Deaths

• April 30 – Kazimierz Plater
  Kazimierz Plater
  Kazimierz Plater was a Polish chess master.Born into an aristocratic family in Vilnius, he studied in Warsaw where he won the Warsaw County Championship in 1934....
  
   (1915–2004), 89, Polish International Master and several time Polish champion
  Polish Chess Championship
  Individual Polish Chess Championship is the most important Polish chess tournament, aiming at selecting the best chess players in Poland. Based on the results of the tournament , the Polish Chess Federation selects the national and subsequently the olympiad team.The first men's championship took...
  
  .
• August 3 – Bryon Nickoloff
  Bryon Nickoloff
  Bryon Nickoloff was a Canadian International Master of chess. He represented Canada six times at chess Olympiads.- Early years :...
  
   (1956–2004), 48, Canadian International Master.
• August 22 – Konstantin Aseev
  Konstantin Aseev
  Konstantin Aseev was a Russian chess Grandmaster and trainer.Among his tournament successes were first at Leningrad 1989 with 9/13 and second to Sergei Tiviakov in the 1992 Alekhine Memorial in Moscow with 6/9 Konstantin Aseev (October 20, 1960 – August 22, 2004) was a Russian chess Grandmaster...
  
   (1960–2004), 43, Russian Grandmaster and trainer.
• September 18 – Michael Valvo
  Michael Valvo
  Michael Valvo was an International Master of chess.By 1962, he was one of the top blitz players in the United States. He won the 1963 U.S. Intercollegiate Championship....
  
   (1942–2004), 62, American International Master.
• December 28 – Charles Bent
  Charles Bent (chess)
  Charles Michael Bent was an English composer of chess endgame studies. He was born in Newbury, Berkshire on November 27, 1919 and died on December 28, 2004 in a motorway accident. Bent was the most prolific English endgame composer and one of the top ten in the world...
  
   (1919–2004), 85, English endgame study
  Endgame study
  An endgame study, or just study, is a composed chess position—that is, one that has been made up rather than one from an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find a way for one side to win or draw, as stipulated, against any moves the other side...
  
  composer.