sponzor
players
CZECH COAL CHESS MATCH - Snowdrops and Old-hands
GM Viktor Korčnoj (2566)
Viktor Kortchnoi is the world eldest actively playing grandmaster. He was born 23 March 1931 in Petersburg, later he had emigrated to Netherlands and at the end he settled in Switzerland. His professional career is filled up with many victories gained at different prestigious world tournaments. Since the times of Alekhine there is no other world champion with whom he would not play and did not win. The peak of his career were three matches for the world champion title against Anatoly Karpov. In 1974 these two giants played together for the first time in the final of the candidates tournament, then they competed in 1978 in Baguio, Philippines and finally in 1981 in Meran. All of these matches were won by Karpov. Kortchnoi is four-time the Soviet Union champion (in 1960,1962-63,1964-65 and 1970), five-time the European champion and six-time the winner of the golden medal from the Chess Olympics games. In September 2006 he became the senior world champion. He is highly respected for his perseverance with which, despite his old age, he takes part in the world top tournaments. At the age of 78 he is still among third hundred of the world chess chart.
GM Jan Timman (2588)
Jan Timman use to be at the turn of 70s and 80s the best Western player. Nine-time the Netherlands champion, he competed several times in tournaments of candidates for the world champion title. He was born on 14 December 1951 in the Netherlands. He reached his first significant victory at the age of 15 at the world junior championship, where he won the bronze medal. In 1971 he gained international master title (IM) and three years later he became an international grandmaster. He was the only Western player, who regularly managed to beat the leading Soviet Union players including the then world champion Anatoly Karpov. Since 1972 he had been playing for the Netherlands at chess Olympics, where he competed on eleven occasions. In 1976 he won a golden medal for the best individual performance on the board. Timman is renouned among other world chess player mainly for his understanding of activity in the game. In 2006 he won the Sigeman tournament, which was held in Swedish Malmo.
GM Robert Hübner (2605)
Doctor Robert Hübner was born on 6 November 1948 in Germany. Apart from being well-known German grandmaster and the author of chess books, he is also a respectable papyrologist, who is interested mainly in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1964 he won the Junior European championship and a year later he repeated his success. He obtained the international grandmaster title in 1971. His chess career was at the top at the turn of 70s and 80s and he was taking part at many all-star tournaments such as Tilburg (1978) and Montreal (1979), where he played alongside Karpov, Tal and Timman. In 1981 he reached his highest ELO – 2640. Hübner won a tournament in Solingen in 1986. In 1993 Nigel Short chose him as his second, when he tried to beat Garry Kasparov in the match for world champion title. He was part of the German team which came second at Chess Olympics in Istanbul in 2000.
GM Vlastimil Hort (2478)
A grandmaster Vlastimil Hort is a living legend of Czechoslovakian chess. He was born on 12 January 1944 in Kladno. He drew attention to himself with his style of chess game already in his childhood and since he reached 14 he used to be a regular contender in the final of Czechoslovakian adult championships. Ever since he was a young student, his game has been known for a superb feeling for position and his sensitive technique. He gained the international master title when he was 18 and he reached the grandmaster norm three years later. In 60s he played for his country at Chess Olympics and European championships. In 1963 he was a part of the winning team of the University Students Chess World Championship. He won several times Czechoslovakian championships (1970, 1971, 1972, and 1975). He won tournaments in Havana and Luhacovice in 1971, in Reykjavik 1972, at Sunny Beach and Hastings in 1974, in Banja Luka in 1976, in Stip, in Polanica Zdroj and in London in 1977. He was second at prestigious tournament at Wijk aan Zee in 1967 and 1975. In 1970 he was nominated to play the fourth board in the team of „the rest of the world“ against USSR team. On his board he beat a grandmaster Lev Pulugaievsky (with three draws). He reached his biggest success at the international tournament in Manila in 1976, where he shared a second place with Pulugaievsky and he got on to candidates tournament in 1977. During the match with Boris Spassky he lost 1:2 (with 15 draws). In 1977 he played a simul in Reykjavik with 550 contenders with a result 477:10 (with 63 draws) and he also played a blind simul against 22 players. After leaving Czechoslovakia he won the West Germany championship in 1987. In 2008, during a match of Snowdrops versus Old-hands, he reached the highest rating performance (ELO 2685) out of all of the other players.
GM Humpy Koneru (2595)
Born 31 March 1987. The 22 year old Indian gained the international master title at the age of fifteen. She became the youngest female player to gained the title. She kept the record until 2008, when it was outperformed by even younger Hou Yifan. In 2001 she won the junior championship and she gained the title of international woman grandmaster (WGM). A year later she collected a title of international grandmaster (GM). Her best performance at the world woman championship was in 2008, when she got into the semifinal. She gained her highest ELO 2606 in 2007, and she became the second woman, after Judita Polgar, in the history of chess to beat the 2600 ELO points threshold. At the same time she got hold of the second place among the world best female chessplayers and she has kept the position until today.
IM Anna Muzyčuk (2533)
A multiple woman champion of Ukraine was born on 28 February 1990. She started to play chess at a very early age and thanks to her extraordinary talent, she became the European champion in the girls under eight category. Her another price was a silver medal from European champion in the girls under ten category. Subsequently she managed to win a medal at girls championships almost every year. There was no rival to match her in her category. In 2002 she gained the title of the international woman master, two years later she got a title of the international woman grandmaster and in 2007 she gained a title of the international grandmaster. In 2004 she was awarded Slovenian citizenship and she started to represent Slovenia at Olympic games. In 2005 she became the world junior woman grandmaster in under 16 category and two years later she won the world female championship in rapid chess. She is number six in the world female chart and she is second in the female category under 20.
GM Kateryna Lahno (2483)
The current Ukrainian number one was born 27 December 1989. She started her professional career with the silver medal in the girls under 10 category. She was quickly improving and she became very successful. Already at the age of twelve she got a title of the international woman grandmaster and she became the youngest female player to win the title, beating Judita Polgar record. In 2003 she was extremely successful at the grandmaster tournament at Kramatorsk in Ukraine,where she won the entire tournament at the age of thirteen and thanks to her performance 2622 also the first norm of the international grandmaster. In 2005 she reached another significant success, at the age of fifteen she won the European women championship. She repeated her success in 2008. This spring she married an international grandmaster Robert Fountain. Currently she is 21st at the world woman chart.
IM Jana Jacková (2393)
Born on 6 September 1982. She gained title of the international woman master in 1998 and three years later she gained the woman grandmaster title. The last title was awarded to her in 2004 – the international master. At the end of 90s she was regularly winning at Czech Republic woman junior championships. Since 1998 she has regularly represented the Czech Republic at the Chess Olympics. In 2008, during Snowdrops versus Old-hands tournament, she beat the former world champion Anatoly Karpov.