FIDE Historical Ratings, July 1990-2000

Several people have asked if I have any midyear rating files. I received the July files for the years 1990-2000 at the same time I received the January files, but never processed them. The July files covering those 11 years are now available in the same directory...

FIDE historical ratings
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/ratings/

...as the other files.

FIDE Announcements: Grand Prix, Kamsky - Topalov

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of FIDE anouncements on the Grand Prix, Global Chess BV, Kamsky - Topalov, and Anti-Doping Regulations.

• Grand Prix Qualifiers • 'FIDE is pleased to publish the names of the first batch of players who have qualified for the Grand Prix series 2008/9' [4 January 2008]
  
  
• Agreement between Global Chess BV and Turkish Chess Federation • 'Following the contractual assignment of relaunching the FIDE website by the Executive board in November, the CEO of Global Chess BV Geoffrey Borg and President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici signed an agreement for cooperating on developing new web technologies, improving the design and the content of the FIDE web site.' [14 January 2008]
  
  
• FIDE Grand Prix and Player's Undertaking • 'FIDE is pleased to announce the dates and venues for the 2008/2009 Grand Prix Tournaments' [1 February 2008, changed later]
  
  2008-04-20 / -05-06 Baku, Azerbaijan
  2008-07-30 / -08-15 Krasnoyarsk (or other Russian city), Russia
  2008-12-13 / -12-29 Doha, Qatar
  2009-04-14 / -04-28 Montreux, Switzerland
  2009-09-01 / -08-17 Elista, Russia
  2009-12-07 / -12-23 Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic [aka Karlsbad]
  
  Reserve cities are Istanbul and Teheran.
  
  
• Bids for the WCC Challengers Match Kamsky - Topalov 2008 • 'FIDE has accepted an offer for the WCC Challengers Match Kamsky - Topalov 2008 by the Bulgarian Chess Federation. This offer included a net prize fund of 150,000 USD and has been approved by the FIDE Presidential Board since June 2007.' [12 February 2008]
  
  
• FIDE Anti-Doping Regulations • 'In furtherance of its role, Federation Internationale Des Echecs (FIDE) [...] dedicates its efforts to ensuring that in chess the spirit of Fair Play prevails, leads the fight against doping in sport and takes measures the goal of which is to prevent endangering the health of competitors. [...] FIDE has accepted the World Anti Doping Code and its International Standards. For any matter that is not covered in these rules, the Code and the standards will prevail.' [13 February 2008]

It's curious that the FIDE Presidential Board accepted the Kamsky - Topalov bid in June 2007. There was recent speculation that it would take place in Elista.

FIDE Historical Ratings 1971-79

Continuing with FIDE Historical Ratings 1971-74, I added links for the four new files to the index page of all rating files. (See that previous post for links to other pages mentioned here). Then I did some simple tests on the files.

The first test was to see why there is a different count of players between the 1971 file and another copy on Old in Chess (OiC). I determined that all of the players on OiC are on my new file (WCC), but the WCC file lists three additional players. There are many other differences, especially in the spelling of names. Two of over 160 examples are WCC: 'Tseshkovsky, Vitaly V', OiC: 'Cheshkovsky, Vitaly', and WCC: 'Vinje-Gulbrandsen, Arne', OiC: 'Gulbrandsen, Arne'.

There are also small differences in the number of titled players. WCC lists 83 GMs and 178 IMs; OiC lists 82 GMs and 172 IMs. The ratings for the 589 players found on both files match perfectly, and that is what really matters. It is clear the files have a common source, but have been massaged by different hands. The numbers of players on the four new files are as follows:

1971:   592
1972:   794
1973: 1119
1974: 1096

Except for 1974, when many women disappeared from the list, this compares favorably with growth for the rest of the first decade of FIDE ratings:

1975: 1528
1976: 1650
1977: 1910
1978: 2020
1979: 2426
1980: 2883

Some numbers for subsequent years are 1990: 7786, and 2000: 33383. This compares with 87562 names on the January 2008 FIDE rating list, including 1109 GMs and 2808 IMs.

FIDE Historical Ratings 1971-74

I added four new rating files -- 1971.zip, 1972.zip, 1973.zip, and 1974.zip -- to my directory on FIDE historical ratings. The zipped TXT files were extracted from HTML files sent by Wojciech Bartelski of OlimpBase. The HTML files contained navigation links like...

