by Bobby Ang
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) officially created the title of International Grandmaster (GM) in 1950, and awarded it to 27 players. They were:
World Champion: (1) Mihail Botvinnik
Those who had qualified for (or been seeded into) the inaugural Candidates Tournament in 1950:
(2) Isaak Boleslavsky, (3) Igor Bondarevsky, (4) David Bronstein, (5) Max Euwe, (6) Reuben Fine (7) Salo Flohr, (8) Paul Keres, (9) Alexander Kotov, (10) Andreas Lilienthal, (11) Miguel Najdorf, (12) Samuel Reshevsky, (13) Vassily Smyslov, (14) Gideon St�hlberg, (15) Laszlo Szab�
Players still living who, though past their best in 1950, were recognized as having been world-class when at their peak:
(16) Ossip Bernstein, (17) Oldrich Duras, (18) Ernst Gr�nfeld, (19) Boris Kosti, (20) Grigory Levenfish, (21) Geza Mar�czy, (22) Jacques Mieses, (23) Viacheslav Ragozin, (24) Akiba Rubinstein, (25) Fritz Saemisch, (26) Saviely Tartakower, and (27) Milan Vidmar.
Even at this early stage politics reared its ugly head. Efim Bogoljubow (1889-1952), who had emigrated from the USSR to Germany and thus considered a "traitor" in the Soviet Union, was fully qualified for the title, having played two matches for the world championship against Alekhine, but the communist bloc managed to keep his name out of the list.
Two more names kept out of the original GM list: Fedor Bohatirchuk (never heard of him, huh?) and Peter Romanovsky. I will tell you a bit of their stories on Monday.
Anyway when the original list of 27 GMs came out the youngest was 26-year-old David Bronstein. The title of youngest ever in chess history was passed on to Tigran Petrosian when he made the title in 1952 at the age of 23, after qualifying for the Zurich Candidates’ Tournament.
Boris Spassky reset the record to 18 years old when he qualified from the 1955 Goteburg Interzonal to the Amsterdam Candidates, which ultimately Smyslov won.
The next record holder was Bobby Fischer — he qualified at the Portoroz Interzonal for the Candidates’ tournament and became a GM at the age of 15 years, six months and one day. This record last for 33 years until broken by Judit Polgar. Here is the latest "youngest ever GM in chess history" list:
1. Sergey Karjakin UKR 12 years, 7 months, 0 days
2. Parimarjan Negi IND 13 years, 4 months, 22 days
3. Magnus Carlsen NOR 13 years, 4 months, 27 days
4. Bu Xiangzhi CHN 13 years, 10 months, 13 days
5. Teimour Radjabov AZE 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
6. Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
7. Wesley So PHI 14 years, 1 month, 28 days
8. Etienne Bacrot FRA 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 14 years, 4 months
10. Péter Lék� HUN 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
11. Hou Yifan CHN 14 years, 6 months, 16 days
12. Anish Giri NED 14 years, 7 months, 2 days
13. Yuriy Kuzubov UKR 14 years, 7 months, 12 days
14. Dariusz Swiercz POL 14 years, 7 months, 29 days
15. Nguyen Ngoc Truongson VIE 14 years, 10 months
16. Ray Robson USA 14 Years 11 Months 16 days
17. Fabiano Caruana ITA 14 years, 11 months, 20 days
18. Humpy Koneru IND 15 years, 1 month, 27 days
19. Hikaru Nakamura USA 15 years, 2 months, 19 days
20. Pentala Harikrishna IND 15 years, 3 months, 5 days
21. Judit Polgar HUN 15 years, 4 months, 28 days
22. Alejandro Ramirez CRC 15 years, 5 months, 14 days
23. Bobby Fischer USA 15 years, 6 months, 1 day
The youngest as of this date (not to be confused with youngest in history since, for example, Karjakin got the title at the age of 12, but is currently 19 years old) is the USA’s Ray Robson, who got his final norm from winning the 2009 Pan-American Under-20 Championship held in Montevideo, Uruguay.
We have excluded the Peruvian Jorge Cori Tello from our list above (14 years 2 months). Although Cori earned his final norm Marcel Duchamp Championship in Argentina, his rating is not yet 2500, so that makes him "only" a GM-elect without the full title yet.
Robson, born Oct. 25, 1994 (advanced happy birthday!) may be very young but in terms of chess years he is a veteran of international competition. His big jump was in 2007 — Robson earned the three norms required for the International Master title in only six weeks: the first at the 6th North American FIDE Invitational (2007) in Chicago, the second at the World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, and the third and final norm at the University of Texas at Dallas GM Invitational in Dallas.
Year 2009 was another quantum leap year. Robson won the US Junior Championship last July 16, 2009, becoming at the age of 14 one of the youngest junior champions of the USA ever. Last August he tied for first at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso, Norway for this first GM norm. Later on that same month he got the 2nd GM norm by winning the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie, Illinois. His final norm Montevideo caps off a brilliant and productive year for him.
