- Leonard Chess
Leonard Chess (March 12, 1917 - October 16, 1969) was a record company executive, founder of Chess Records. Chess was influential in the development of electric blues. He was born Lejzor Czyz in a Jewish community in Motal, Poland (but now within Belarus). He and his brother Fiszel, sister Malka and mother followed their father to Chicago, Illinois in 1928. The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming Philip. - Phil Chess
Philip Chess (b. 1921) is a Polish-American record producer and company executive, the co-founder of Chess Records. He was born Fiszel Czyz in a Jewish community in Motal, Poland (but now within Belarus). He and his brother Lejzor, sister Malka and mother followed their father to Chicago, Illinois in 1928. The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming Philip. - Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess (born 13 March 1942, Chicago, Illinois-) is the son and nephew of the founders of Chess Records, the Chicago based independent record label that first recorded an unprecedented list of African-American, blues and early rock and roll artists such as: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker, Rufus Thomas, Memphis Minnie, Elmore James, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Etta James and Buddy Guy, … - Richard Chess
Richard Chess was born in Los Angeles in 1953. He spent most of his childhood and youth in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is the author of three books of poetry, Third Temple (2007), Chair in the Desert (2000), and Tekiah (1994). His poems have appeared in many journals as well as several anthologies, including Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 and Telling and Remembering: A Century of American-Jewish Poetry. - Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer is a United States-born chess Grandmaster who in 1972 became the only US-born chessplayer to become the official World Chess Champion. In 1974 he officially resigned the title when FIDE, the international chess federation, refused to accept his conditions for a title defense. He is a regular candidate in considerations of the greatest chess player of all time. - Garry Kimovich Kasparov
After long term friction with the international chess organisation, FIDE, Kasparov set up the rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association (PCA) and arranged a World Championship match in 1993 in which he beat British Grandmaster, Nigel Short. At the same time FIDE held their official Championship match between former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman which Karpov won. Both Kasparov and Karpov claim the title of World Champion. - Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (born June 25, 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. In October 2000, he beat Garry Kasparov in a sixteen game match played in London, and became the Classical World Chess Champion. In late 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title against challenger Péter Lékó in a drawn fourteen game match played in Brissago, Switzerland. In October 2006, Kramnik, the Classical World Champion, … - Susan Polgar
Grandmaster Zsuzsa Polgar is a Hungarian-born American chess player. In 1984, at age 15, she became the top-ranked female player in the world and remained so for many years. She was the first woman to earn the title of International Grandmaster in regular competition. She was the Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 until 1999. In October 2005 Polgar had an Elo rating of 2577, making her still the second-ranked female player in the world, after her sister Judit Polgar. - Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. Anand is one of only four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and he has been among the top three ranked players in classical time control chess in the world continuously since 1997. In the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time, … - Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov (born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. In the April 2007 FIDE rating list, he is ranked second in the world with an Elo rating of 2772. His current trainer and manager is International Master Silvio Danailov. Topalov became the FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. Topalov was awarded the 2005 Chess Oscar. - Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (born May 23, 1951) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He is the most successful tournament player of all time, and as of July 2005 he has 161 first-place finishes to his credit. From 1978 to 1998 he played in every FIDE World Championship match. His overall professional record is 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws in 3,163 games. His peak Elo rating is 2780. The asteroid 90414 Karpov is named in his honour. - Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky (also Spasskij) (born January 30, 1937) is a Russian-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky won the Soviet Championship twice outright (1961, 1973), and twice more lost in playoffs (1956, 1963), after tieing for the top during the event proper. He was a World Championship Candidate on seven occasions (1956, 1965, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1980, and 1985). - Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster who came to international attention after winning the C group of the Corus Chess Tournament in January 2004 at the age of thirteen, and winning the B group of the same tournament two years later at 15. <br>In the July 2007 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2710, making him Norway's number 1, World Juniors' number 2 and World's number 17. On April 26, 2004 Carlsen became Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, … - Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues and rock guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and other 1960s blues and rock legends, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues. He is the father of female rapper Shawnna. Guy is known for his showmanship; for example, he plays his guitar with drumsticks, or strolls into the audience while jamming and trailing a long guitar cord. - Nigel Short
Nigel Short MBE (born June 1, 1965 in Leigh, Lancashire) is widely regarded as the strongest British chess player of the 20th century. He became a Grandmaster at age 19, and challenged for the World Championship against Garry Kasparov at London 1993. Still active, Short remains in the world's top 30 players, and continues to enjoy international success. - Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov (Aleksejs Širovs, Алексей Широв, a chess grandmaster. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he was ranked number eleven in the world with an ELO rating of 2735. - Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian (born October 6 1982) is an Armenian chess player. On the July 2007 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2750, making him number eight in the world and Armenia's number one. - Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich is a Russian chess player. In the July 2007 FIDE list, he had an ELO rating of 2758, making him number 5 in the world. Morozevich is noted for employing unusual openings. Against the Queen's Gambit, for instance, he has often played the Chigorin Defence (1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6), and more recently the Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5); both systems are hardly ever seen at the top level. - Alexandra Kosteniuk
