Viswanathan Anand

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below.The name Anand means Happiness in Sanskrit. People with this name present idealistic nature and are excellent at analytical skills that require concentration. Viswanathan Anand, five times undisputable world chess champion was born on December 11th, 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India. His father Viswanathan Iyer retired from being a general manager of the southern Railways and his mother was a house wife, influential socialite and chess player. He also has both elder brother and sister. He learned to play chess when he was six years old which his mother Susheela Viswanathan who not only introduced him into chess but nurtured his interest and supported him to pursue his passion. He was first noticed at local chess club by his rapid playing speed which made him recognized as a “Lightning kid”. He later became the first player in world chess history to have won the World Championship in knockout, tournament, and match formats and also the rapid time control tournament, World rapid chess championship in 2003. During his childhood his family moved to Philippines briefly in late 70s.In pursuit of following his interest in playing chess and advancing his skills, he started solving chess puzzles for daily TV show aired on Philippine’s national channel. With his mother’s help and support, he won almost all the prizesto the extent; they have contacted him to request him not to participate anymore so others will have a chance of winning the game. Soon after when his family moved back to Chennai where he grew up, he became India’s first Grandmaster (GM) in 1988after winning the Shakti Finance International chess tournament at the age of eighteen.

In spite of the fact that he was recognized in the Indian chess world at very young age of fourteen when he won the National Sub-Junior chess championship in 1983 with perfect score of nine out of nine. Then he became the youngest Asian winning the title of International Master in the following year 1984, he then had to play several years of challenging sequence of knockout matches in order to become five times World chess champion.

When he qualified for his first Candidates tournament in 1993 he lost in quarterfinal to Anatoly Karpov of Russia, and then again losing quarter final match to GataKamsky, Soviet born American in 1995.During this period his patience, determination and perseverance to win finally made him World Chess Championship in 2000 at age of thirty-one by defeating Alexei Shirov of Russia in the final match of knockout tournament.

In the following years of his career he won the title of World chess champion no less than four more times in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

In the 2012 World chess championship tournamentwas held and he did not only win the championship but played the shortest game in the history of the World chess championship event by finishing his 8th game in only 17 moves against Boris Gelfand of Israel. The game was held in Tretyakov gallery, Moscow from 10th to 30th May.  He defended the title, having gained it in 2007, against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 and Veselin Topalov in 2010.

He lost his place of World chess champion in 2013 to Magnus Carlsen of Norway. It was held on November from 9th to 22nd in Chennai, India. After playing successful rounds defeating his opponents in the 2014 tournaments he recently participated in. Carlsen and Anand will have a re-match against each other in November at the final match of World chess championship 2014.

Nanda is one of the very few people who have been awarded the most civilian honors in India including the highest sporting award rajiv Gandhi Knelratna in1991, youngest recipient of Pdma Shri award for his achievements in chess (sport). Also he was awarded third civilian honour padma Bhushan for his service to the Indian Nation in 2000 after winning the world chess championship

Not only in India has Anand been awarded the highest civilian award, Jameo de oroâin in Spain where he lives with his family, wife Aruna and son akhil. Regardless of all his Achievement and all the awards he has been receipted of, Anand has always been focused on his game and an active supporter of any potential rising young talent to take after him and his successors.

His life as a chess player is remarkable being among one of the four players in history to break 2800 rating mark and continues to be a top performer since 1997. His success started early in life, in 1983 he had won the national junior championship at 14 years. At the age of 16 years he participated in India national championship tournament which he took the title.  He became India’s first grandmaster when he was 18 years. He has received many awards including; Arjuna for outstanding sportsman in chess in 1985, Padma Shri, National citizens awards and soviet land Nehru award in 1987,india heist sporting award hournor in the year 1991-1992,Padma Bhushan in 2000 and British chess federation ’book of the year’ award in 1998. He won the Oscars in the year 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004 which are awards for the best chess player in the year after worldwide polls.

