1995 in chess

Events in chess in 1995;

Top players

FIDE top 10 by Elo rating - January 1995

#Garry Kasparov RUS 2805
#Anatoly Karpov RUS 2765
#Valery Salov RUS 2715
#Viswanathan Anand IND 2715
#Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2715
#Alexei Shirov ESP 2710
#Gata Kamsky USA 2710
#Boris Gelfand BLR 2700
#Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2700
#Evgeny Bareev RUS 2675

Chess news in brief

*Garry Kasparov defeats Viswanathan Anand 10½-7½ in New York to win the PCA World Chess Championship. The match swings first to Anand, when he takes a 5-4 lead and then to Kasparov, as he then wins four of the next five games and turns the tables in dramatic fashion. The match is preceded by Anand's 6½-4½ victory over Gata Kamsky in the qualifier.
*The FIDE World Championship progresses to the semi-final stage, where Kamsky convincingly defeats Valery Salov 5½-1½ and Anatoly Karpov overcomes Boris Gelfand's challenge 6-3. The final is postponed due to the lack of any sponsorship or venue.
*Kasparov wins the Tal Memorial in Riga with 7½/10, ahead of Anand (7). A strong field includes Vassily Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik and Nigel Short.
*Joel Lautier wins a double round tournament at Amsterdam, with 4/6, ahead of Kasparov (3½).
*Kamsky, Karpov and Michael Adams share a three-way win at Dos Hermanas (all 5½/9).
*Kramnik is sole winner at the Dortmund Sparkassen Tournament with 7/9. Karpov finishes second on 6½.
*Kasparov wins at Novgorod (6½/9), ahead of Short, who shared second.
*The Horgen tournament is shared between Kramnik and Ivanchuk with 7/10. Kasparov can only manage fifth and Anand does not play at all, after falling out with the organisers.
*Ivanchuk is the winner at Linares, Spain with 10/13, ahead of Karpov (9).
*Gelfand and Kramnik share victory at Belgrade with 8/11.
*Viktor Korchnoi wins at Madrid (6½/9), ahead of Salov (6).
*In the Grand Prix series of tournaments, Ivanchuk is successful in Moscow, Adams in London and Kasparov at the New York and Paris events.
*The body of Gilles Andruet, former French Champion, is found near Paris. He was the son of famous French Rally Car Driver, Jean-Claude Andruet. Three men later stand trial for his murder.
*In the world of Computer chess, Kasparov is engaged for two more 'man-machine' contests. He gains revenge for his earlier defeat to "Chess Genius", beating the Pentium-run program in a 2-game rapid match, held in Cologne. The later contest against "Fritz" is branded a farce, when the machine's operator slips up and plays the wrong move. Referee Stewart Reuben will not allow the move to be retracted.
*Mikhail Umansky wins the 13th Correspondence chess World Championship for the period 1989-1995.
*Florencio Campomanes steps down as FIDE President. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is appointed the new President.
*Spectators at the British Chess Championship in Swansea witness two upcoming stars take their first full titles; Matthew Sadler wins the Men's/Open event and Harriet Hunt the Ladies' Championship.
*In Modesto, California, Patrick Wolff wins the U.S. Chess Championship commemorative ring after a play-off with Nick DeFirmian and Alexander Ivanov. The title is however shared three ways. The Ladies' title is shared between Anjelina Belakovskaia and Sharon Burtman.

Births

*Sahaj Grover, Indian player who won the 2005 World Youth Championship (Under 10 category) - ?

Deaths

*Mikhail Botvinnik, leading Soviet Grandmaster and former world chess champion - May 5
*Lev Polugaevsky, leading Soviet Grandmaster and world championship candidate - August 30
*Harry Golombek, English Grandmaster, three-time British Champion, chess journalist, writer and World War II codebreaker - January 7
*Mario Monticelli, Italian chess Grandmaster and three-time national champion - June 30
*Sir Stuart Milner-Barry, English player, theoretician, writer, former President of the British Chess Federation and World War II codebreaker - March 25
*Genrikh Gasparyan, Armenian chess player and leading chess problem composer - December 27
*Gilles Andruet, International Master, former French Champion - August 22
*Nicolaas Cortlever, Dutch International Master - April 5
*Dr. Roza Herman, Polish chess master, twice the national Ladies' champion - ?
*Mario Napolitano, Italian master and leading correspondence chess player - October 31
*Dr. Miroslav Katetov, Czech mathematician and former Prague chess champion - December 15
*Pablo Moran, noted Spanish chess journalist and writer - November ?

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]