Chess Olympics

Chess Tournaments

From its origin in the 7^th century, chess has gained immense popularity and is a sport famous in all parts of the world. And every competitive hobby leads to competitions, formal and informal. The same holds for the age old game of chess.After the chess revolution of the 15^th century (which led the game to become as it is now), its popularity increased manifold. And the search for the ‘King’ of chess led to many chess tournaments being played all over. The first international tournament for chess was held in London in 1851, and won by Adolf Anderssen, which came as a surprise since he was relatively unknown at the time. He was then the unofficial chess champion of the world. The 1866 match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort (Steinitz won) is regarded as the first official World Chess Championship.

As the game became more popular, series of tournaments held at the same location became common. This could be seen before the World War (the Hastings series being the best example), but it usually didn’t last too long. On July 24, 1924 in Paris, France, the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) or World Chess Federation was founded. The FIDE acts as the governing body for all international chess competitions, the prime being the World Chess Championship. Earlier, the only way to become a chess champion was by defeating the current champion, which was subject to whether the challenge was accepted by the champion or not. The FIDE took control of the world championship, and introduced a proper system of competition open to all strong players. This championship is open to all; but there are other championships as well for women, juniors and seniors. The current world champion is Viswanathan Anand, who won in 2007.

Apart from the World Championship, there are other notable tournaments that deserve mention. The Chess Olympiad is another even that is organized every two years by the FIDE, since 1927. The 2008 Chess Olympiad is scheduled to be held in Dresden, Germany, with the 2010 event expected to be held in Russia. The Hastings tournament held at Hastings, England in 1895 is often said to be the greatest chess tournament of all time, and a milestone in chess history. This was because there were present the greatest players of the time, and many of the games were tough, high quality matches. Following the success, Hastings became a regular series.

The Linares Chess Tournament, held annually around February end in the city of Linares, in Spain. It is often called the Wimbledon of chess, as it is one of the strongest tournaments, along with the Corus Chess tournament and the Dortmund Chess tournament. The Dortmund tournament, officially the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess meeting, is an invite-only event with the strongest grandmasters being invited. The reigning champion is Vladimir Kramnik. The Corus chess tournament, or the Wijk aan Zee, is held in the North Holland city of the same name. It is named so due to its sponsorship by Corus steel. Viswanathan Anand holds the record for maximum wins (5) and maximum consecutive games played without loss (70 from 1998-2004).

The list of notable chess competitions is long and debated by experts. The above mentioned competitions however, are the ones agreed by most experts to be the most important in the world of chess.