It's Later Than You Think

A number of complications -- a failing PC, two new chess960 correspondence events, complications around an inheritance, tax season, vacation -- have all arrived at the same time and have resulted in a serious lag between the date on this post and the date that I'm writing it. I wanted to catch up by doing a series of easy posts as a follow-up to Fischer vs. Carlsen (December 2023) and Rogues' Gallery (ditto), but I ran into technical issues with the underlying cloud software.

Since I'm not seeing an easy fix to the technical problems, I'll skip posting to this blog until I get my affairs in order. Back in a jiffy ... (he said).

Benko Wasn't Paid

I added a new clipping to the page (C08) Zonals 1969-1972 (m-w.com), under the zonal titled '5 New York 1969-11'. It's taken from the letters section of the November 2007 issue of Chess Life and starts,

September Issue: "Fischer Fallout" Fallout • Reading the sidebar on page 25 of the September Chess Life, "Myth of the lone gun," I found two sentences which [mention] me and I think I should correct them.

"Fischer couldn't have played [the 1970 Interzonal] if Pal Benko had not been bought out," and "They then paid GM Pal Benko $2,000 to step aside."

This is indeed only half true. [...]

Five paragraphs later, the letter signs off,

So I state again: I never got anything, not even a penny, for giving up my place to Fischer and I never regretted it. I only asked Fischer, "Don't quit." And indeed, he became the only American world champion.

Pal Benko
Budapest, Hungary

One of the intermediate paragraphs mentions,

Fischer once asked me, "Is it true you got money to give up your place for me?" [...] After I answered, "No," he asked me, "Can you put that in writing?" Indeed I did; one can find it in my old Chess Life column.

If I ever find that needle in the haystack of Benko columns, I'll add the reference.

Feedback on C02 Zonals

At the start of the previous post, Feedback on C10 Zonals (February 2025), I wrote,

During the six months of inactivity mentioned in [a] recent post, I received a number of relevant comments about my pages, some of them requiring non-trivial updates to those pages.

A few months after the comment on the 'C10 Zonals', I received an email from Przemek Jahr [PJ; of szachypolskie.pl] titled, 'C02 Qualifiers, 3* EUR Marianske Lazne 1951-08'. That title echoes a page titled, (C02) 1951-1954 Zonal Cycle (m-w.com) plus its corresponding 'Qualifiers' page. The email informed,

According to the report of Andrzej Pytlakowski, a participant of the zonal tournament, published in "Szachy" 9/1951, a play-off for 5th place was not planned and Jan Foltys took this place due to the better Sonneborn-Berger system.

The same email included an attachment showing the cover page of the referenced Polish chess magazine.

The paragraph outlined in red translates to:-

The most fierce battle was probably for fifth place. After 12 rounds, the contenders for this place were, apart from Benko, who had 7 points at the time. Lokvenc, Sajtar and I, all with 6 points each, also claimed. It seemed that Foltys with 5 1/2 points had no chance. However, events took an unexpected turn.

Foltys, who started even worse than Barcza, pulled himself up with a magnificent finish. Foltys gained 4 1/2 points from the last 5 games, winning against Benko among others. The game, as it turned out, decided who would qualify fifth for the interzonal tournament. Benko, playing white, gained an advantage, which he methodically increased. However, he ran into a very serious time deficit, which became the cause of his defeat.

Shortly before the time control, instead of carrying out a winning maneuver, Benko suffered material losses, as a result of which he lost the game. In general, time deficits were the greatest enemy of the talented Hungarian, who was the youngest participant in the tournament.

Foltys and Benko obtained an equal number of 10 points each and shared 5th-6th place. The Sonneborn-Berger evaluation system, which turned out to be beneficial for Foltys, decided who would play in the interzonal tournament.

The rest of the page is undoubtedly equally useful and I might tackle its translation some day.

Toronto Candidates - Kickoff

It's been nearly two months since I last posted on the two 2024 Candidates tournaments; see The Race for the 2024 Candidates Events (January 2024). Since the tournaments are due to start at the beginning of next month, it's time to get serious.

For the past six Candidates tournaments, I've produced a crosstable of links to Chessgames.com showing the record between each pair of players. The post for the 2022 tournament was Madrid Candidates - Kickoff (June 2022). First, here are some relevant links for the 2024 tournament:-

• Official site: candidates2024.fide.com (fide.com)
• Current Local Time in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (timeanddate.com)

In previous kickoff posts, I included a link to my page for the event. I stopped creating my own pages starting with the current cycle, so I'll reference the Wikipedia page instead:-

• Candidates Tournament 2024 (wikipedia.org)

The following table includes each players record against the reigning World Champion, Ding Liren. The players' names link to their corresponding FIDE page.

	Aba	Car	Fir	Guk	Nak	Nep	Pra	Vid	:	Din
Abasov	xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Caruana		xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Firouzja			xx	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Gukesh				xx	*	*	*	*	:	*
Nakamura					xx	*	*	*	:	*
Nepomniachtchi						xx	*	*	:	*
Praggnanandhaa							xx	*	:	*
Vidit (*)								xx	:	*
Ding Liren									:	xx

(*) Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Four of the eight players plus Ding Liren competed in the 2022 Madrid Candidates Tournament (m-w.com). The newcomers are Abasov, Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Vidit.