He will be receiving his Doctorate after a controversy had occurred over his citizenship. His Nationality is India even after staying in Spain for some time. Ministry of Human Resource Development in The Country apologized for the embracement. He holds Bachelors of commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. Foundation for promoting and supporting young talent is one of the organizations he is involved with, being in the board of directors. On social media he is known as; tweeter vishy64theking and facebook is known as Viswanathan Anand.  In his free time he likes to read, swim and listen to music.  He has also written books on chess that help reader understand chess and learn chess effectively. Viswanathan is committed and focused with his daily life and especially when he is playing chess and this has earned a lot of respect and honor from funs and the players.

Veselin Topalov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. Located in the Northeastern part of Bulgaria is Rousse, the fifth largest city of the country. It is also known as “The Small Vienna”. From this City, hails the Chess Champion who has brought so much pride and honor to the Bulgarians, especially to the people of Rousse. He was born on March 15, 1975. At an early age, Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov was already exposed to the world of Chess. His father taught him how to play chess when he was only eight years old and since then, he has shown his interest and expertise in playing chess. The difficulties he has experienced as a child was not a hindrance for him to prove his interest in playing chess and be called a chess genius. When he was only 12 years old, Silvio Danailov became his guardian and took him to stay and live in his house. Silvio Danailov, who was also a good chess player, gave up his ambition and instead, he took care of the little chess genius where he finance and pay for all his needs. Aside from being his guardian, trainer and coach,  Silvio Danailov also became his parents who gave him financial and moral support.

Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov was then only 12 years old when Silvio Danailov placed him in his custody and care where he can give his full concentration to train and groom him. In 1989, his ability to play chess was tested; he joined the World Under-14 Championship held in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, where he made his first important achievement as a chess player by winning the said competition. Another competition, which brought additional colors to his name as a chess genius was held in 1990 in Singapore. He won a silver medal in the World Under-16 Championship. After two years, he finally got the title of “Grandmaster”. Because of his remarkable achievements in chess, he was chosen as the leader of the Bulgarian National Team in 1994 where they joined the Chess Olympiad held in Moscow. His name became a byword to the entire chess enthusiast. He won all the games he played in different tournaments all over the world. The year 2005 brings another great victory to the Chess Grandmaster by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship held in Potrero de Los Funes, San Luis, Argentina. The tournament started September 27 to October 16, 2005 where famous chess players around the world participated. Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov great victory in the FIDE World Chess Championship gave another honor and pride to his country. After the great success he has made from winning FIDE or Federation Internationale des Eches (the International Chess Federation) World Chess Championship, he ranked number one from April 2006 to January 2007, however, some chess experts who got higher ELO rating compared to what he got replace him as the number one in rank player. However, in October 2008, he regains his number one rank until January 2010. Every Player of every game should accept the fact that for every game played, the player has only two choices to make; to win the game or to lose the game. The “Chess Grandmaster” was not spared of the choices because he lost the World Chess Championship 2010 to Viswanathan Anand. The championship match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. After several more games, which gave good results, he automatically qualifies to play in the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. Once again, the Chess Grandmaster has proven his extraordinary talent and ability to play chess by making it to the top in the World Chess Championship 2012.Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov made another history in the field of chess when he emerged as the winner of the 2013 Renovo Grand Prix in Zug. The achievement he made in winning the Renova Grand Prix manifest his grand comeback in the chess world. He was then one of the top 5 best players in the world. He was given an award of the 11th Oscar for the FIDE World championship by the Russian Chess Magazine. As a Chess Grandmaster and geniuses, he was not spared of controversy and any problems. In one of his games with Vladimir Kramnik, his manager Silvio Danailov suspected that the games played by Vladimir Kramnik and the Grandmaster have some irregularities while the game is going on. He made a press release announcing his suspicion that said irregularities occurs or happens when Vladimir Kramnik went to the private bathroom. Silvio Danailov alleges that Kramnik uses computer assistance and he did it every time he visited the toilet.  Because of this, Silvio Danailov requested that using of the private room should be stopped. The Appeals Committee agreed and ruled the closure of the restrooms and instead, a shared private room must be put up for players use.

Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov Considers playing chess as a game that can help develop or improved concentration and focus of the person. He also considers playing chess as a form of recreation and entertainment. His style of playing has caught the attention of many people, especially people who likes and understand the game. Chess is a game that needs focus and concentration. The player has to think fast and make a fast move. The “Grandmasters” style in playing chess becomes popular, however, after his championship game with Vladimir Kramnik in the World Championship Match 2006, his popularity with his fans was affected. But in spite of what happened, the name of the great Grandmaster will never be forgotten; he will always have a special place in the hearts and mind of every chess lover and enthusiast. Last September to October 2005, the Grandmaster played in eight-player, double round robin FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina. The result of this game has encouraged the combination of the FIDE World Title and the Classical Chess World Title. It was encouraged by the chess community. The FIDE president then announced the reunification match of Kramnik and the Grandmaster in September to October 2006.

Vasily Smyslov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He was born in the town of Moscow, Russia (1921). Just like most of the chess world champions who precede him, he was introduced to the game at a very young age of 6. Vasily Smyslov learnt all he could about chess by playing with his father as well as reading lots of books on the game in his father’s library. At a very young age, his interest for chess was sparked and though he tried his luck at singing at the opera, and failed at the Bolshoi auditions, his destiny was bound in becoming one of the grandmasters of chess.

His father Osipovich Smylsov was a trained engineer-technician and also played professional chess at the side by representing the college he taught in at the inter-college chess competitions. Besides playing, his father also did a lot of studying on chess to perfect his art of playing. So it goes without saying that this young Russian boy was a definite chip from the old block. Of the many books he read, one book that he always referred to was Alexander Alekhine’s ‘My Best Games of Chess (1908-1923)’.

By age 14 he was already competing in one classification tournament after another.  By the age of 17, Vasily Smyslov took the lead in the USSR chess tournament for junior level. That very year he proceeded to play at the Moscow City Championship where he tied with our junior champs at the 1st and 2nd positions. With a win of 121/2 out of a possible 17, the junior chess champ felt he could now try his luck at the table of men. He tried out adult chess at the Leningrad Chess Tournament in 1939. This field was really strong for the young Russian player and he took the 12th and 13th positions after competing with other champs. This never deterred him, he continued to play adult chess at the Moscow Championship of between 1939 and 1940 and finally took the 2nd and 3rd place with a whooping 9 wins out of 13.

Then it was time to enter the adult chess waters fully and he did saw when he played in the real USSR Chess Championship in Moscow. His performance was astounding finishing in at 3rd place with a great 13/19 score. His win was also way ahead of the then Russian champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Given that this was one of the strongest tournaments in Soviet history, it gave him quite of an ego boost to pursue other tougher grounds and play more reigning champions.

1940 was another defining moment for him as he was selected to play at the Absolute USSR Chess Championship. Only six top players were selected and he was privileged to meet chess gurus like Isaac Boleslavsky, Botvinnik, Igor Bondarevsky, Keres and Andor Lilienthal. Once more he impressed the Russian crowd by scoring 10 out of 20 which placed him third after Keres and Botvinnick. He had made his mark finally as a promising upcoming Grandmaster of chess at only the age of 20.

World War II disrupted things a little nevertheless the promising Grandmaster continued to play in tournaments and winning. He played the Moscow championship again which he won in 1942. This was a performance that went down in history as the most powerful for the gentleman since he scored a clean 12 out of 15. His skill had perfected and when he played another strong chess fields held in Kuibyshev and Sverdlovsk.  In 1934, he scored a clean 11.5 out of 16 while later on in 1944, in the same USSR Chess Championship, he scored a 10.5 out of 16. Later on in 1945, when signs of the war ending could be seen, he played once more in the Moscow Championship and became the champion with a clean 13 out of 16.

