1/22/2024 – The internationally renowned chess collector, bibliographer and chess historian Egbert Meissenburg died on 29 December last year. For more than 50 years he published numerous essays and writings on chess history. In an obituary on the website of the German Chess Federation Siegfried Schönle pays tribute to Meissenburg. | Photo: Egbert Meissenburg 2007 (Siegfried Schönle)

8/10/2023 – The renowned Yugoslav/Serbian Grandmaster Aleksandar Matanovic passed away in Belgrade on August 9, two months after celebrating his 93rd birthday. Following the passing of Yuri Averbakh in May 2022, Matanovic was the world’s oldest living Grandmaster. A eulogy by Milan Dinic. | Pictured: Matanovic playing a tournament in Australia in 1970 / Matanovic with his wife Vesna in 1960. | Photos: Family Archive / Serbian Chess Federation

6/9/2023 – Last Monday, 5 June, Ukrainian grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko died of a heart attack in Kyiv. During his career Malakhatko won numerous open tournaments and played for the Ukrainian national team, although he moved to the Belgian Chess Federation in 2007. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

2/14/2023 – The chess world mourns the death of Jorge Vega. The long-time President of the American Continental Chess Federation was a comrade-in-arms of Che Guevara in the Cuban Revolution, though he was later imprisoned in Cuba because of his international contacts. Vega then lived in Mexico and was president of the Confederacion de Adjedres para America (CCA) from 20202. | Photo: Anastasia Karlovich

2/8/2023 – For many years, Luc Winants was Belgium's best chess player and at times the country's only grandmaster. He represented his country in many Chess Olympiads and remained undefeated in two Olympiads. Luc Winants died yesterday, 7 February, at the age of 60. | Photo: https://www.chess-and-strategy.com/

12/13/2022 – Manuel Göttsching is a pioneer of techno music, and in 1984 he released his groundbreaking classic "E2-E4". The title of the album alludes to chess and the cover of the album also shows a chessboard - Göttsching liked to play. On 4 December the German musician died in Berlin at the age of 70. | Photo: Yoho

10/31/2022 – Last Wednesday, 26 October, British International Master Michael Basman died of cancer at the age of 76. A prolific chess writer, he left his mark in the chess world as an uncompromising, inventive player. Among other endeavours, he will be remembered as a founder and organizer of the UK Chess Challenge, a tournament for juniors of all standards and ages. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

7/17/2022 – In the ’90s, Igor Naumkin left his native Moscow, as did many other Soviet players, in order to seek playing opportunities at the many tournaments in Europe. Their grandmaster titles would help to get invitations and participation at various opens on the continent and secure a livelihood. Igor passed on July 13, a month before turning 57 years old.| Photo: Giordano Macellari

6/7/2022 – Alexander Nikitin passed away on June 5, at the age of 87. A strong International Master himself, Nikitin was one of the most distinguished chess coaches in history. Among others, he trained Dmitry Jakovenko, Etienne Bacrot and 13th world champion Garry Kasparov. GM Emil Sutovsky wrote an obituary.

4/14/2022 – As has only just become known, the long-time organiser and tournament director of the Biel Chess Festival, Peter Burri, has died. Burri was involved in the organisation for 40 years and was the tournament director of the traditional tournament for 20 years. The 55th edition in summer will be played as a memorial tournament for him.

2/16/2022 – On 14 February the Yugoslav-Serbian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov died in Belgrade at the age of 88. In 1951 Ivkov was World Junior Champion and in the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's best players. He made it to the Candidates in 1965, and played in the Interzonal Tournaments in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979. | Photo: Durch National Archive

12/6/2021 – Last Tuesday, 30 November 2021, the English Grandmaster Jonathan Penrose died at the age of 88. In the 1950s and 1960s Penrose was the best British player, and he became internationally famous when he defeated the reigning World Champion Mikhail Tal at the Chess Olympiad in Leipzig 1960.

