1997 in chess

Events in chess in 1997:

Top players

FIDE top 10 players by Elo rating - January 1997

#Garry Kasparov RUS 2795
#Viswanathan Anand IND 2765
#Anatoly Karpov RUS 2760
#Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2740
#Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2740
#Veselin Topalov BUL 2725
#Gata Kamsky USA 2720
#Boris Gelfand BLR 2700
#Alexei Shirov ESP 2690
#Nigel Short ENG 2690

Chess news in brief

*Viswanathan Anand wins FIDE's new knockout-style World Chess Championship qualifier in Groningen at the end of the year. He then has just 2 days before play commences with Anatoly Karpov for the world title in Lausanne.
*Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk wins the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament in Groningen.
*Garry Kasparov loses to chess supercomputer Deeper Blue in a controversial rematch (2½-3½). Afterwards, IBM announce that they are scrapping the machine. The contest is subsequently made the subject of the 2003 documentary film "".
*Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Peter Svidler finish in a 3-way tie at the Fontys tournament, Tilburg (all 8/11).
*Kasparov wins a double round contest at Novgorod with a 6½/10 score and sweeps to victory at the Linares chess tournament by a score of 8½/11 (from Kramnik, 7½/11).
*Kramnik is the winner at Dortmund Sparkassen with 6½/11 (from Anand, 5½/11).
*The Investbanka Tournament, Belgrade is won by Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk (both 6/9).
*Anand and Kramnik share the honours at Dos Hermanas (both 6/9).
*Veselin Topalov and Alexei Shirov share victory at Madrid with 6½/9.
*Anand wins the 30th Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland (7/10).
*Valery Salov wins the Wijk aan Zee, Corus chess tournament with 8½/13.
*The European Team Championship, held in Pula, is won by England, on tie-break from Russia. England's Matthew Sadler posts an outstanding 7/9 score, which echoes his performance at last year's Chess Olympiad. The bronze medal goes to Armenia. In the Women's event, Georgia take gold, from Romania (silver) and England (bronze).
*Alexander Shabalov wins the World Open, Philadelphia, scoring 8/9.
*Michael Adams and Sadler tie in the British Chess Championship held at Hove. Harriet Hunt is the Ladies Champion.
*Joel Benjamin wins the (Interplay) U.S. Chess Championship in Arizona. Esther Epstein wins the U.S. Women's Chess Championship.
*Alex Yermolinsky wins 98th U.S. Open in Orlando, Florida. (10½/12).
*Julian Hodgson wins the Canadian Open at Winnipeg.
*Grandmasters John Nunn, Mark Hebden and Eduardas Rozentalis tie for first at the Hastings International Chess Congress.
*Tal Shaked wins the World Junior Chess Championship held at Zagan in Poland. The girls' event is won by Harriet Hunt.
*Janis Klovans of Latvia wins the 7th World Senior Chess Championship, Germany. The victory earns him the GM title at age 62.
*Jonathan Mestel gains his Grandmaster title in Chess problem solving and becomes the first over-the-board (OTB) GM to do so.
*Etienne Bacrot becomes the youngest Grandmaster ever at 14 years, 2 months, but later in the year loses his record to Ruslan Ponomariov, who achieves the same at 14 years, 1 month.
*Luke McShane becomes an International Master at 13 years, 2 months.
*Jennifer Shahade becomes the youngest ever female U.S. Master at 15 years, 11 months.
*GM Joel Lautier marries Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Almira Skripchenko.
*The PCA rating list is published: Kasparov - 2827; Kramnik - 2774; Anand - 2765 …

Deaths

*Miguel Najdorf, leading Argentinian (formerly Polish) Master and World Championship Candidate - July 4
*Erich Eliskases, leading Argentinian (formerly Austrian/German) Master of the 1930s and 40s - February 2
*Alvis Vitolins, Latvian IM and seven times winner of the national championship - February 16
*Walter Korn, former U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administrator and renowned chess writer - July 9

References

*cite book | author=Burgess, Graham | title=Chess Highlights of the 20th Century | publisher=Gambit Publications | year=1999 | id=ISBN 1901983218
* [http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/history.txt Chess History & Chronology - Bill Wall]
* [http://www.olimpbase.org Olimpbase - Olympiads and other Team event information]
* [http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html FIDE rating list data 1970-97]