As the war came to a close, Vasily Smyslov was already recognized as one of the top three distinguished chess player in Soviet Russia. When the tournaments began to pick again word went out that his playing form was subsiding and this was seen in the 1945 USSR Championship when he came out with a 8½   out of 17 plays. Botvinnick had taken the title again while Boleslavsky and a new comer David Bronstein took the second and third positions. Later on that year he played another tournament in Tallinn and this is where his form was with no doubt deteriorated; he scored a shocking 7 ½ out of 15 and managed to secure a tie at the 7th and 11th places.

Despite these shaky performances, his career is recorded as one of the most amazing in the history of championship chess. He was privileged to be summoned in 1948 to be part of the players who were going to compete for the position of World Champion after Alexander Alekhine’s demise. The choice of Vasily Smyslov as one of the contestants was highly questioned by some people, however he managed to silence them by finishing second place after Mikhai Botvinnick took the title.

This remarkable performance at the world chess championship earned him a free ticket to the Budapest Tournaments for candidates; he didn’t need to go through the qualifying matches. He came out with a clean 10 out of 18 earning him the third position in the tournament. This win put him into the next candidate tournament which saw him being awarded the title of International Grandmaster by the FIDE organization; in 1950.

The reign for World Champion was one that he had to fight for several times. After winning another Candidate Tournament in Amsterdam (1956) he proceeded to a tough match against the then champion Botvinnik in 1957. He was aided by two experts who were training him; Vladimir Simagin and Makogonov Vladimir. Through their coaching he defeated Botvinnick to his game with a 12 ½ against a 9 ½ score.

Botvinnick didn’t like these results and he later on challenged rematch and reclaimed his title by a close 12 ½ to 10 1/2. Despite this loss, Vasily Smyslov was content that he had taken the 7th position in the world as the best chess player.

Tigran Petrosian

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He was born Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian in June 17 1929 and of Soviet Armenian parents. He had his own nickname in the chess world, the Iron Tigran; this was because once you sat with him on a chess table, you had to think hard and smart if you wanted to penetrate his defensive plays.

In his humble begins as a boy, he was an avid reader and loved studying like his siblings Hmayak and Vartoosh. He was introduced to chess at the age of eight though his father never saw any future in the game or it ever being a career his son could successfully pursue. So naturally he discouraged him from day one. Though his family was a simple one, they were happy together up until the World War II when he lost both his parents to the war.

Life then became tragic for him as he had to sweep streets in order to make enough money to eat. He also started developing a hearing problem which was to affect him for the rest of his life. However, despite this harsh progression of his early life, he refused to give up on two things he loved the most; reading books and playing chess.

With the little money he managed to save from his sweeping job, Tigran Petrosian bought himself a book on chess, Chess Praxis, which had been published by a grandmaster from Denmark, Aron Nimzowitsch. There was so much to learn from this book that even he himself admitted in his later years. His thirst to read grew and it saw him buy a second book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess written by a chess veteran turned author Rudolf Spielmann. These two men were highly vocal in training him as a young boy alongside watching another great chess player, Jose Raul Capablanca.

At twelve years of age, the upcoming top chess player joined the Tiflis Palace for Pioneers. He got this chance from a supportive Archil Ebralidze who was a great supporter of players like Jose Raul Capablanca. He enjoyed how such players used a scientific approach to playing chess which created a clearer tactic line. This is what this young chess player had to learn from and he worked had to try and create such concrete positional openings to defeat his opponent; all the while not forgetting to put his defensive nature in the game as well.

One of the great defensive tactics Tigran Petrosian loved to use is the Caro-Kann defense tactic. This was one of the tricks in his sleeves that he used to defeat a Soviet Champion Salo Flohr who was then visiting the Palace of Pioneers. It was not long before the Iron Chess Player started conquering in tournaments. In 1946, he got his first recognition as Candidate Master after winning in a Candidate’s Chess Tournament. That same year he play Paul Keres, a renown Grandmaster, in the Georgian Chess Championship. He then travelled to Yerevan where he proceeded to play at the Armenian Chess Championship and won immensely. Next was the USSR Junior Chess Championship which he also took first place. From Candidate Master, he graduated to the full title of Master after making an appearance in the 1947 held USSR Chess Championship. He was not able to make it to the finals in the tournament; nevertheless he had already made a name for himself as a master.