Alexandra Kosteniuk is a Russian chess player who became female European champion in 2004 by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. In August 2006 she became the first Chess960 (Fischer Random) women world champion after beating Germany's top female player Elisabeth Pähtz 5.5-2.5. In November 2004, she achieved the International Grandmaster title, becoming the tenth of the eleven women who have received the highest title awarded by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). - Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler is a Russian chess grandmaster. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he has an ELO rating of 2735, making him the number twelve in the world. Peter Svidler learned to play chess when he was six years old. He became Grandmaster in 1994. He is four-time Russian champion (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003). In 2001, he reached the semi-finals of the FIDE World Championship. Andrei Lukin is his coach. Svidler is a noted exponent of Fischer Random Chess (also called Chess960). - Gata Kamsky
The American Grandmaster Gata Kamsky is traveling to Elista, Russia on May 25th to play candidate matches in his second run for the world chess championship. The previous one ended with Anatoly Karpov defending his title in a match against Kamsky back in 1996 at the very same place of Elista. Maybe the Kalmyk steppe will bring him better luck this time. We'll keep you updated. In the meantime, here are few facts from his rich biography. - Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 - July 10, 1884), "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess," was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was also one of the first chess prodigy after the creation of the modern rules of chess. - Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov, also spelled Teymur Rajabov is a leading chess player from Azerbaijan. On the July 2007 FIDE list, Radjabov had an Elo rating of 2746, ranking ninth in the world and second in his native Azerbaijan. Radjabov earned the title of International Grandmaster in March 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second youngest grandmaster in history at the time. Radjabov's playing style has been described as attacking and tactically influenced. - Maurice Ashley
Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966 St. Andrew, Jamaica) is a chess grandmaster. He is the first and only African-American grandmaster. In the October 2006 rating lists, he had a FIDE rating of 2465, and a USCF rating of 2520 at standard chess, and 2536 at quick chess. Ashley is associated with "Chesswise". In 2005 he wrote the Book "Chess for Success", relating about his experiences and the positive aspects of chess. - Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand (born 24 June 1968) is a chess grandmaster. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he made aliyah to Israel in 1998, and now lives in Rishon LeZion. He currently is a member of the Israeli national chess team. On the July 2007 FIDE list he had an Elo rating of 2733, making him number 13 in the world and Israel's number 1. - Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan (born March 24, 1960) is a chess grandmaster and 4-time US-champion. He was winner of the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. He was born in Damascus, Syria. His father was Arab and his mother an English nurse from Nottingham, where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family emigrated to Seattle (USA), where he attended McClure Middle School and Garfield High School, and honed his game at a (now-defunct) coffeehouse, … - Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely (born October 7 1972) is a chess Grandmaster from the Netherlands. He has been champion of the Netherlands six times. In 2002, in Maastricht, Netherlands, van Wely took on the computer program Rebel in a four game match. The computer won two games and van Wely won two games. - Max Euwe
Machgielis (Max) Euwe (May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess Grandmaster and Mathematician. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion (1935–1937). Euwe also served as President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) from 1970-1978. - Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chessplayer who had his greatest successes in the 1970s and 1980s. He has won the Dutch Chess Championship nine times. He was a candidate for the World Championship several times. He played for the FIDE World Championship in 1993, losing to Anatoly Karpov. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and known as "The Best of the West". - Bu Xiangzhi
Bu Xiangzhi (Simplified and Traditional Chinese: 卜祥志; pinyin: Bǔ Xiángzhì; born December 10 1985) is a Chinese chess player. He became a Grandmaster in 1999 at the age of 13 years, 10 months, 13 days, at the time the youngest person hold the title. He gave up status of the world's youngest Grandmaster to Sergey Karjakin in July 2002. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he has an ELO rating of 2685, making him the number 25 player in the world and number 2 in China. - Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman (born August 28 1954) is an American International Master of chess. He has won the US Open, the American Open and the National Open. In times past he was the coach of the US junior national chess team. He is the author of more than thirty-five books. - Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English musical theatre lyricist, author, radio presenter, television gameshow panelist. - Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov (born October 11, 1983) is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE world champion. On the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list Ponomariov had a rating of 2706, making him number twenty in the world and the Ukrainian number two, behind Vassily Ivanchuk. His highest ever rating was 2743 on the April 2002 FIDE list. Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten, … - John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn (born April 25, 1955 in London) is an English chess player and mathematician. John Nunn went up to Oriel College, Oxford, to study mathematics when he was only 15 years of age in 1970. At the time, it was said that he was Oxford's youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey. He graduated in 1973, gained his doctorate in 1978 and remained at Oxford University as a mathematics lecturer until 1981, when he became a professional chess player. - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (born April 12 1985 in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan) is an international chess Grandmaster. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he is ranked number six in the world with an Elo rating of 2757. In 2003 he won World Junior Chess Championship, and did the same in 2005 achieving an incredible 2953 performance rating after eight rounds. - David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was renowned as a leading chess grandmaster and writer. Described as a creative genius and master of tactics by pundits and plaudits the world over, Bronstein provided ample evidence that chess should be regarded as part science, part art. - Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov (born December 5, 1979) is a chess grandmaster from Uzbekistan. In the Uzbek language, which since 1992 has officially used Latin script, his name is written "Qosimjonov". He was the FIDE world champion during 2004-05. His best results include first in the 1998 Asian Championship, second in the World Junior Chess Championship in 1999, first at Essen 2001, … - Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й), born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR, is a professional Swiss chess player and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the world tournament circuit. Korchnoi is best known for playing three matches against Anatoly Karpov for the World Chess Championship. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Karpov, who went on to win the World championship by forfeit against Bobby Fischer). - Benny Andersson
Göran Bror Benny Andersson is a Swedish musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical group, ABBA (1972-1982), and co-composer of the musicals "Chess", "Kristina från Duvemåla", and "Mamma Mia!". Currently active with his own band Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO!), and co-producing forthcoming film "Mamma Mia!". - Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess.
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