Chess 1990

[Desmond Hutchins]

The1990s were a spectacular and turbulent chess decade. World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov made huge waves throughout the decade on and off the board. Kasparov held the #1 Elo ranking in the world for the entire decade, only being briefly tied by Vladimir Kramnik in January, 1996.

Kasparov was also widely considered the world champion throughout the entire decade though he did shock the chess world and exit FIDE's good graces when he and Nigel Short agreed to play their 1993 World Chess Championship match outside of FIDE's auspices. Kasparov also fended off a challenge from Anand in 1995, but his biggest challenge proved to be in 1996 and 1997 as he battled IBM's digital chess monster, Deep Blue.

Kasparov defeated Deep Blue in 1996 though the engine did score one win, the first ever achieved by AI against a chess world champion. In 1997, Kasparov was not so fortunate, the engine scored a landmark match victory. The engine age had arrived. By the end of the 1990s, commercial engines were almost impossible for most humans to beat, and the best were superior to grandmasters.

The 1990s were also a decade of new talent as Nigel Short, Boris Gelfand, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Alexei Shirov, and Vasyl Ivanchuk emerged as super-talents and contenders for the world title. These players played many of the finest games of the decade.

While the 2000s and 2010s also featured invigorating chess, the 1990s were a last hurrah for pre-computer chess. Human instinct was still work something, and it wasn't possible to simply plug your game into Houdini or Stockfish and get the answer to the ultimate question, life, the universe and everything.

Can there ever be a consensus when the word "greatest" is used? Start a conversation about the greatest chess player ever or the greatest player of any sport, and you will get 15 opinions from 10 people. Still, the chess world is pretty unanimous that Garry Kasparov's 1999 victory against Veselin Topalov is the greatest chess game of all time.

The setting, the players, the game, and the variations unseen all contribute to this game's stature. Garry Kasparov had been relatively inactive after his 1997 defeat by the IBM engine Deep Blue, and discussions about a world championship match with Alexei Shirov had fallen through. Anand was making rating gains on Kasparov and seemed due for a rematch against Kasparov that many he thought he might win.

In this setting, Kasparov's 1999 is even more impressive. He kicked things off with Wijk aan Zee where he won his masterpiece against Topalov and won the tournament with a record score. The rest of 1999 was equally impressive, with a huge victory at Linares and undefeated performances at Sarajevo and Siemens, allowing Kasparov to reach a record rating of 2851, a mark not equaled until Carlsen surpassed it 14 years later in 2013.

The game features an incredible rook sacrifice on move 24 that Topalov *should* have turned down, but once the sacrifice was accepted, Kasparov was able to launch a king hunt that hinged on a breathless cascade of sacrificial checkmating ideas.

Short's incredible king walk against Timman is not entirely unique in the annals of chess (See Teichmann vs. Allies and Hillarp-Persson vs. Laurusas and perhaps Alekhine vs. Yates), but it's close. Certainly, the conclusion of this game makes an incredible impression on all who see it.

In 1991, Vasyl Ivanchuk was 22 and ranked 2nd in the world, an incredible achievement. The Candidates' quarterfinal match in that year between Ivanchuk and Yusupov initially favored Ivanchuk who gained an early lead and needed only a draw in the final game to clinch victory in the match. Drawing on demand would never prove Ivanchuk's forte though as Yusuppov defeated him brilliantly forcing the match into rapid tiebreaks.

In the first game of the tiebreaks, Ivanchuk had White and gained an objective advantage against the King's Indian Defense (a new opening for Yusupov), but Yusupov committed himself fully to the kingside and soon worked up some incredible threats.

This is probably Yusupov's finest game (though he was personally unimpressed), but for Ivanchuk, it proved an early indication of a lack of consistency that would plague this brilliant "Chucky" throughout his career.

This incredible move offered his queen for two minor pieces and a strong pawn on g7. The fun was not over after this move though as Ivanchuk concludes the game with an excellent barrage of attacking moves (26.Bxd4!! being a standout).