He went back to the drawing line, train more on his skills and improve where he failed. As usual, he started reading another chess book, this time around written by the Grandmaster Nimzowitsch dubbed My System. He then knew that his performance improvement depended on playing stronger fields, which then prompted him to move to Moscow.

His choice of moving paid off when he showed remarkable improvement at the Soviet Tournaments held around 1949. He took second place when playing at the Soviet championship in 1951 which landed him the prestigious title of International Master. This is the very tournament where he faced the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

Like most chess champions in their career, he also started getting a few hitches on his plays. In the play with Botvinnik, he had a slow start which almost saw him lose but was quick to defend through adjournments until he managed a draw. This very play earned him a spot in the Interzonal chess tournaments where he finally got his accomplished title as Grandmaster of chess. The Interzonal Stockholm tournament saw him qualify further for the Candidates Tournaments which saw him become fifth overall. This was in the year 1953.

However after experts analyzed his plays over the years, they realized a tendency to remaining stagnant at the same spot and not moving to greater wins. Whenever he met a weak opponent, Tigran Petrosian would make sure they score a draw so he can retain his title as the grandmaster. He saw no need to improve his game plays so he could advance. This is the iconic point where the nickname Iron Tigran was coined; he was an expert in defensive plays and was not that easy to break.

His defensive play came all out when playing the USSR Tournament of 1955. Even though he won overall in the 19 games played, he only won in 4 of them and maintained a draw in the rest. Though he saved his skin from defeat, his public audience started to get bored by his games. The stagnant nature of his play became all too predictable and was even ridiculed in print media.

This is when he decided to break from his comfort zone and play real chess. In the 1957 USSR Chess Championship, he managed to gain 7 wins and 4 losses in the 21 games played. He only drew 10 of them this time around. The Soviet chess faculty began to appreciate him once more and this was the motivation he needed that fueled him to win the USSR Championship of 1959.

Tigran Petrosian will go down in history as the chess player who had a solid defense to his game that few could break.

Rustam Qosimjonov Kasimdzhanov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below.He is from Uzbekistan born in Tashkent on December 5th 1979. He is currently married to Firuza Kasimdzhanov and with two children, and they currently reside in Germany. They are Russians in their origin. Raised by his Parents who were from Uzbek Ethnic introduced him to playing chess. He spent all his early life in Soviet Union. The first time noticed as world chess player was in 1999 after winning the world junior championship. At an early age he had participated in playing local game showing grate skills and talent. He is a Uzbekistani chess grand master. He has won many challenges his best championships include Asian championship which was in 1998, world junior championship in 1999 and the FIDE world chess championship in 2004. He has faced many grandmasters including: Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov, Alexanda Grischuk, vassily Ivan chuk and Michael Adams. The number of games that he has played in the FIDE data base is 1,175 from the year 1991 to 2014 with a rating of 2690 (last FIDE rating). His highest rating in the database which he achieved was 2709.

