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Chess news:

Three Survivors of the Game’s Cold War Era — The world’s three oldest chess grandmasters all celebrated birthdays this month: Yuri Averbakh was 90 on Wednesday; Svetozar Gligoric turned 89 on Feb. 2; and on Tuesday, Mark Taimanov was 86. Averbakh and Taimanov were among the seemingly endless supply of talented chess players who allowed the Soviet Union to dominate chess from the 1950s through the ’70s. Gligoric, a Serb from Yugoslavia, was among the world’s top 10 chess players for much of the ’50s and ’60s, and he played three times for a chance to challenge for the world title, although he never won that opportunity. Taimanov, who is an accomplished concert pianist, also qualified for the world chess championship candidates’ matches, in ...

At the chessboard, expect sparks if lovers mate — Some wag once observed that no one ever joined the chess team in high school to meet girls, but for this, our Valentine's Day column, we’d like at least to try to make the case that chess and romance can prove a potent pair. There’s an undeniable erotic charge when lovers square off across the chessboard, something even the medieval troubadours recognized. Think Miranda and Ferdinand in “The Tempest,” Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in “The Thomas Crown Affair,” even Bella and Edward in the latest “Twilight” movie. It’s not called “mate” for nothing. Bobby Fischer’s romantic career — much like the rest of his life — was a mess, but there have been some strong matches brokered over a chessboard. Russian ...

Chess Coach to Leave Texas Tech With Her Team's Best in Tow — Imagine if a university without a basketball program recruited Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary coach at Duke University, and not only managed to hire him but also persuaded most of his team to switch with him. In essence, that is what Webster University in St. Louis has done by hiring Susan Polgar, the head of the Texas Tech chess program. Ms. Polgar, a chess grandmaster and a former women’s world chess champion, was hired by Texas Tech University in 2007 to create an elite chess program. The university even named the program after her, calling it the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, or Spice. Last April, Texas Tech won the Final Four of Chess, a competition in Herndon, Va., among ...

Chess in Clouds of Smoke — Imagine a marathon athlete puffing on cigarettes during the 26-mile run. But chess was the only sport where smoking was not only possible; it was quite common. For some mental athletes, such as the late world chess champion Mikhail Tal or the legendary chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, performing without cigarettes was unthinkable. The late Dutch grandmaster Jan Hein Donner was a chain smoker and so was I, and when we played against each other, the chessboard disappeared in a cloud of smoke. We lived under the illusion that cigarettes can calm our nerves and even stimulate us to make good moves. During our game at the traditional chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 1969, Donner made a major ...

Fabiano Caruana rises to No7 in world rankings after Moscow Aeroflot — Fabiano Caruana is the hot performer in world chess. The 19-year-old Italian has surged up the chess ratings in the past two months and has reached the top 10 elite with second prize at Reggio followed by tied second at Wijk aan Zee, this time level with the world No1 Magnus Carlsen, and behind only the world No2 Levon Aronian. Most of the chess grandmasters who competed at Wijk and Gibraltar earlier in February opted to miss this week's Aeroflot Moscow open. After the tough earlier contests, they baulked at facing the massed ranks of little-known Russian and east European GMs who traditionally make Aeroflot hard for westerners. Caruana was eager to extend his winning streak and ...

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