The game begins with a sharp Sicilian Defense, but it soon resolves into a positional struggle revolving around the central light squares. Once the position reaches an opposite-color bishop middlegame, White seems to let up, thinking that the position may be clearly drawn.

Nataf's attack in this game is a masterpiece of chess aggression. At no point in the game does Black retreat, and when asked to do so, Black sacrifices on f2, conceding a full rook for a spectacular assault on the dark squares.

The game is an extremely sharp Meran Semi-Slav. Kasparov innovates and tries to catch Kramnik's king in the center, but Kramnik meets his aggressive play with an exciting piece sacrifice. In fact, the sacrifice as played was incorrect, but Kasparov missed the strongest defensive path and found his king completely at the mercy of Kramnik's perfectly coordinated forces.

The game features a real battle in styles as Kramnik seeks to gain space and squeeze Shirov without ever allowing counterplay, but eventually, after a careless move by Shirov, Kramnik enters complications that are favorable to him, winning a piece but allowing Shirov into his king's position. It seems Kramnik has things totally under control when Shirov uncorks 31...Re4!! an utterly brilliant and chaotic move that creates wild complications. Still winning, Kramnik responds well with 32.Nxd5!, but it is ultimately Shirov who will outlast his opponent in the melee.

Sammour-Hasbun was a tremendous prodigy, setting records at the time both for being the youngest player ever to become a FIDE Master and for being the youngest player to beat a grandmaster. His development (and his eventual hiatus from chess) recalls another fixture of 1990s chess, the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." Much like the famous protagonist in that move, Josh Waitzkin, Sammour-Hasbun cut his teeth in the NYC chess scene in the local clubs and tournaments of the era. Sammour-Hasbun eventually left chess, but he came back in the late 2000s when he twice won the famed Dos Hermanas tournament on the internet chess club. Many at the time initially accused him of foul play (Cheating accusations were no less rampant than now...), but he silenced suspicions by repeating his feat under the personal supervision of an ICC-selected proctor.

I have become interested in finding a score table for the US open chess championship in 1990 as well as a few other random events. Does anyone know of any resource out there to help a history geek like me find score table and detailed tournament results from chess major events?

It is quite possible the USCF put out a yearbook the following year which would have details. You might have better luck with the Florida Chess Association - the event in Jacksonville was a huge deal for them, and they probably had extensive coverage in their state newsletter. They might be willing to send you copies, or at least photocopies of their archived issues.

Thanks for the tip. I've been down this road a couple of times before and I'm simply amazed that there is no chess historian/author out there who has been inspired to take the time and compile the score tables of our history....

In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.

As partners with the MUNY on this production of Chess, the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC) and World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) each had chess promotional tables at the MUNY. Behind most tables were life-size chess boards with two-foot to three-foot tall chess pawns and pieces.

The SLCC staff taught chess beginners the rules of the game while also letting visitors experiment with the chess sets and boards. Two older women had pawns jumping over each other to capture, as in checkers.

The MUNY seats 11,000 people, so the odds of William and I being seated near someone we knew seemed low. But, on July 10th, seated immediately behind us were Jason Simontacchi and Carol Meyer. Simontacchi is a former pitcher for the Major League Baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals. He now works for the SLCC. Meyer is the Executive Director of US Chess.

Unlock the excitement of the Beefeater Variation (1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 Bxc3 5.bxc3 f5?!) in this 60-minute video course! Dive into an aggressive and daring strategy where Black gives up the dark-squared bishop early.

2024 Candidates Tournament with analyses by Gukesh, Pragg, Vidit, Firouzja and Giri. Kasimdzhanov, Engel and Marin show opening trends from Toronto in the video. 10 repertoire articles from English to Queen's Indian and much more!

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Mller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

Now, to support my child who is playing in tournaments, I've re-joined USCF. I see that crosstables for tournaments seem to be available going back to 1990. Is it possible to get results from tournaments before then? If so, how?

I personally doubt it, since those were early computer days when I don't think that much of that information could be easily stored long term. I would however suggest contacting the USCF for definitive information. They have moved their headquarters since then, from NY to Tennessee, but it's possible that some records may have survived.

3a8082e126