Elo FIDE 71
http://web.archive.org/web/20060508151817/http://www.chessmile.com/1971N01.php

...(1972N02.php etc.) indicating their origin. The archive pages are no longer available on Chessmile.com, but there is a different version of the first two years on the site's Histoire : Titres et Elo FIDE.

When were the ratings published? The Chessmile page says, '1er classement : publié en juillet 1971; 2e classement : publié en juillet 1972', i.e. published July 1971 and 1972. According to my notes, the other files on my own page (>1975) were issued January of the year used in the file name, so there is a short period transition somewhere.

Another version of the 1971 list on 'Old in Chess' under LISTAS ELO > LISTA 1971, gives the validity dates as '01.07.1971 to 30.06.1972'. The same page says 'Jugadores [Players] 589', but the Chessmile list has 592 names.

The 1974 file is missing almost all women.

When I've had a chance to reconcile the discrepancies, I'll add links to my index page for historical ratings. The page now offers FIDE ratings from 1971 to 1999, with more recent files available from FIDE.com. Thanks, Wojtek!

Fischer's WCC Record

Fischer and the World Chess Championship:-

• 1958 Portoroz Interzonal Tournament (+6-2=12)
  
• 1959 Yugoslavia Candidates Tournament (+8-11=9)
  
• 1962 Stockholm Interzonal Tournament (+13-0=9)
  
• 1962 Curacao Candidates Tournament (+8-7=12)
  
• 1967 Sousse Interzonal Tournament (+7-0=3)
  
• 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal Tournament (+15-1=7)
  
• 1970-72 Candidates Matches (+17-1=3)
  
• 1972 Fischer - Spassky Title Match (+7-2-1F=11)
  
• 1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov
  
• 1992 Fischer - Spassky Rematch (+10-5=15)

The Year 2007 in Review

Highlights from 2007 and links to posts from this blog:-

• 2007-03 • FIDE's Current Plan for the WCC • 'an elimination event called the World Cup (held in odd years) would determine a match challenger for the reigning champion (even years)'
  
  
• 2007-05 • Global Chess BV • 'the commencement of operations of Global Chess BV'
  
  
• 2007-06 • 2007 FIDE Candidate Matches
  
  
• 2007-06 • New World Championship Cycle • 'FIDE explanation of the new World Championship cycle'
  
  
• 2007-08 • Preparations for 2007 Mexico City
  
  
• 2007-10 • News from FIDE • 'relevant FIDE documents published since June'
  
  
• 2007-10 • 2007-2009 FIDE Cycle
  
  
• 2007-11 • Qualifiers for Khanty-Mansiysk 2007 • 'table summarizes how they qualified'
  
  
• 2007-11 • Regulations for the 2008-2009 FIDE Grand Prix
  
  
• 2007-12 • Match News for the Current Cycle • Anand - Kramnik and Kamsky - Topalov
  
  
• 2007-12 • 2007 World Cup

It was a good year for FIDE and for the World Chess Championship.

The Club of Eight (1938)

The Interregnum According to Fine was a synopsis by Reuben Fine of the period 1946-48. Here is a brief account by Botvinnik on the last great tournament of the pre-WWII era:

It is worth recalling that after the AVRO tournament in 1938, in which eight of the strongest players of the world participated, another attempt was made to settle the question concerning matches for the world championship. At a meeting of the participants a proposal was made to organize "the club of eight" which was to be entitled to fix regulations for the world championship, any member of the club being entitled to play a match with the world champion and admittance to the club being decided by a vote among club members. In other words, it was proposed to replace the personal dictatorship of the world champion by a dictatorship of "the eight", the right to play a match with the champion not being won by eliminatory competitions, but by winning the favors of the all-powerful members of the club. At the request of the participants in the AVRO tournament, the grandmasters R.Fine and M.Euwe some time later elaborated a project for "regulations", but the Second World War suspended for the time the decision about this question. - M. Botvinnik, 'On the World Championship', FIDE Review 1956

In the same essay, Botvinnik discussed the various rules that governed match play for the title in the post-WWII years.

***

The eight participants at AVRO were Alekhine, Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Keres, and Reshevsky. Capablanca died during the war, Alekhine shortly after the war ended. The six surviving players were invited to the 1948 FIDE World Championship Title Tournament, with Smyslov replacing Flohr.