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

3/8/2018 – Gisbert Jacoby was a chess aficionado and multiple Hamburg champion. As a national coach of the Hamburg Chess Federation, he later promoted many Hamburg talents. From 1988 to 1999, Jacoby was a Managing Director of ChessBase and set the course for the development of the young company. He was friendly with chess luminaries such as Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar. Last Thursday he died in Hamburg.

9/26/2016 – Today, the Russian Chess Federation announced that the well-known Russian chess coach and author Mark Dvoretsky had died. As a young player Dvoretsky was a promising talent but he soon decided to end his career as a player to focus on a career as a coach. Since then he has supported and trained countless strong players and has helped many of them to make it to the top.

6/11/2016 – All over the world, obituaries, eulogies, tributes and testimonies have been written on behalf of a legend whose longevity and passion were an inspiration even for world champions. Here are some of the words that have been said by players such as Anand, Short, and Nakamura, as well as special tributes sent by Judit Polgar, Kavalek, Speelman, Benko, and more...

6/8/2016 – At age 85, and seriously enfeebled as any could see even in photos or videos, one would think Viktor Korchnoi's death would be no great shock, and yet it was. The reason is that he had long seemed living proof age was only a number, not a reality. In print and online everywhere, players are writing tributes and testimonies. Here is Garry Kasparov's, one of his biggest admirers.

6/6/2016 – He was one of the truly great chess players, a legend. He played in three matches that produced the World Champion, but in each case lost to Anatoly Karpov. It made him the strongest player never to have won the title. In 1976 he defected from the Soviet Union and took up residence in Switzerland, where he continued to be active into his eighties in spite of a stroke. Now he has gone and leaves a grieving chess community.

5/4/2016 – GM Viktor Gavrikov, who was born on 29th July 1957 in Criuleni, Moldova, was a strong grandmaster. In 1985 he won the Soviet Championship, arguably his biggest triumph. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Gavrikov moved to Switzerland and later relocated to Bulgaria. He worked as a trainer and author. On 27th April Gavrikov died in a hospital in Burgas. Obituary...

1/3/2016 – Unless you are intimately familiar with the American chess scene, you will be forgiven for not knowing who Steve Brandwein is. He did not challenge for the world title, nor did he invent an opening. Rather he was one of those memorable characters that one never forgets. A chess monk, as many described him, who had his own encounters with Miguel Najdorf and Bobby Fischer.