I present to you his victory over GM Larry Christiansen in the recent US Chess Championship. Christiansen is known for his tactical skills, but today Robson outduels him.
Christiansen, Larry Mark (2588) — Robson, Ray (2465) [D31]
ch-USA Saint Louis USA (6), 13.05.2009
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8.Ne2
It is more common for White to play 8.Be2 but that is precisely the reason why Christiansen avoids it. A lot of these young kids know mountains of theory, and so it would be good to confuse them with sidelines.
8...Na6 9.Bf8
In the 8.Be2 line the other bishop moves (9.Ba5, 9.Bd6 or 9.Bc3) are more popular, but in this version, with the knight on e2, putting the bishop to f8 is the main line.
9...Ne7
Please do not fall for 9...Kxf8?? 10.Qd8#
10.Bxg7 Nb4
There is nothing wrong with the normal 10...Rg8 11.Qd4 Qxd4 12.Bxd4 c5 13.Bf6 Nb4 14.Kd2 b6 15.Nf4 Bb7 Black has no problems and his pieces can coordinate easier. Papenin, N. (2391)-Kulago, A. (2095)/ Serpukhov 2004 0-1 (31).
11.Qd6
[11.Bxh8 has been analyzed to a draw after 11...e5 12.Qd6! (Alternatives are no good: 12.f3? Nc2+ 13.Kd2 Qe3+ 14.Kxc2 Bf5+ wins; 12.Bxe5?! Bf5! 13.Bc3 Nc2+ 14.Qxc2 Qxc2ƒ; 12.Bf6 Bf5! 13.f3 Qe3!) 12...Nc2+ 13.Kd2 Bf5 14.Ng3!? Qf4+ 15.Kc3 Nd5+! 16.cxd5 Qd4+ 17.Kb3 Nxa1+ 18.Ka3 Nc2+ 19.Kb3 Na1+ 1/2 Gomez Esteban, J. (2410)-Illescas Cordoba, M. (2615)/ Lisbon 1993]
11...Nc2+ 12.Kd2 Nxa1 13.Bxh8 Qc2+ 14.Ke1
[14.Ke3?? Nf5+]
14...Qxc4?!
The first new move, although there does not seem to be anything wrong with 14...e5 15.f3 (15.Bxe5 Be6 16.f3 Rd8 17.Qc7 Qd2+ 18.Kf2 Nc2 19.Bf4 Qe1+ 20.Kg1 Rd1 21.Qb8+ Nc8 22.Ng3 Ne3 23.Qe5 Qxf1+ 0-1 Kononenko,T (2379)-Korneev,O (2606)/ Seville 2007) 15...Qxb2 (15...Qb1+ 16.Kf2 Nc2 17.Bf6 Qe1+ 18.Kg1 Qb4 19.Bxe7 Qxd6 20.Bxd6 Be6 21.Nc3 1-0 Zaiatz,E (2401)-Tomilova,E (2263)/ Samara 2005) 16.Bxe5 Qb1+ 17.Kf2 Nf5 18.Qd2 Nc2 19.Bc7 Be6 20.Nc3 Qb2 21.Bd3 Nb4 22.Ke1 Nxd3+ 23.Qxd3 Rc8 24.Be5 Rd8 25.Qe2 Qc1+ 26.Kf2 Qxh1 27.Ne4 Rd1 0-1 Kharlov, A. (2638)-Arzumanian, G. (2424)/ Tula 2002]
15.Nc3 Qb4 16.Qd2 [16.Qxb4 Nc2+] 16...e5 17.Qc1
Position after 17.Qc1
Now Christiansen wins the knight. Or does he?
17...Bg4 18.f3?
[18.Qxa1 0-0-0 with threats against d1 and an attack on the h8-bishop. It looks to me like the best defence is 18.h3 followed by 19.g4]
18...Bxf3! 19.Bf6
[19.gxf3 Qh4+ 20.Ke2 Ng6 21.Qxa1 0-0-0 I am very pessimistic of White’s chances of surviving this attack]
19...Nd5 20.Bxe5 Qe7 21.gxf3 Qxe5+ 22.Kf2 Qd4+ 23.Kg3 Ne3 24.Bh3 Nac2 25.Nd1 f5 26.Nxe3 f4+ 27.Kf2 fxe3+ 28.Kg3 Qd6+ 29.f4 Qd3 30.Rd1 Qg6+ 31.Kf3 Qh5+ 32.Bg4 Qxh2 33.Rd6 Qf2+ 34.Ke4 e2 35.Bxe2 [35.Qxc2 e1Q+] 35...Qxe2+ 36.Kf5 Ke7 0-1
Exciting chess!
Reader comments/suggestions are urgently solicited. E-mail address is bangcpa@gmail.com
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