Champion in 1999. He is also a chess writer. Sakaev is on the staff of the Grandmaster Chess School in St...
takes gold in the Boys Under-18 contest, while Almira SkripchenkoAlmira SkripchenkoAlmira Skripchenko is a French chess player who has achieved the FIDE International Master and Woman Grandmaster titles...
wins the Under-16 Girls and Luke McShaneLuke McShaneLuke James McShane is an English chess player. A former World Youth Champion and prodigious talent in chess, he has become one of England's leading players and a member of the Olympiad team. He has also been a trader in London's financial sector.- Early career :McShane won the World Under-10...
takes the Under-10 Boys' title at the age of eight. - Efim GellerEfim GellerEfim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions...
wins the World Senior Championship, held at Bad WorishofenBad WörishofenBad Wörishofen is a spa town in the district Unterallgäu, Bavaria Germany known for the water-cure developed by Sebastian Kneipp , a Catholic priest, who lived there for 42 years...
.
Births
- Fabiano CaruanaFabiano CaruanaFabiano Luigi Caruana is Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States.On 15 July 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States.In the November 2011...
, Italian-American prodigy, youngest ever GM from Italy or the USA - July 30 - Lara StockLara StockLara Stock is a Croatian chess player who has achieved the FIDE Woman Grandmaster title.She lives in Freiburg. Her mother is Croatian, her father is German....
, Croatian prodigy, a WGM and former World Girls U-10 Champion - May 26 - Gauri ShankarGauri ShankarGauri Shankar is an Indian chess prodigy who is a FIDE Master.He has won 27 International junior chess medals at the age of 14 and has also drawn and defeated many International Masters and Grandmasters his chess career so far...
, Indian prodigy, British U-10 Champion aged seven - October 1
Deaths
- Mikhail TalMikhail TalMikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, Latvian Grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion (1960–61) - June 28 - Samuel ReshevskySamuel ReshevskySamuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
, US Grandmaster, six-time national champion and World Championship Candidate - April 4 - Vladas MikėnasVladas MikenasVladas Mikėnas was a Lithuanian International Master of chess, an Honorary Grandmaster, and a journalist.- Early life :Vladas Mikėnas played for Lithuania at first board in five official and one unofficial Chess Olympiads....
, Lithuanian IM, honorary GM and chess journalist - November 3 - Leopold MitrofanovLeopold MitrofanovLeopold Adamovich Mitrofanov was a Russian chess composer, an International Judge of Chess Composition and an International Master of Chess Composition . He was born in Leningrad Leopold Adamovich Mitrofanov (July 2, 1932 November 26, 1992) was a Russian chess composer, an International Judge of...
, Russian IM, chess composer and International Judge of chess composition - November 26 - Imre KonigImre KönigImre König aka Mirko Kenig was a Hungarian chess master.He was born in Gyula, Hungary, and also lived in Austria, England and the USA during the troubled times between the two world wars.In 1921, he took 2nd in Celje...
, Hungarian IM who also lived in Austria, England and the USA - ? - Arpad EloÁrpád ÉloArpad Emrick Elo is the creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he moved to the United States with his parents as a child in 1913.Elo was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was...
, Hungarian chess master, Physicist and inventor of the Elo rating system - November 5 - Bernardo WexlerBernardo WexlerBernardo Wexler was an Argentine chess master.-Biography:Born to Jewish parents in Bucharest, Romania, he emigrated to Argentina at the age of seven. His chess career began after World War II.In 1951, Wexler tied for 6-7th in Mar del Plata/Buenos Aires...
, Argentine IM and member of the Olympiad team - ?