Apologies for not creating a similar table for the Women's Candidates Tournament, which takes place at the same time in Toronto. I ran out of time for the table, but will make up for it when I can. The links for both the official site and the Wikipedia page lead to info on the Women's event.

1998 Zonals 2.x

A post from earlier this month, World Championships from 50 and 25 Years Ago (January 2024), uncovered a couple of details about the 1998-1999 zonals. The relevant info is in the following clipping which was taken from that post.

All of that together prompted me to comment,

The qualification of GMs Gulko, Ivanov, and Kudrin, is not consistent between the two sources. GM Ivanov's qualification is confirmed in TWIC 209, but the details about the other two GMs need further investigation.

TWIC 209 reported,

12) Panam Championship in Venezuela • GM Alexander Ivanov took the single qualifying place for Las Vegas scoring 6.5/9 ahead of Alexandre Lesiege on 6.

As far as I can tell, this was the first Continental Championship to serve as a qualifier for a World Championship. The same issue of TWIC, 'The Week In Chess 209 - 9th November 1998 by Mark Crowther', also carried news about that year's U.S. Championship.

3) US Championships 1998 • In group A Nick DeFirmian and Dmitry Gurevich progressed to the knockout stage and Seirawan, Dzindzichashvili, and Kudrin played off for third place seeing Kudrin qualified for Las Vegas eliminating Seirawan, possibly one of the US's best prospects. • There was a four way tie in group B and Gulko, Benjamin, Fedorowicz and Shaked played off seeing first Benjamin qualify after a round robin involving the players, then Shaked beating Gulko to take the other place.

TWIC had no crosstables for the playoffs. The February 1998 issue of Chess Life also gave no details. In GM Nick de Firmian wins the 1998 US Championship! (archive.org -> uschess.org), USchess.org reported,

Standings: Group A after 7 (Top 2 Advance to Semi-Finals); de Firmian and Gurevich Advance; Kudrin takes 3rd in play-offs • de Firmian and Gurevich qualify for the two Semi-Final spots from this group and do not need to go through the play-offs. Kudrin wins the play-offs to take third in the section and qualify for the WCT ['World Championship Tournament'].

Standings: Group B after 7 (Top 2 Advance to Semi-Finals) Benjamin and Shaked advance to SemiFinals; Gulko takes 3rd. • There was a play-off on Sunday between Gulko, Benjamin, Fedorowicz and Shaked to determine both the two who would advance to the Semi-Finals on Monday and the 3rd place who would also qualify for the 1999 FIDE World Championship Tournament event. Benjamin and Shaked advanced to the SemiFinals; Gulko took 3rd.

Since the U.S., aka Zone 2.1, produced six qualifiers with only five qualifying spots, I'm guessing that there was some sort of arrangement among American chess officials to have both Gulko and Kudrin qualify using a spot reserved for the Las Vegas organizers ('Nominee by the Administrator').

I'll add all of this to the page (C18) Zonals 1998-1999 (m-w.com), under '2.0 San Felipe (VEN) 1998-10' [new] and '2.1 Denver 1998-10'. I'll also add any further info if I discover it.

World Championships from 50 and 25 Years Ago

Last week on my main blog, I encountered a few World Championship topics that needed more time than I had. In the post January 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (January 2024), I commented,

That mention of Fischer and Marcos deserves further exploration, but I'm worried it might lead me down a rabbit hole from which I won't return in time to finish this current post. Maybe later...

That comment referred to January 1974, while a second comment in the same post referred to January 1999:-

The cover introduction continued with news about two World Championships. [...] Once again, that news 'deserves further exploration'.

The post quoted 'Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)':-

The great Philippines International Tournament, the most important chess event ever held in Asia and the Pacific area, ended November 6. The significance of the event was highlighted by the ceremonial presence of World Champion Bobby Fischer and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos.

Re Fischer/Marcos, good thing I didn't go any further for that post. I've already dealt with the meeting in posts on both of my blogs:-

• 2012-09-19: The Philippine Connection • (WCCB) '1973 Manila: Fischer visits tournament; meets Marcos, Campomanes'
• 2014-07-03: Treated Like a World Champion • (CFAA) 'I [found] a 1973 Fischer photo that doesn't yet seem to have been made available on the web'

Here is that Fischer photo again.

Re the 1999 'news about two World Championships', the first concerned the FIDE Knockout Matches; Las Vegas, VII-VIII, 1999 (m-w.com). The post quoted 'Chess Life (25 Years Ago)':-

De Firmian, Benjamin, and the other semi-finalists, Dmitry Gurevich and Tal Shaked, qualified to participate in the FIDE World Championship, along with Boris Gulko and Sergey Kudrin, both of whom qualified by previous performance or rating; and Alexander Ivanov, who qualified by winning the 1998 Pan American Championship, which was held in Venezuela in October. Gata Kamsky has also been invited (by rating).

My page Zonal Qualifiers 1998-1999 (C18) (m-w.com) has info on all eight players:-

Zone 2.1
55. J. BENJAMIN (USA)
56. N. de FIRMAN (USA)
57. D. GUREVICH (USA)
58. T. SHAKED (USA)
59. B. GULKO (USA)

Nominee by the Administrator
14. S. KUDRIN (USA)

Nominees by Continental President
16. America: A. IVANOV (USA)

Qualified by ELO (average January-July 1998)
85. G. KAMSKY (USA) (2720)

The qualification of GMs Gulko, Ivanov, and Kudrin, is not consistent between the two sources. GM Ivanov's qualification is confirmed in TWIC 209, but the details about the other two GMs need further investigation.

