The recent World Championship appears in hindsight to have been very one-sided, with Ian Nepomniachtchi’s collapse being dramatic but far from unprecedented. Thinking about collapses, star columnist Jon Speelman went back to the famous battle between Viktor Korchnoi (pictured) and Boris Spassky in Belgrade 1977!
From the 1970s to the 1990s Jan Timman, born in Amsterdam on 14 December 1951, was one of the world's best players. He qualified several times for the candidates and in 1993 he became FIDE Vice World Champion. Timman is also a renowned study composer and a prolific and excellent writer. Today, the Dutch Grandmaster celebrates his 70th birthday.
Last Tuesday, 30 November 2021, the English Grandmaster Jonathan Penrose died at the age of 88. In the 1950s and 1960s Penrose was the best British player, and he became internationally famous when he defeated the reigning World Champion Mikhail Tal at the Chess Olympiad in Leipzig 1960.
Magnus Carlsen is sounding a little cocky and history suggests he may have a right to preen. There have been some 60 or so world championship matches (the numbers get a little fuzzy with the Split Crown Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s) since the mid-19th century, and there have been no real shocking upsets on the order of Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson or the 1969 Mets winning the World Series.
Magnus Carlsen is sounding a little cocky and history suggests he may have a right to preen. There have been some 60 or so world championship matches (the numbers get a little fuzzy with the Split Crown Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s) since the mid-19th century, and there have been no real shocking upsets on the order of Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson or the 1969 Mets winning the World Series.