1989 in chess explained

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]

January 1989 FIDE rating list – Top 10 players

Elo	FIDE Top Ten Men	FIDE Top Ten Women^[2]	Elo
2775			2555
2750			2520
2650			2510
2640			2480
2640			2480
2635			2435
2630			2430
2625			2400
2620			2395
2620			2395

Events

The following major chess tournaments took place in 1989:

Grandmasters Association World Cup

The Grandmasters Association held six World Cup tournaments over 1988 and 1989, with some of the world's best players invited. The last three of these tournaments were held in 1989.

• 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:

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

Births

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

• 19 January Maxim Rodshtein ^[14]

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]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Top men's ratings 1970 - 1997 . 11 November 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091126000035/http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html . 26 November 2009 . dead .
2. Web site: History of Elo ratings 1971 - 2001. olimpbase.org. 11 November 2009.
3. Web site: Barcelona WC 1989. www.chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.
4. Web site: Rotterdam WC 1989. www.chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.
5. Web site: Skelleftea WC 1989. www.chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.
6. Web site: 9th European Team Chess Championship, Haifa. www.olimpbase.org. 11 November 2009.
7. Web site: Linares 1989. www.chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.
8. Web site: 9th World Microcomputer Chess Championship. 11 November 2009. 9 October 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101009095521/http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/tournament.php?id=75. dead.
9. Web site: Tilburg 1989. 11 November 2009.
10. Web site: Reggio Emilia 1989/90. www.chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.
11. Web site: Wijk aan Zee 1989. 11 November 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20100609030235/http://www.coruschess.com/tournament.php?id=52. 2010-06-09. dead.
12. Web site: List of rated players. Wall. Bill. 11 November 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091028082835/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/players.htm. 2009-10-28.
13. Web site: Chess grandmasters born in 1989. FIDE. 6 August 2010.
14. Web site: Maxim Rodshtein on chessgames.com . 11 November 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091028101723/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=54702. 28 October 2009 . live.
15. Web site: Anatoly Lutikov at www.chessgames.com. 12 November 2009 .
16. Web site: Karen Grigoryan at www.chessgames.com. 12 November 2009 .
17. Web site: Nikolic-Arsovic, Belgrade 1989. chessgames.com. 11 November 2009.