Re the 1999 news about the second World Championship, the January 1999 CL said,

Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk forfeited her match with Jun Xie. China was awarded the bid for the match; Alisa wanted to play at least half of the match in Russia, so she didn't show up at all. Jun Xie, the former women's world champion, will now challenge the current champion, Susan Polgar.

The reference is to an unprecedented sequence of matches for the 1995-99 cycle outlined on the World Chess Championship for Women (m-w.com). The Candidates final match is listed there as 'Xie Jun - Galliamova (forfeit)'; the subsequent World Championship match is listed first as 'Xie Jun - Z.Polgar (forfeit)'; and then as 'Xie Jun - Galliamova'. I've already posted twice about these matches:-

• 2017-02-08: 1995-1999 Women's Cycle
• 2017-02-15: The Last Standard Women's Cycle

There is nothing more to add here.

Small Projects 'On the Cover'

Last week's post, Small Projects Checkpoint (September 2023), was all about establishing a plan for the next few months on this blog. For example,

One topic demands attention -- documenting the qualification paths for the most recent World Cup, '2023 World Cup, Baku' (August 2023).

On my main blog, 'Chess for All Ages', the past year has seen a dozen posts on various aspects of the World Championship. It's useful to summarize these posts in order to group them chronologically using this blog's system of labels. Posts marked '(*)' need further attention to develop some interesting aspect which was only mentioned in the original post.

• 2022-11-18: 'A Clock Without Hands' • '"We're nearing the end of this blog's 'Fischer Friday' series". I'll end the series with a post on "1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov" (m-w.com)'; also summarizes previous posts in Fischer series
• 2022-12-23: Wayback to Chess.net • 'What did former World Champion Karpov say exactly?'
• 2022-12-30: World Championship Columnists • 'In the mid-1990s, both Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov -- bitter rivals at the time -- wrote separate columns for the USCF's Chess Life'
• 2023-01-03: January 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • 'Interviews of Fischer, Spassky, and Gudmundur Thorarinsson, president of the Icelandic Chess Federation'
• 2023-01-05: Chess at Trump Tower • 'Intel World Chess Championship Quarterfinal Matches'
• 2023-02-02: February 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • CL: 'Anand cuts through FIDE knock-out to challenge Karpov'
• 2023-03-09: March 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • 'Karpov defended his FIDE World Championship title'; 'Kasparov will finally defend his PCA World Championship title'; 'Ilyumzhinov has announced plans to make the knockout world championship an annual affair. Las Vegas is high on the list of possible sites for 1998.' (*)
• 2023-04-18: April 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • 'Byrne's progress in that World Championship cycle' [needs better intro in post]; ' news of Kasparov's non-FIDE World Championship title; see also the letter from Karpov' (*)
• 2023-07-20: July 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • 'FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov addressed more than 200 players'
• 2023-08-15: August 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • IZ 1973 Leningrad; Shirov/Kasparov news (*)
• 2023-09-12: September 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • IZ 1973 Petropolis, Brazil; '"Bronstein replaced Stein", doesn't square with related info on my other pages. More research needed' (*)
• 2023-10-03: October 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' • Vukcevich; Kasparov - Shirov (WCC); *1998* FIDE World Championship, Las Vegas (*)

I trust that the title and description of each post is sufficient to place it chronologically.

Chess in the 70s and 80s

That's 1870s and 1880s. Last year on my main blog, I posted The No.2 Yahoo (May 2022; 'Yahoos are mainstream news stories about chess'). That footnote quoted between the parentheses is not completely accurate. Yahoos also include mainstream chess news sources. The Big Kahuna is Chess.com, but other sources also vie for the spotlight. The post explained,

For the first time that I can remember, a news source other than Chess.com tallied at least ten stories, with ChessBase accounting for exactly ten. At the beginning of the year, I calculated that ChessBase was the no.2 news source for the year 2021, so their visibility in May was not an accident.

During the last few years, ChessBase.com has run a number of feature articles on the two main rivals for the first World Chess Championship. I have some familiarity with the subject, thanks to a number of pages that I created in days of yore:-

• 1866-76 Wilhelm Steinitz Matches (m-w.com, as are the other pages in this list) • see 'London, VIII-IX, 1872'
• 1883 London Tournament
• 1886 Steinitz - Zukertort Title Match
• 1886 Steinitz - Zukertort Title Match : Background

The first wave of articles from Chessbase.com were penned by Stephan Oliver Platz:-

• 2018-01-31: The final years of Zukertort (chessbase.com; ditto for this list and the following lists) • 'In 1886 Johann Hermann Zukertort played the first official match for the World Championship and lost to Steinitz. But at that time Zukertort already suffered from severe health issues which two years later led to his early death. Stephan-Oliver Platz takes a look at the health of Zukertort in the final years of the chess legend.'
• 2019-05-26: Romantic Steinitz • 'As is well known, Wilhelm Steinitz justified positional chess theory and thus ended the Romantic era. It is less well-known that Steinitz himself was previously a great chess romantic.'
• 2020-04-07: An "interview" with Wilhelm Steinitz • 'The first official World Chess Champion William Steinitz (1836-1900) is regarded as a pioneer of modern chess strategy. His theories pushed back the gambit style that had prevailed until then and led to a much more cautious approach. How did Steinitz get his insights and what principles did he teach? Read an imagined interview with the legendary chess thinker, drawn from his own writings. [...] William Steinitz's answers are excerpts from his book "The Modern Chess Instructor", New York and London 1889.'

