CHESS FACTS

Shirov’s move 47…Bh3 gainst Topalov in Linares can certainly be considered as one of the most amazing moves of all time.

The new Pawn move, advancing two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.

The 9th game of the match Bird-Mason shows Bird beginning to make use of the opening move 1. f4 which was later named after him, though this time without great success…

China joint FIDE at the end of 1975 and two months later, on October 19, the federation held its first international tournament- a six round match, China-Philippines. The final score was Philippines 35-China 25. Qi Jingxuan was one of the first local heros.

A composite piece is one which combines the move of two or three chess men, as the Q. is a combination of a R. and B. We can also name the Amazon, Q+N; Empress R+N; Dragon, P+N; Gnu Camel+N; Okapi Zebra+N; Bison Camel+Zebra.

During the Cable Match between England and America in 1901, Bellingham called his resignation (probably wrongly) at the same time that his opponent was cabling his offer of a draw. The final result was a draw.

Today, it becomes very difficult if not for many impossible to beat chess computers or chess software but this is not new, in September 1988, the American Grandmaster Arnold Denker was already their first victim. He lost the match 3,5-0.5.

They are few top players who never won a title of national champion (senior).
Among them: V. Kramnik, V. Ivanchuk, S. Karjakin, S. Mamedyarov, R. Fine, J.R. Capablanca…who else?

One of the shortest victories of Viktor Korchnoi was on 06.08.1983 in Passadena (USA) for the Candidates match against G. Kasparov. He played 1. d2-d4 then wait one hour before to be declared by FIDE the winner of the game and the match. His young opponent was still..in Moscow waiting for a visa! Later, FIDE decided to relocate and to replay the match in London.

Let’s start with some great upset results by top players. The shortest lost of Garry Kasparov in a chess game:

Once the famous chess historian Ken Whyld was asking in his chess column if the following game was not the most boring ever played? In that game the first capture of any kind was on White’s 57 move…

It is not rare to see passed pawns in a chess game but nine of them is not too frequent. You can find such position after the 55th black’s move in the game between V. Smyslov and M. Botvinnik in 1941.

Geroge Marco, the editor of the Wiener Schachzeitung from 1898 to 1916, was claiming that the game between Bernstein and Nimzowitsch, St. Petersburg, 1914 was the most brilliant draw game ever played. Was he right?

Max Euwe was not yet a World Champion in 1920 but he was already known to be a talented player despite this little accident against his countryman Gerard Oskam.

The rivalry between Kramnik and Topalov has gone to such an extend that each player refuses to shake the other’s hand and to speak together before and after the game. In this game played for the World Championship in 2006, Topalov made one of the biggest blunders of the chess history by missing 32. Rxg4! Bg7 and 33. Qc7!

The top 5 best scorers of the Olympiad are: 1. M. Tal (8 Olympiads, 101 games) +65=32-2 or 81,2%; 2. A. Karpov (6 Olympiads, 68 games) +43=23-2 or 80.1%; 3. T. Petrosian (10 Olympiads, 132 games), +70=50-1 or 79.8%; 4. Isaac Kashdan (5 Olympiads, 49 games), +52, =22, -5 or 79,8%; 5. V. Smyslov (9 Olympiads, 113 games), +69, =42,-2 or 79,6%.

Mikhail Gurevich from Belgium has the record of been the winner of 4 different national championships: Ukraine (1984), USSR (1985), Belgium (2001) and Turkey (2006).

Vienna 1873 tournament was the last tournament where a pawn could be promoted to a piece which had already been captured.

There are few chess gems named ‘Immortal Game’, one of them is the famous game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky in played in London in 1851.

I found only three players who played the Olympiads for 3 different countries: Boris Gelfand (USSR, Belarus and Israel), Alexander Beliavsky (USSR, Ukraine and Slovenia)  and Sergei Movsesian (Czech Republic, Slovakia and Armenia). Anyone else?

Fabiano Caruana’s quickest lost in classical chess since he became a top player could be this one:

The following game between M. Euwe and A. Alekhine was considered by R. Fine as one of the world’s best games of chess.  The game called The Pearl of Zandvoort was performed at the 1935 world championship.

In 2016, after 23 Chess Olympiads, Torre had recorded 103 wins, 124 draws and 43 losses in 270 games for a total score of 165 points. He is holding the distinction of having played the most games in the history of the Olympiad.

About this game, I Chernev said: This is probably one of the most famous of all miniature games. One reason that it is quoted so often is that the finish IS strikingly brilliant. Another reason for its  popularity with the average player is the fact that it caught a Master by surprise,  a player known for his encyclopedic knowledge and prodigious memory.

‘Immortal’ is also used for chess problem. One of them was composed in 1856 by Konrad Bayer (1828-17.10.1897).  A prize winner by Konrad Bayer, where White, after having sacrificed 6 men, mates with the only remaining piece, a Pawn.

Lajos Portisch has participated in a record of 20 Olympiads from 1956 until 2000, playing a record 260 games with  a score of 176½ points (+121 =113 -26), for 68.3 per cent.

Less known Immortal Game but as much spectacular was produced in 1931 by Efim Korchmar and named ‘the Ukraine Immortal’ …

In a survey published in 1965 by the British Chess magazine, the game between Reti and Bogoljubov played at New York, 1924 was the best game of the chess history…

Sofia-Corsica rules or New York rules? The Sofia rule is referring to the interdiction to offer a draw in less than 30 moves. The Sofia the anti-draw measure was adopted during the 2007 Mtel tournament in Sofia: “The players should not offer draws directly to their opponents. Draw-offers will be allowed only through the Chief-Arbiter in three cases: a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check and in theoretically drawn positions.”

Going back to 1924 at the famous New York tournament, one of the rules stated: “No player shall offer a draw to his opponent, and all such offers shall be made through one of the tournament directors. No draw may be agreed upon between the players before the 45th move unless the consent of one of the tournament directors.”

Max Euwe became World Champion in 1935 after beating Alexander Alekhine. Fourteen years before the event both players met in Den Hague in 1921 playing (probably) the shortest games between two future world champions.

An interesting correpondence game where you can see fourteen sacrifices, six White and eight Black!

The longest winning run of all time is held by Wilhelm Steinitz who won 25 games between 1873 and 1882. At Vienna, 1873 he won the last 14 games then beat Blackburne 2-0 in the play-off, beat him again 7-0 in an 1876 match and won his first two games at Vienna 1882. R. Fischer won 20 games between 1970 and 1971, with was certainly a better performance.

In 2017, Russia is holding the record for greatest number of grandmasters. with 237 of the 1586 grandmasters.

Carlos Juárez has the record of the most wins in a national championship. He has won the national championship of Guatemala 26 times. From the same country,  Silvia Carolina Mazariegos won the Guatemala Women’s Championship 21 times.

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Fabiano Caruana will be the first American to fight for the World Champion title in 46 years, since Bobby Fischer and the fifth American to fight for the title after Emanuel Lasker, Frank Marshall, Samuel Reshevsky and Bobby Fischer.

The Turkish Chess Federation holds the record of the biggest number of participants in a national championship. In 2018 they registered 7,000 participants for the Turkish Youth Championships.

Ding was undefeated in classical chess from August 2017 to November 2018, recording 29 victories and 71 draws. This 100-game unbeaten streak is the longest in top-level chess history.