Chess in 2013
by Bill Wall
From Dec 28, 2012 to Jan 5, 2013, the 88th Hastings Masters was held in Hastings, England. The winner was Gawain Jones.
From Jan 12-27, 2013, the 75th Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee tournament was held. The winner was Magnus Carlsen.
On March 9, 2013, the 131st varsity match between Cambridge and Oxford took place in London. Cambridge won the match. Cambridge has now won 58, Oxford has won 53, and 20 matches were drawn.
From March 15 to April 1, 2013, the World Chess Candidates was held in London. The winner was Magnus Carlsen on tiebreak over Vladimir Kramnik.
On April 12, 2013, grandmaster Robert Byrne died from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Ossining, New York. He was 8 days away from his 85th birthday.
From Apr 18-30, 2013, a FIDE Grand Prix was held in Zug, Switzerland. The winner was Veselin Toplaov.
From Apr 21 to May 1, 2013, the Alekhine Memorial was held in Paris. Levon Aronian won on tie-break over Boris Gelfand.
From May 3-12, 2013, the US Chess Championships were held in St. Louis. Gata Kamsky won on tie-break over Alejandro Ramirez. Irina Krush won the women’s title.
From May 22 to Jun 4, a FIDE Grand Prix was held in Thessaloniki, Greece. The winner was Leiner Dominguez Perez.
From June 6-9, the National Open was held in Las Vegas. There was a 6-way tie between Wesley So, Jaan Ehlvest, V Akobian, Alejandro Ramirez, Manuel Hoyos, and Enrico Sevillano.
From June 6-10, 2013, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz championship was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The event was won by Shakhriya Mamedyarov.
From June 12-24m 2013, the 8th Mikhail Tal Memorial was held in Moscow. The winner was Boris Gelfand.
From June 13-23, 2013, the US Junior Closed was held in St. Louis. The winner was Daniel Naroditsky.
From June 29 to July 7, 2013, the 41st World Open was held in Arlington, Virginia. Varuzhan Akobian won on tie-break.
From July 4-16, 2013, the FIDE Grand Prix was held in Beijing. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the event.
From July 13-20, 2013, the 50th Canadian Open was held in Ottawa. Nigel Short won on tie-break over Eric Hansen.
From July 27 to Aug 4, 2013, the 114th US Open was held in Madison, Wisconsin. Julio Sadorra, Joshua Firedel, and Mackenzie Molner tied for 1st.
From July 29 to Aug 10, 2013, the 100th British Championship was held in Torquay, England. The event was won by David Howell.
On August 8, 2013, GM Igort Kurnosov of Russia has hit and killed by a car in his home town of Chelyabinsk, Russia.
From Aug 11 to Sep 3, 2013, the FIDE World Cup was held in Tromso, Norway. Kramnik won the evet.
On August 21, 2013, Filipino IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso died of a heart attack in Manila. He was 70.
From Aug 30 to Sep 3, the 135th New York State championship was held in Colonie. It was won by Alexander Ivanov.
From Sep 9-15, the 1st Sinquefield Cup was held in St. Louis. The event was won by Magnus Carlsen.
From Sep 11-20, the Women’s World Championship was hled in Taizhou, China. Hou Yifan defeated Anna Ushenina to become world champion.
From Sep 13-26, the 52nd World Junior Chess Championships was held in Kocaeli, Turkey. Yanyi Yu of China won the event.
From Sep 22 to Oct 5, the FIDE Grand Prix was held in Paris. Fabiano Caruana won on tie-break over Boris Gelfand.
From Oct 4-14, the Russian Championship was held in Nizhny Novgorod. Peter Svidler won on tie-break over Ian Nepomniachtchi. Svidler has now won the Russian Championship 7 times.
From Aug 27 to Nov 23, the US Chess League took place on the Internat. The Miami Sharks won the event.
From Nov 9-28, 2013, the World Chess Championship was held in Chennai, India. Magnus Carlsen became the new world champion after defeating Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen won 3 and drew 7.
From Nov 12-24, the 23rd World Seniors Championship was held in Opatija, Croatia. Anatoly Vaisser won on tie-break over Jens Kristiansen.
From Nov 26 to Dec 5, 2013, the world team championship took place in Antalya, Turkey. Russia took 1st, followed by China , the Ukraine, and the USA.
In November, 2013, the 49th American Open was held in Orange, California. The winner was Timur Gareev on tiebreak over Mackenzie Molner.
From Dec 7-15, 2013, the 5th London Chess Classic has held. Hikaru Nakamura won the event.
On December 22, 2013, IM and former US chess champion John Grefe died in San Francisco of kidney cancer. He was 66.
On Dec 29, 2013, IM Poudya Idani won the world under 19 championship in Al Ain, UAE.
On December 30, 2013, Webster University won the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Chess Championship.
As of Dec 31, 2013, the top 10 players in the world are Magnus Carlsen (2872), Levon Aronian (2812), Hikaru Nakamura (2789), Vladimir Kramnik (2787), Veselin Topalov (2785), Fabiano Caruana (2782), Alexander Grischuk (2777), Boris Gelfand (2777), Viswanathan Anand (2773), and Sergey Karjakin (2759).