Last year Eugene Manlapao returned with an article on the same period:-

• 2022-04-27; London 1883: Prelude to the First World Championship Match (26 April - 23 June) • 'London, with its rich chess tradition, has been the scene of many great tournaments. One of these, the London International Tournament of 1883, happened at an important point in history. It is remembered mainly as the event that led to the first World Chess Championship, which, in turn, formalized the title of World Champion. Johannes Zukertort won the tournament ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz, and in 1886, three years after London, they played the first official World Championship match against each other.'

During the past two months, the period resurfaced in a pair of articles based on a new book from Willy Hendriks:-

• 2022-12-13: Willy Hendriks' "The Ink War" - The Mystery of Zukertort's Breakdown • '"The Ink War: Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess", the new book by Dutch author Willy Hendriks, is definitely one of the most exciting and interesting chess books of 2022. Hendriks first of all looks at the bitter rivalry between William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, who in 1886 played the first official World Championship match. But Hendriks also analyses how chess understanding developed and takes a critical look at chess history and the way chess history is written. Thoroughly researched, well-written, entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking. [...] This article is an adaptation of a chapter of Willy Hendriks’s book "The Ink War, Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess" (New In Chess 2022).'
• 2023-01-24: "Does chess history have to be rewritten?" - An interview with Willy Hendriks (by Johannes Fischer) • 'Dutch author and International Master Willy Hendriks just published "The Ink War: Romanticism vs Modernity in chess". The book analyses the rivalry between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, who in 1886 played the first official World Championship match. But Hendriks also looks at chess history and challenges a number of accepted views about chess improvement and the development of chess knowledge. In an interview with Johannes Fischer, Hendriks talks about Steinitz, Zukertort, chess history, the pleasures of studying the classics, and why studying the openings helps you to improve in chess.'

For more about the book from its publisher, see The Ink War (newinchess.com; sample pages). There is some overlap and some contradiction across the six articles linked above, but I've run out of time for this post. Mayber later...

Smartchess Interviews Karpov

Yesterday's post on my main blog, November 1972 & 1997 'On the Cover' (November 2022), was partially based on the November 1997 issue of Chess Life. I ended the post saying,

An article by Rachel Landry featured an interview with then FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov, plus his relationship with GM Ron Henley and Smartchess Online. Is this worth a follow-up?

Indeed it is worth a follow-up. Karpov gave his side of two hot topics from the second half of 1997. The first topic involved a reunification match that was never held. For background, see FIDE/PCA Chronology (m-w.com; Feb 1993 - Oct 1996).

RL: There have been many rumors circulating about a World Championship rematch in Compiegne, France. Carol Stroe, the proposed organizer for this event, said in a press release that you and Garry Kasparov were close to signing a formal accord. Mr. Kasparov's publicity agent fervently denies these rumors. Were you approached about such a match?

AK: Yes, but no agreement was signed.

RL: What is the true likelihood of a World Championship rematch between you and Kasparov?

AK: It is possible but not in October, and as I said before, nothing is definite until an agreement is signed and a prize fund is agreed upon.

The second topic involved the introduction of the much-criticized knockout matches to determine the title of FIDE World Champion.

RL: Will you be playing in the FIDE World Championship Knockout matches?

AK: Yes. I'm playing in the final as defending champion.

RL.: A letter signed by sixteen grandmasters was delivered by Vladimir Kramnik to the 68th FIDE Congress in Moldava. This letter conveyed these players' concerns about seeding arrangements in the upcoming FIDE World Championship Knockout. Can you shed any light on what took place in Moldava with regards to this letter?

AK: I heard Kramnik would be there with the letter. Kramnik read the letter to the assembly, and gave his point of view. Later, I addressed the assembly. Subsequently there was a vote by the FIDE Congress to uphold the original arrangements under which the Championships were organized: that is if Kasparov and myself were playing, then we would both be seeded into the semifinals; whereas if one us was not participating then the other would be seeded automatically into the final. Indeed, the original papers I signed regarding my participation were based on this exact arrangement, and Kramnik amicably agreed that he would abide by FIDE's decision. Incidentally, I met the former President of the New Jersey State Chess Federation, E. Steven Doyle, in Moldava, and we discussed a number of interesting things.

All of this was happening at the same time I was building my WCC site, as I documented earlier this year in The First Quarter Century (September 2022). I researched the 'FIDE/PCA Chronology' partly because I wasn't sure who the *real* World Champion was.

The Karpov interview included many more details related to Smartchess Online, one of the earliest chess web sites. Its first capture in the 'Wayback Machine', dated January 1999, shows the following home page.

Source: http://smartchess.com/ (web.archive.org).