The FIDE world championship title marked the pick of his carrier. It was held in Tripoli Libya, he faced strong competitors to the finale where he played with Garr Kasparov. In the game they had both won two games; he became the champ after winning with black and drawing the next game. In other championships that Rustam has participated and won are many since he started playing chess. In this year2014 he has had few matches which was in the month of January. The year 2013 he played in the Bundesliga (2012). Kasimdzhanov played 7 games against great players.  In 2012 he played in the 28th European club cup where he played against, Dizdarevic, Riazantsev, morozevich, A Kocheev, V malakhov, Z stojcevski, and J kytoniemi. He won all the games except against morozevich and Malakhov which he tied. In the same year he participated in the Bundesliga. There were 4 matches, he won 2 games and tied the rest. In the year 2011 he also participated in the Bundesliga (2011) games. He had 10 matches winning 5 games and tied 5 games. . The year 2010 he participated in men rapid event and won gold in Asian games which was held in Guangzhou, China. The year 2009 was a major year in group b in the Corus tournament. He participated in the game which was with tough competitors. 2008 Olympiad he played 9 games but he tied more games than the won. In the same he had played the Ordix open (2008). He played 10 matches and only had 3 ties. The previous year, 2007 it was the Corsica Masters (2007). Rustam participated and played 10 matches losing two to Karpov and Nakamura. He only won 5 games. In the same year he played in the Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament. He had also played Corsica masters in 2006 and he won with a knockout. He won against Anand in the defense on the FIDE world championship tournament. In the 2004 he had two challenges that he participated, Pune SuperGM and 36th Olympiad. The Pune Super GM tournament had 9 matches and he won 6 of them. Bled Olympiad of year2002 he also participated. he won the classical, against Victor korchnoia and Julian Borowski-A in  the same year. His previous success included the Asian championship which was in 1998 and world junior championship which he came second place in 1999.  These were the tournaments that he participated and noted. The world championship that he challenged are in the year 2001,2004 and 2005. In the year 2001 in Moscow he participated in the FIDE world championship tournament knockout. Making 69 moves he had a tie with N Vlassov in the first and won the second game making 51 moves. The second Fide world championship knockout tournament that he participated was in 2004. It was held in Tripoli, Libya. Rustam Kasimdzhanov was 24 years of age and he won against Ramirez, Ivanchuk, Almasi, Grischuk, Topalov, Ghaem-Maghamia and final Adams there by becoming new FIDE world chess champion. In Argentina the 2005 he was to defend the title in the FIDE world championship tournament. He lost the championship to Veselin Topalov.

Apart from just competing he is also a good teacher, his ideas and explanations are easy to understand. People have expressed their opinion in Rustam Qosimjonov Kasimdzhanov reporting that he is humble, kind and nice. Besides being a superb player is also a prolific writer about the strategies, techniques and how to make the best moves to win over your match. He is not outspoken person and has not appeared in the media with very few interviews. He has two children who he spent a lot of time when he is at home. His wife Firuza has appeared in some magazine and portrayed as friendly and soft spoken. You can also find him on the social media platforms especially facebook and tweeter where he has many followers. These sites mainly report on match days and the summary of chess games played. Most of the games he participated without a trainer because he thinks it would be easier to concentrate and focus on the chess alone. Petrosian has been his favorite chess player and studying his game helped him. Rustam spent most of his childhood practicing and playing chess on different levels and tournaments thus developed as a career. His income is from both his career as a chess player and as a writer. He also gives lectures on chess and travels alone living his wife to take care of his children. He attends local chess clubs to practice and perfect his skills. In a recent interview conducted he expressed his desire to give up to fighting for higher tournaments, that he has left it for the other younger generation. The next tournament which will be on 14th November 2014 is full of strong competitors and he is making efforts to meet stronger challenges.

Ruslan Ponomariov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He is from Horlivka, Ukraine, born on 11th October 1983. His chess experience started early in life, this led him being the third in the world under-12 championship at the age of ten.  That was in 1994 and in 1996 he won the world under-18 championship. His father was an engineer and his mother was a teacher. His father introduced and taught him to play chess from 6 years of age.  At the age of 9 he moved to stay with the family of his namesakes at Kramatorsk. His namesake Mikhail Nikitich Ponomariov was a director of chess in the school that he attended. Nikitich discovered that he had talent and he offered his parents to train him personally.  Receiving lessons from experienced people made him prosper in the chess field, they made sure he succeeds. As a young boy he was serious and reasoned with great intelligence thus made him conquer. His championships came early and he has still maintained it.