8/5/2021 – Last week, on 28 July 2021, the Hungarian Grandmaster Istvan Csom died at the age of 81. In the 1970s he was one of Hungary's best players and he was part of the Hungarian team that sensationally won gold ahead of the heavily favoured Soviet team at the Chess Olympiad 1978 in Buenos Aires. | Photo: Obuda Media

6/15/2021 – On Sunday, 13 June, Carol Jarecki died at the age of 86. She came to chess through her son, promoted and organised chess tournaments and was the arbiter in many top level tournaments and matches, including the world championship match Kasparov vs. Anand in 1995 and the match Kasparov vs. Deep Blue in 1997. She was a passionate pilot, and together with her husband Richard Jarecki she also won millions in casinos by exploiting mechanical imperfections of roulette wheels.

9/11/2020 – Last Friday, September 4, 2020, Dmitry Svetushkin died. The Moldovan Grandmaster played ten times for his country at chess Olympiads and was also an active and renowned trainer. He was 40 years old. | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis, Wikipedia

4/3/2020 – On March 5th, Nataliya Vernigora, found her 18-year old daughter Alexandra and her boyfriend, GM Stanislav Bogdanovich dead of apparent accidental asphyxiation in Moscow. Fellow Ukrainian GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV delves into his life and death, and reports that Bogdanovich was in the same league talent-wise as Karpov, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Shirov and Ponomariov, with unrivalled fighting spirit — he once played 210 moves for a win in the Ukrainian Championship!

7/28/2019 – 41 years ago Wolfram Runkel, (1937-2019) wrote a piece in the prestegious Hamburg weekly "Die Zeit". It was the first major article on computer chess in a German broadsheet. A young science journalist, Frederic Friedel, read it and, with Runkel's help, produced two science documentaries on the subject. And he went on to co-found the chess software company ChessBase. Today, with kind permission of Die Zeit, we bring you the historic article that set everything off.

7/24/2019 – Wolfram Runkel (1937-2019) was a journalist and writer of the prestigious Hamburg weekly "Die Zeit". In this role he was the founder of the tradition of chess reporting in a mainstream outlet. He was also a pioneer in bringing the subject of computer chess to the attention of the German public and, notably, of a young journalist who went on to co-found a large chess software company. Runkel died last Friday after a long illness. Read Frederic Friedel's personal eulogy. | Photo: Hans Walter Schmitt

4/3/2019 – Last weekend the Austrian chess player Eva Moser died at the age of 36. She was the best female Austrian chess player of all time and in 2006 even won the open Austrian National Championship. In 2015 she stopped playing tournament chess, presumably due to her battle with Leukaemia. | Photos: ChessBase

10/21/2018 – It is with sadness that we relay news of the passing of Dato' Tan Chin Nam on Oct 21st 2018 at the age of 92. He was involved in supporting the development of chess in Malaysia as well as in many other countries across Asia. In remembrance of his contributions to chess as well as to many other areas (e.g. the restoration of the famous Queen's Victoria Building (QVB) in Sydney, the development of Mid Valley City (which is still today ranked the 8th largest shopping mall in the world), horse racing, etc, EDWIN LAM (pictured with Dato' in 2008) offers his 2006 article "Grand Maitre de Succes" published in Australian Chess magazine.

8/8/2018 – We recently learned that Daniel Freeman, who co-founded ChessGames.com in 2001, died on July 24th at the age of 51. Here are a few mementoes.

8/1/2018 – The Lithuanian grandmaster Aloyzas Kveinys died suddenly at the age of 56. He was a multiple Lithuanian national champion and represented his country at eight chess Olympiads. From 1992 to 2007 he played for the Godesberger SK in the second Bundesliga West and in the Bundesliga. | Photo: Waldemar Rydzewski

5/27/2018 – On May 10, 2018, Evgeni Vasiukov died in Moscow. In his prime, he was one of the best players in the world and amongst other things he won the prestigious Moscow Championship no less than six times. Later he was a renowned coach, second, and organiser and achieved a number of successes in senior tournaments. An obituary by DAGOBERT KOHLMEYER.

4/24/2018 – Nino Khurtsidze died Monday in Tbilisi after a long illness. The multiple times youth and junior world champion was one of the best players in Georgia. In 2017, she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 41. | Photo: David Llada