A footnote to the interview mentioned that it first appeared on Smartchess Online in September 1997. I tried to find the original interview via the Wayback Machine, but failed. Smartchess.com appears to have been built using techniques that are incompatible with Wayback assumptions. The period in which Smartchess was active was a controversial time for the World Championship and its association with Karpov might provide valuable background material. I'll try to look at its Wayback records another time.

In the meantime, some other subjects for 'normal' web searches related to Smartchess are GM Ron Henley, Rachel Landry, Paul Hodges, Irina Krush, R&D Publishing, and Hikaru Nakamura. The home page pictured above leads to the 'November - December 1998' issue of Smartchess Online, with the following headlines:-

• '1998 US Championships: SmartChess Online coverage with GM Ron Henley & NM Irina Krush. • Congratulations! SmartChess Online Columnist Irina Krush, 1998 US Women's Chess Champion!'
• 'Press Release: "Krush Challenge" Series. Irina Krush to play a match against GM Walter Browne'
• 'Press Release: SmartChess Online welcomes its new Columnist - NM Hikaru Nakamura'

Krush was 14 years old at the time. Nakamura was 10.

In his interview with Smartchess, Karpov mentioned a couple of video series he was developing for Smartchess's 'WWW Chess Superstore'. I've featured two of these in posts on my main blog:-

• 2012-06-15: Karpov on Fischer • 'Game 6: 1972 World Chess Championship Match - Fischer vs Spassky'
• 2012-08-24: Karpov - Henley on Karpov - Kamsky • 'Karpov's Best Games Vol 4'

How many more of these videos are still available on Youtube? That makes a second topic for follow-up.

Madrid Candidates - My Resources

Following last week's post Madrid Candidates - Third Week (July 2022), I added the final crosstable to my page 2022 Candidates Tournament; Madrid (m-w.com). There is still more to be done for that page.

One thing I can't do is explain the event's logo, shown on the left. It's a reverse (black on white) copy of the official logo (white on black) seen on many FIDE pages. The logo shows eight right-pointing arrows aimed at a Rook. To the left of the Rook is a small text that says 'a8'. What does it all mean?

There are still a few more actions concerning the event to be accomplished:-

• Add the PGN to the m-w.com page.
• Calculate the cumulative scores and add them to the same page. These scores were compared for the previous five events in Madrid Candidates - First Week (June 2022).
• Update FIDE links on that page.
• Update the Index of Players (m-w.com).

The crosstable can also be improved:-

• Show the results against each opponent for both halves of the tournament, as in 2018 Candidates Tournament, Berlin (m-w.com).
• Something of the same needs to be done for the previous event 2020-21 Candidates Tournament, Yekaterinburg (m-w.com).

Can I accomplish all of that for a single new post? Somehow I doubt it; maybe two posts.

2021 Grand Swiss PGN and Player Indices

As planned in two recent posts -- 2021 Grand Swiss Crosstables (November 2021), and 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi, Crosstable & PGN (December 2021) -- I finally finished related updates for the three events.

For the two Grand Swiss events, I added the PGN and updated both indices of players, unrestricted events and women's events. The links for all updated resources are in the 'Crosstables' post. At the same time I updated the index of players for the Carlsen - Nepo match.

Of 108 players in the unrestricted Grand Swiss, 17 were new to the index (although two still require an additional verification step). Of the 50 players in the Women's Grand Swiss, eight were new to the women's index.

The second half of 2021 was a busy period for the World Championship, with two cycles in full swing. FIDE has announced some plans for 2022, which will be the subject of a future post.

Small Projects for 2021

This year's 'Small Projects' could almost be a carbon copy of last year's post, Small Projects for 2020 (February 2020). The main topics a year ago were:-

- 2017-02-22: Missing Months
- Renewed interest in 1983 for London

- Posts with label Computers
- Posts with label Correspondence
- Posts with label zFLUP
  * 2020: Currently 26 posts
  * 2021: Currently 33 posts

I made no progress on those first two bullets, so they are still outstanding. As for label 'Computers' and 'Correspondence', there is no significant activity to report in either category. The ICGA cancelled nearly everything in 2020 because of the covid pandemic. The ICCF started one new World Championship, the 32nd, but finished none. It might be worthwhile to write a post about three time ICCF winner Aleksandr Dronov, so I'll keep that in mind.

As for label zFLUP ('Follow-up') the increase from 2020 to 2021 is partly due to posts that were followed-up, but not closed. Add that to the list of small projects.

Another idea that's been in the back of my mind for a few years is to clean up the Index of Zonals. The country codes could be standardized and the columns of counters, 'GMG' etc., could be moved into the background. At the same time I could investigate events that are still marked '?'. There are currently 16 of them.

Another Azmai Controversy?

One of the events on my page (C17) Zonals 1995-1997 is '1.2b Struga (Macedonia) 1995-03', with a clipping attributed to 'Europe Echecs, 1995-09, p.50'. A note under the entry says,

EK: Europe Echecs wonders why Azmaiparashvili played in this zone. He was representing Bosnia & Hercegovina at that time, which can be seen from the rating lists of that time. So he was in the right zone after all.

My reaction when I first copied the comment to that page was 'Oh, OK', and I've since re-read it many times without giving it a second thought. On the latest reading it occurred to me that in 1995, Bosnia was in the middle of a civil war. This is confirmed by Wikipedia's page Bosnian War that says,

The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of violent incidents earlier in the year. The war ended on 14 December 1995.

