Today, legendary Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 80th birthday. A long stay of several weeks in the hospital when he was five years old and a caring doctor who played correspondence chess and explained the chess rules to him gave way to his great passion. Eduard Frey celebrates the legend’s anniversary!
Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 149th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and talks about Garry Kasparov and about Max Euwe, who was World Champion from 1935 to 1937 and enormously influential for chess in general and Dutch chess in particular. | Photo: Pascal Simon
Once upon a time we all looked quite different - even some famous chess players. Our author has selected some childhood and youth photographs of famous chess grandmasters and invites you to guess. For example, who are the two perky new wave girls? Background singers from A-ha?
Andrzej Filipowicz is one of the most interesting chess personalities in the world. He has been a chess player, arbiter, organizer, editor and writer, as well as a civil engineer specializing in steel structures. Endowed with a strong personality, clear intelligence, well-defined convictions and a curious sense of humour, he is turning 85 today, on 13 May 2023. Uvencio Blanco conducted a lengthy interview with the Polish chess polymath.
The following survey lists all chess players who have reached a top five or top ten status at least once in their career, ranked by their highest position, then in chronological order. Of course, the start of the FIDE Elo list and the current date are arbitrary, but the chess world has now had an established rating and ranking publication for more than fifty consecutive years. How many different TOP FIVE players would you expect? Well, there are only 55 luminaries in the last 55 years or so! Check it out. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov | Photo: Grand Chess Tour