He started young and strong making him beat people who least expected.  He started to succeed very early, at the age of 9 he had entered class A players and his match were much older competitors. At the age o 12 and 13 he had secured two championships and was cloned the first youngest grandmaster below 18 years until 1999. He has played many tournaments from 1998 some which were tough some were easy depending with the competitor.  Ruslan has also faced with the best competitors in the world. Superstar hotel Bali which was held in 2002 was a great tournament. He won on this tournament; by playing 13 games he only tied 5 matches. The least moves he made were 24 against C Amura. The 16th ciudad de leon Tournament whish he played 8 matches whereby he only won 4 games.In the same year he came second behind Kasparov at Linares. In 2005 he attended and played in the Efim Geller Memorial (2005) Tournament. These games were good, he had only one tie and had won the rest of the matches. The most moves he did were 66 and were against Korchnoi. The same year he participated in the FIDE world cup (2005). The game was a big challenge to him as it had many challenges, from the strong competitors to the number of games that he had to play (20 games).  In the game he won 9 matches and lost two to Aronian and the rest were a tie.  World chess cup tournament held on 2007 was also tight as it had 14 games. He managed to win 4 matches,  lost 3 and tied 7 matches. He lost the matches while playing against E EL Gindy, Wang Hao. In 2008 Pivdenny  bank Chess cup tournament was held in Ukraine on 30th May to first June. Ruslan participated on this tournament and played 14 games against top competitors and grandmasters. He won 7 matches and lost 3 tying the rest games. World cup 2009 tournament came and he participated and took the cup. There were 39 games. He managed to score high by beating the best chess players. In 2009he came first with Hikaru nakamura second in the tournament held in San Sebastian for Donostia chess festivals. 2010 July he won Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, in the same year the Ukranians won the 2010 chess Olympiad. The Ukraine championship tournament was held on June 2011 and he participated. Played 11 games whereby he won 6 games and he tied the rest. One of the toughest tournaments that he played was the 28 games he played in the 2011 world cup. He tied most of the games but he won 8 of the games played. Russian team championship tournament in the same year was held in Ukraine and he participated. He won the tournament by winning 5 matches and drawing the rest. This was a rapid tournament held in Riga on September from 12th to 15th 2013. He played 8 matches winning 4 and losing 3. He lost to I Nepomniachtchi. The same year he participated in the Sport Accord World Mind Games (Men, Basque) (2013) on June 30th. He played 10 games wining only 4 of them, he lost to Karjakin and Ivanchuk and tied the rest. He took the title for the FIDE World Championship knockout on 2001 held in Moscow. It had 128 players who were paired and the winner would move to the next level. The finalists were Ruslan Ponomariov and Vassily Ivanchuk. He was 18 years by then and he won the FIDE title. He defeated great players like; A.Morozevich, S. Tiviakov, Ki. Georgiev, E. Bareev, P. Svidler, and V. Ivanchuk to become the youngest ever FIDE champion. By March 1st 2014, he held the following ratings: standard- 2721, rapid-2738 and Blitz-2758

Apart from being an excellent player, Ruslan Ponomariov has also learnt in the institute of Law. Later he enrolled at Kiev State University of physical Education after they launched chess specialization. In his leisure time he enjoys traveling and playing sports; swims, roller-skates, goes to walking tours, gym and practices yoga. He has a girlfriend named Iness who accompanies him to tournaments from time to time. He is an active person both in at home and socially. He has active accounts in both tweeter and facebook where he has funs. The updates are usually on the time of a tournament and the results of a game, people also reach him through these sites and ask for advice. Because the salary for the Ukraine National team is small (around $350 USD) per month, he does not play for the national team. He is a team leader as he had written to the World chess Olyimpiad on the issue but it was not dealt on. Ruslan is a go getter and does not give up easily, he has lost many games but he still play again. He has lost so many titles and being second place but he is positive minded and considers chess as a game even if it is his profession.

Mikhail Tal

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. Mikhail Tal was a Soviet-Latvian as well as a grandmaster chess player who took the eighth position as a World Champion in the game. His reign was between 1960 and 1961. In his playing years, he was considered as one of the most creative attackers on the chess board. He used brave combinations in his games and everyone could recognize his game by how unpredictable and quite improvised it was. Because of his way of playing he went by two nicknames; The Magician from Riga and Misha which was a shortened form of his name. But we will go with Misha.

