1997 in chess
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Events in chess in 1997:
Top players
FIDE top 10 players by Elo rating - January 1997
- Garry Kasparov Russia 2795
- Viswanathan Anand India 2765
- Anatoly Karpov Russia 2760
- Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2740
- Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2740
- Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2725
- Gata Kamsky United States 2720
- Boris Gelfand Belarus 2700
- Alexei Shirov Spain 2690
- Nigel Short England 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 Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
- 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 Chess 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 Żagań 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.
- Étienne 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 Joël Lautier marries Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Almira Skripchenko.
- The PCA rating list is published: Kasparov - 2827; Kramnik - 2774; Anand - 2765 …
- The British Chess Variants Society is founded.
Births
- February 8 - Suri Vaibhav, Indian GM (2012)
Deaths
- February 2 - Erich Eliskases, leading Argentinian (formerly Austrian/German) Master of the 1930s and 40s
- February 16 - Alvis Vitolins, Latvian IM and seven times winner of the national championship
- July 4 - Miguel Najdorf, leading Argentinian (formerly Polish) Master and World Championship Candidate
- July 9 - Walter Korn, former U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administrator and renowned chess writer
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