Did GM Azmaiparashvili really change his nationality to a country involved in a civil war? It happens that there is another page on the web Zonal 1.2b, Struga 1995 (olimpbase.org), with a full crosstable of the event. That OlimpBase page lists three participants under the Bosnian flag:-

• GM Azmaiparashvili, Zurab
• GM Kurajica, Bojan
• GM Dizdarevic, Emir

The three GMs finished 1st, 3rd, and 5-7th, respectively. To verify the EK explanation, I turned to my rating database and queried the three Bosnian participants for four consecutive years. The following image shows what I found.

I have one rating list per year, dated 1 January each year. My public page, FIDE historical ratings, points to one more file that is not in my database, 1995-07.ZIP, for ratings dated 1 July 1995. It also lists GM Azmaiparashvili's nationality as GEO (Georgia). On its own Elo lists, Europe Echecs (EE) had

Jan 1995 • 'Azmaiparachvili GEO 2610' at 44-46th in the world
Jul 1995 • 'Azmaiparachvili BOS 2620', 39-44th in the world.

In other words, EE confirms EK. For 1996, EE had the Georgian GM back in GEO at mid-year.

Feb 1996 • 'Azmaiparachvili BOS 2660' 15-17th in the world
Jul 1996 • 'Azmaiparachvili GEO 2670' 12-15th in the world

Azmaiparashvili's career has been dogged by controversies, including one in 1995. His Wikipedia page, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, says (with references),

Azmaiparashvili was alleged to have rigged the results of the Strumica [Macedonia] tournament of 1995 [month?] to boost his rating.

That particular World Championship cycle was itself controversial. Instead of The Last, Lost Interzonal (February 2012 on this blog), the chess world saw 1997 FIDE Knockout Matches. GM Azmaiparashvili was seeded into the second round and eliminated in the fourth round by GM Krasenkow.

***

For further investigation:-

• How was Azmaiparashvili's transfer GEO -> BIH -> GEO handled administratively within FIDE?
• Why don't the historical rating lists reflect the transfer?
• How much more than 'Zonal 1.2b, Struga 1995 (olimpbase.org)' is available on Olimpbase?

I doubt the first two questions can be answered so many years after the fact, but the third should be easy.

2019 World Cup - Qualified Players

Last week, in a post on my main blog, 2020 Candidates - Early World Championship Steps, I ended with a couple of actions:-

To do: (1) Fill in those three blanks for the nominees to '2019 WCup'. (2) Crosslink (in both directions) the IZ/KO/WCup pages with the corresponding QP page for faster navigation between them.

That first action was a continuation of a post from last year, C29 Zonal Qualification Paths (December 2019), on this World Chess Championship blog. After researching the 'three blanks', I added the necessary info to the December post. Most of that post was about discrepancies between the list of players who qualified for the 2019 World Cup and the players who eventually appeared for the event. At the time I identified a further project:-

Try to apply [the methodology] to the players listed on Zonal Qualifiers 2016-2017 (C28). Ditto for previous cycles.

As for that second action stemming from the '2020 Candidates', to crosslink pages, I'll tackle it another time.

Women's World Championship Stalwarts

A few years ago, in a post on my main blog titled World Championship Stalwarts (October 2015), I developed a few statistics:-

[Re] the 'World Championship : Index of players'. I started to ask myself a few questions -- How many events does the index of players include? How many players? Which players participated in the most events? -- and so on.

Why not do the same for the World Chess Championship : Index of Women Players? I used that page to build a database, then developed the same sort of chart shown on the 'Stalwarts' post.

I counted 451 different women players who participated in 73 events. The events start with the 1949-50 Title Tournament, so none of the pre-WWII events won by Vera Menchik are included in the counts.

The table on the left shows how many players participated in a specific number of events. The table on the right gives the names of the players with the most events. For example, two players participated in 19 events, and 211 players participated in a single event. The two players topping the list, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nona Gaprindashvili, were both from the country of Georgia.

The original 'Stalwarts' post mentioned a number of other statistical curiosities. If there is no forthcoming news about the current cycle of the World Championship -- not that I'm expecting any -- I'll apply the same analysis to the 'Index of Women Players'.

Women's 1980-81 Candidates Matches

In last week's post, Women's 1983-84 Candidates Matches, I quoted Fide.com:-

[Tatjana] Lematschko took part in the [quarterfinals] of the candidates' matches three times: in 1977 she lost to Akhmilovskaya, in 1980 to Litinskaya and in 1983 was defeated by Alexandria.

Since last week's post fixed an error on one of my pages about the Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC), I was concerned that I had discovered another error:-

For the 1980-81 Candidates Matches, I have a quarterfinal match Litinskaya Shul - Fischdick. I'll look into that another time.

First stop: Wikipedia's Women's World Chess Championship 1981. Since that page gave my site as the only source ('Retrieved 2012-02-06'), I couldn't accept it at face value. Where had my information come from originally?

Last year, in Status of the Women's World Championship (October 2019), I described the process of creating the WWCC pages. Since I never delete digital documents, I still had my working files from that period. My master reference file told me that the source for the 1979-81 women's cycle was Informant. Here's a composite image showing the four women's quarterfinal matches...