As his nickname suggests, he was born in the town of Riga, Latvia and of a Jewish home. As a young boy he always suffered illnesses because of his frail health.  However this did not deter his witty mind which had him reading by the age of three. He became one of the few Russians to be able to attend university at only the age of 15. He was first introduced to chess at the age of eigh while watching his father play.

His thirst for chess championship was astonishing especially when he went to a Tournament in his town where he saw the great Mikhail Botvinnick play in 1948. He was only eleven years but young Mikhail Tal did not shy away from challenging the champion to a match. his determination saw him knock at Botvinnick’s door asking for a duel; however it was his wife who dismissed him telling him her husband was taking a rest from playing. So the match he had awaited eagerly did not happen, regardless he continue with his journey of chess.

He secured membership at the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers where he honed his skills on chess more. No one really recognized him at first but he was not going to stop until they realized he was a talented player. Day and night he practices hard to hone his skills and become better. A chess veteran Alexander Koblents noticed the efforts of the young boy and he took the roll of coaching him until his playing started to show some improvements.

It wasn’t long before the aggressive young chess player qualified to play at the Latvian Championship for chess. By 1952, he had played successfully at the championship and finished ahead of his very trainer Alexander. His first sweet victory at the Latvian Championship was in 1953 and he immediately won the Candidate master position.

Mikhail Tal was unstoppable on the chess board and his career had already kick started at a very early age.  He continued playing more tournaments, practicing more on his skills and it wasn’t long before he was crowned the Soviet Master after beating Vladimir Saigin, Vasyl Smylsov’s coach, in a qualifier’s match.  The same year more victory was realized; he won a Grandmaster championship when the veteran chess player Yuri Averbakh lost in a draw.

As he became better and more confident in how he played, he did not forget his education as a young man as well. He went back to school and graduated with a degree in literature at the University of Riga. Through this degree he wrote several thesis’s on the works of famous chess players like Petrov. He also took a part time job of teaching in Riga. He then registered himself with the Duagava Sports society and as a member represented his home town Latvia in the Tournaments that involved Soviet teams.

His road to victory became global when he started eyeing the Soviet Championship. In 1956 he was privileged to qualify for the USSR Chess Championship. In the tournament his prowess was once again witnessed and he managed to secure the 5th position. This added to his determination and by the next year, he scooped the first position while only at the age of 20 years.

Mikhai Tal was a force to reckon in the Soviet chess tournaments. He just needed more matches internationally so that he could achieve the rank of Grandmaster. But he was lucky in 1957 when the governing board for Soviet Chess Tournaments, FIDE, decided to revise the rules a bit. Because of his remarkable win at the Soviet Championship, FIDE agreed to award him the Grandmaster title; the argument was that he had defeated most of the talented players at the Soviet Union chess, which was the hall mark of all chess championships.

It was time for the hot blooded Russian chess player to win some medals and he did so when he played the USSR Student Olympiad in the years 1956 through 1958. He won team and board gold medals for his team and overall 119 games, 8 draws and no lost. He came out with a strong percentage of 85.2 which may not have been higher than his preceding World Chess Champions but deserved a pat on the back given his young age.

By 1959, Mikhail Tal was ready to face the ‘who is who’ of the world champion chess. After winning strongly in a Zurich Tournament, he proceeded to play the Candidate Tournament in Yugoslavia which he showed a superior win by garnering 20 out of 28 points. He had gone way ahead of most of the champions then among them Paul Keres, Tigran Petrosian, Svetozar Gligoric and Bobby Fisher to mention a few. He only had one trick to winning these games; he always made sure he was dominating the lower halves of the field.

Soon the day of reckoning happened in 1960 when he was summoned to a challenge against Mikhai Botvinnick. The match was held in Moscow and was quite an aggressive one at that. But as we guessed it, he emerged the victor with a close shave of 12 ½ to an 8 ½. He became the youngest player in World Chess Championship to defeat a veteran who had hold onto the crown for long. But as Botvinnick always loved, he summoned a rematch in 1961 in which he had improved on his form and took the title back.

Mikhail Tal goes down in history as the eight best world chess player.