1989 in chess

Events in chess in 1989.

Top players

Kasparov and Karpov remained the top two players in the world, positions that they had held since July 1982. Over the year, English players Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman moved up the list, whilst Dutch player Jan Timman fell out of the top 10, having stood third in the January 1988 list.^[1]

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+January 1989 FIDE rating list – Top 10 players |- !Elo !FIDE Top Ten Men !FIDE Top Ten Women^[2] !Elo |- |2775||align="left"| Garry Kasparov (Soviet Union) |align="right"| Judit Polgár (Hungary)||2555 |- |2750||align="left"| Anatoly Karpov (Soviet Union) |align="right"| Maia Chiburdanidze (Soviet Union)||2520 |- |2650||align="left"| Nigel Short (England) |align="right"| Susan Polgar (Hungary)||2510 |- |2640||align="left"|Alexander Beliavsky (Soviet Union) |align="right"| Pia Cramling (Sweden)||2480 |- |2640||align="left"|Jonathan Speelman (England) |align="right"|Nana Ioseliani (Soviet Union)||2480 |- |2635||align="left"|Vassily Ivanchuk (Soviet Union) |align="right"|Nona Gaprindashvili (Soviet Union)||2435 |- |2630||align="left"| Valery Salov (Soviet Union) |align="right"| Elena Akhmilovskaya (Soviet Union)||2430 |- |2625||align="left"| Zoltán Ribli (Hungary) |align="right"| Irina Levitina (Soviet Union)||2400 |- |2620||align="left"| Ulf Andersson (Sweden) |align="right"| Anna Akhsharumova (United States)||2395 |- |2620||align="left"| John Nunn (England) |align="right"| Ketevan Arakhamia (Soviet Union)||2395 |}

Events

The following major chess tournaments took place in 1989:

Grandmasters Association World Cup

The last three tournaments of the Grandmasters Association's World Cup were held in 1989, with some of the world's best players invited.

• 20 March - 20 April: The fourth tournament was held in Barcelona and won by Kasparov and Ljubomir Ljubojević, each with 11/16.^[3]
• 3 June - 24 June: The fifth tournament was held in Rotterdam and won by Timman with 10½/15, ahead of Karpov with 9½.^[4]
• 12 August - 3 September: The sixth and final tournament was held in Skellefteå, Sweden and won by Karpov and Kasparov, each with 9½/15. Kasparov won the World Cup series, and prize money of $175,000, with Karpov second.^[5]

European Team Championship

• 23 November - 3 December: The 9th European Team Chess Championship in Haifa was won by the USSR, ahead of Yugoslavia in second and West Germany in third.^[6]

The gold medal on the first board was won by Olivier Renet of France with 6/9. Valery Salov of USSR was second with 5/8.

Other major tournaments

• 18 February - 5 March: The Linares tournament was won by Ivanchuk with 7½/10, ahead of Karpov with 7.^[7]
• 9 September - 16 September: The 9th World Microcomputer Chess Championship was held in Portorož, Slovenia, and won by Mephisto X from the United Kingdom with 6½/7.^[8]
• 15 September - 2 October: The Tilburg tournament was dominated by Kasparov who won 10 games and drew only 4 to finish with 12/14. Viktor Korchnoi was second with 8½/14. This event took Kasparov's rating past Bobby Fischer's record of 2780.^[9]
• 28 December - 9 January 1990: The Reggio Emilia tournament was won by Jaan Ehlvest with 7½/10, ahead of Ivanchuk with 6½.^[10]
• The Wijk aan Zee tournament ended in a 4-way tie between Viswanathan Anand, Zoltán Ribli, Predrag Nikolić and Gyula Sax, each with 7½/13.^[11]

Titles awarded

Grandmaster

In 1989, FIDE awarded the Grandmaster title to the following 17 players:^[12]

• Michael Adams (born 1971)
• Evgeny Bareev (born 1966)
• Branko Damljanovic (born 1961)
• Alexey Dreev (born 1961)
• Boris Gelfand (born 1968)
• Alon Greenfeld (born 1964)
• Alexander Goldin (born 1965)
• Ferdinand Hellers (born 1969)
• Daniel King (born 1963)
• Bachar Kouatly (born 1958)
• Zdenko Kožul (born 1966)
• Michał Krasenkow (born 1963)
• Stefan Mohr (born 1967)
• Jeroen Piket (born 1969)
• Miodrag Todorcevic (born 1940)
• Evgeny Vladimirov (born 1957)
• Alexey Vyzmanavin (born 1960)

Woman Grandmaster

In 1989, FIDE awarded the title Woman Grandmaster to the following 2 players:^[12]

• Anna Akhsharumova (born 1957)
• Zsofia Polgar (born 1974)

Births

The following chess grandmasters were born in 1989:^[13]

• 19 January Maxim Rodshtein ^[14]
• 27 January Avetik Grigoryan
• 10 February Manuel León Hoyos
• 11 March Zaven Andriasian
• 28 March Sergei Zhigalko
• 29 March Geetha Narayanan Gopal
• 6 April Robin Swinkels
• 21 April Li Chao
• 30 April Hrant Melkumyan
• 4 August Wang Hao
• 28 August Aleksandr Rakhmanov
• 4 November Axel Bachmann
• 27 December Kateryna Lahno
• Abhijeet Gupta
• Eduardo Iturrizaga
• Davit Jojua
• Rinat Jumabayev
• Aleksandr Lenderman
• Michal Olszewski
• Tornike Sanikidze
• Krisztián Szabó
• Daniele Vocaturo

Deaths

The following leading chess personalities died in 1989:

• 4 April Baruch Harold Wood (born 1909): founded British magazine CHESS in 1935
• 15 October Anatoly Lutikov (born 1933): Russian Grandmaster who finished third in the USSR Championships 1968-9^[15]
• Karen Grigorian (born 1947): Armenian International Master who was champion of Moscow in 1975 and 1979. Committed suicide by jumping from the tallest bridge in Yerevan^[16]

Other events

The game between Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović in Belgrade 1989 lasted for over 20 hours and consisted of 269 moves. This is still the record number of moves played in a single tournament game. The game was eventually drawn.^[17]

References

1. ^ "Top men's ratings 1970–1997". Archived from the original on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
2. ^ "History of Elo ratings 1971–2001". olimpbase.org. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
3. ^ www.chessgames.com. "Barcelona WC 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
4. ^ www.chessgames.com. "Rotterdam WC 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
5. ^ www.chessgames.com. "Skelleftea WC 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
6. ^ www.olimpbase.org. "9th European Team Chess Championship, Haifa". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
7. ^ www.chessgames.com. "Linares 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
8. ^ "9th World Microcomputer Chess Championship". Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
9. ^ "Tilburg 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
10. ^ www.chessgames.com. "Reggio Emilia 1989/90". Retrieved 11 November 2009.
11. ^ "Wijk aan Zee 1989". Archived from the original on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
12. ^ Wall, Bill. "List of rated players". Archived 2009-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
13. ^ FIDE. "Chess grandmasters born in 1989". Retrieved 6 August 2010.
14. ^ "Maxim Rodshtein on chessgames.com". Archived 28 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
15. ^ "Anatoly Lutikov at www.chessgames.com". Retrieved 12 November 2009.
16. ^ "Karen Grigoryan at www.chessgames.com". Retrieved 12 November 2009.
17. ^ chessgames.com. "Nikolic-Arsovic, Belgrade 1989". Retrieved 11 November 2009.