Informant 29 (1980-H1)

...Back to the discrepancy that provoked this post, looks like I had it right and FIDE was wrong. But that's not the end of this episode. Lematchko tied for 1st in the 1979 Alicante Interzonal, but did not play in the 1980-81 Women's Candidates Matches. Why not? I'll look into that another time. At the same time, I'll standardize the spelling of her name across my pages. While preparing this post, I found Lemachko, Lematcho, Lematschko, and there might be others. I can do better than that.

Women's 1983-84 Candidates Matches

A few days ago on my main blog, as part of a long-running series on 'Top eBay Chess Items by Price', I posted about the 1982 Tbilisi Women's Interzonal. While comparing the info to my own records, I noticed a discrepancy on my page World Chess Championship (Women) : 1983-84 Candidates Matches. In the eBay post I wrote,

The quarterfinal round of the 1983-84 Candidates Matches saw only three matches. Lematchko didn't play and Alexandria started with a semifinal match. That circumstance deserves a mention and an explanation on the 1983-84 CM page.

It turned out that the 'circumstance' was an oversight on my part. Here's an extract from Wikipedia.

Women's World Chess Championship 1984

Wikipedia gave me credit for the bulk of the information ('Retrieved 2012-02-07'), but attributed info on the quarterfinal match Alexandria - Lematschko to 365chess.com ('Retrieved 2015-01-03'). Since I had already discovered the match PGN on the same site, I looked no further.

By coincidence, Lematchko/Lematschko was in the news recently: Tatjana Lematschko passes away (fide.com; May 2020). Of her WCC exploits, the World Federation noted,

Lematschko entered the race for the world championship title in 1975. Tatjana took part in the Interzonal tournaments in Rosendal (1976), Alicante (1979) where she shared for first with Akhmilovskaya and Bad Kissingen (1982). Lematschko took part in the [quarterfinals] of the candidates' matches three times: in 1977 she lost to Akhmilovskaya, in 1980 to Litinskaya and in 1983 was defeated by Alexandria.

On my page World Chess Championship : Index of Women Players, I have her listed only for the 1977-78 Candidates Matches. For the 1980-81 Candidates Matches, I have a quarterfinal match Litinskaya Shul - Fischdick. I'll look into that another time.

90th FIDE Congress : Whither the World Championship?

A couple of months ago, mid-February 2020 to be exact, I had a couple of posts continuing an annual series on this blog, Whither the World Championship?: The Missing Link and The GSC. I ended that second post with a wish:-

I hope we'll learn more from the 90th Congress, although based on recent performance it might take a long time before anything is formally announced.

It only took a month before I was able to report on my main blog that the Minutes of the 90th FIDE Congress (April 2020) were available. They comprised two documents. I'll highlight a few paragraphs that touched on the World Championship.

First, here are extracts from the minutes for the 90th FIDE Congress; FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly; Abu Dhabi, UAE; 28th February 2020 :-

1. FIDE President address

The President's address is always a good source for current FIDE thinking. The 90th Congress featured FIDE President Dvorkovich's first address since his election in 2018. The first highlight answers a question from late last year, WADA Ya Know? (December 2019):-

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctioned Russia for doping practices and there was the risk that our Chess Olympiad could be under threat. However, following the discussions we had with WADA, it was agreed that most of the FIDE tournaments are not under threat. This was the result of our good collaboration with WADA.

Another point listed changes adopted for the current cycle:-

Mr. Dvorkovich illustrated the new projects for the future, firstly focusing on the World Championship Cycle. A new system of qualifications for the Candidates Tournaments was introduced, including the new tournament Grand Swiss, that allows more players to compete and have a chance to become a candidate in the World Championship Cycle. Another important point was the knock-out format of the Grand Prix Series, which increased the visibility and competitiveness of this stage of qualification. A more inclusive World Cup format has been developed, increasing the number of participants both in the open and women’s tournaments, thus allowing more countries to participate to the World Cup, which will start already this year in September in Minsk. [?]

I question that last sentence, because the Minsk World Cup is currently scheduled for August 2021. Another paragraph mentioned women's events, where I also had a small problem with the last sentence (what 'tournament'?):-

Mr. Dvorkovich is confident that there have been improvements in gender equality. The World Championship Cycle was reformed in such a way, that it could be the same as open tournaments. This goal has not been achieved yet, but FIDE is on the right track. We are also working on establishing the Women’s Grand Swiss Tournaments by this year. Moreover, the prize money for women has been substantially increased. According to the recommendations from the Women’s Chess Commission, a quota for the participation of women in management positions has been introduced, which means that there will be more space for women in the management positions and in the tournament. [?]

Another point mentioned WCC sponsors:-

Total (one of the main sponsors of the Women’s Grand Prix Series), [...] Algorand (for the World Championship Cycle) and a few other companies that supported the Women’s Grand Prix tournaments.

In the past I've been critical of FIDE communication under the Dvorkovich management, and I know I'm not alone. This is being addressed:-

He added that FIDE needs to improve its communication practices. FIDE already counts on multiple channels of communication, but it is still not enough. One of the initiatives which will start today is the publication of the electronic FIDE Newsletter.

The biggest news came at the end of the minutes, although it's entirely possible that the next title match will be postponed because of scheduling complications caused by the coronavirus:-

7. 91st FIDE Congress 2020 [...] Mr. Dvorkovich also announced that FIDE has almost finalized its negotiation with the organizers of Dubai Expo 2020 regarding the World Championship Match, which will most probably take place in the United Arab Emirates. The most likely starting date for the tournament will be the 20th December.

Second, the relevant extracts from the minutes for the 90th FIDE Congress; FIDE Executive Board; Abu Dhabi, UAE; 29th February 2020 came entirely from the report of the GSC:-

5.9 Global Strategy Commission • Mr. Dvorkovich reported about the activity of this Commission. Regarding the World Cup, it was established to increase the number of players who could participate to the tournament, thus increasing the representation of the national federations on this occasion.

The qualification requirements for both Grand Prix and the Candidates Tournament represent another issue to be focused on. Many players complained that the qualification requirements used for the current Grand Prix and Candidates Tournament had a bias on the initial rating. Therefore, it is necessary to change these requirements. This is one of the issues the Global Strategy Commission is discussing about and all the Federations are invited to share their opinions about this matter.

The Global Strategy Commission report was unanimously approved.

I'll come back to that so-called rating bias another time. It's an issue that has been simmering for some time.

Small Projects for 2020

This year's 'Small Projects' post is almost six weeks later than last year's Small Projects for 2019 (January 2019), but it's never too late for a plan. This year will see the final two events of the current World Championship cycle (C29) -- the Candidates tournament and the title match -- which will dominate the WCC news.

An exercise for the current cycle is still not finished. Starting with C29 Regulations for World Cup Qualifiers (September 2019), through C29 Zonal Qualification Paths (December 2019), there remains 'C29 Zonal Rating Reports' and 'C29 Zonal Links'.

Two of the 2019 projects turned out not to be so small and I've documented their progress and completion at the end of the post (after '***'). Two more received no attention in 2019 and remain open:-

• 2017-02-22: Missing Months
• Another aspect of 'Championships in London' was the renewed interest for the English city in 1983.

Three of the 2019 projects are ongoing and need to be reviewed periodically. The current status is:-

• Posts with label Computers • The ICGA home page mentions two topics worth a deeper look -- 'World Computer Chess Championship 2019' and 'A Welcome from the [new] President, Jonathan Schaeffer'.
• Posts with label Correspondence • The last post here was ICCF 25th to 27th World Championships (September 2016), where I wrote, 'I imagine the next update will be in another four years or so'. Indeed, the 28th thru 30th ICCF championships have finished since then.
• Posts with label zFLUP • Currently 26 posts.

Which one of these will I tackle first? Right now I'm thinking the C29 zonal posts or 1983 London.

***

'The history of the World Championship in the 1840s-1880s, a period spanning nearly 50 years, was centered on London. That important era deserves a closer look.'

• 2019-01-23: Acknowledging an Important Source
• 2019-01-30: 1862 London (on the Web)
• 2019-02-06: 1851 London (on Google Books)
• 2019-02-13: 1851 London (the Tournament Books)
• 2019-03-06: 1840s Staunton Matches
• 2019-04-10: 1834 London : How Many Matches?
• 2019-04-24: 1860s Anderssen Matches

Continue '2017-06-07: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12 : Archive.org'

• 2019-05-22: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C16
• 2019-05-29: Zonal Qualifiers C13-C16
• 2019-06-12: Zonal Qualifiers C12
• 2019-07-17: Zonal Qualifiers C11
• 2019-07-24: Zonal Qualifiers C09-C12
• 2019-08-07: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12 Crosstab
• 2019-08-14: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C08
• 2019-08-21: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12
• 2019-09-04: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12 More++
• 2019-09-11: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12 Wrapup

That last post mentioned, 'There is more I can do with these pages'...

2019 Grand Swiss Players

In last week's post, 2019 Grand Swiss Results, I wondered if I should add the names of all players participating in a World Championship event for the first time to my Index of Players:-

A preliminary count gave 38 new players, or about 25% of the 154 players who participated. This compares to the 30% (38/128) that I counted a few weeks ago in 2019 World Cup Players. That statistic gives me a green light to add all of the new players to the index.

After adding links to 2019 Grand Swiss, Isle of Man for the 154 participants, I queried the index and found that 113 names had already been on the index, while 41 names were new. That number differed from the preliminary count by more than it should, but I decided to leave it at that. More interesting was a trio of possible discrepancies I noted while updating the index.

Jansa V, '1985-87 Izt' and '2019 Gr.Sw.' • Was this the same player in two events separated by more than 30 years? I found an answer in the Chess.com article by Peter Doggers that I mentioned in the 'Grand Swiss Results' post. Here's an extract from that article:-

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Preview

On top of setting the record straight for GM Vlastimil Jansa, that clipping will be useful if I ever document the qualification paths for the Grand Swiss.

Allan K, '1988-90 Izt'; and Allen K, '2019 Gr.Sw.' • In fact, that first reference should have been 'Allan D' for Denis Allan of Canada. I'll correct the two pages -- Interzonal (plus PGN) & Index -- as soon as I can. The second reference is Keith Allen, an organizer for the series of Isle of Man tournaments.

Vovk Y, '2015 WCup'; and Vovk A, '2019 Gr.Sw.' • The first player is Yuri Vovk of the Ukraine. The second player is his younger brother Andrey Vovk.