2006 in chess

Events in chess in 2006:

Events

May

• May 5 – The world's oldest living Grandmaster, Andor Lilienthal, celebrates his 95th birthday. In his career Lilienthal played World Champions Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and Mikhail Botvinnik.

October

• Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) defeats Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) in the 2006 World Championship title unification match to become undisputed world champion.

December

• December 26 – The All India Chess Federation imposes a ten-year ban on Umakant Sharma for using a Bluetooth device sewn into his cap to gain assistance from a chess computer during a FIDE rated tournament in Delhi.
• December 29 – 44th Indian Chess Championship (National "A" Championship) in Atul won by GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly for the fourth consecutive year with the score 9/13. The tournament format was changed to a 13-round Swiss instead of the 22 player round-robin used previously.
• December 30 – Iranian Chess Championship in Tehran won by GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami at 8.5/11. The women's champion is WGM Shadi Paridar scoring 9.5/11.

Titles awarded

Grandmasters

In 2006 FIDE awarded the title of Grandmaster to the following players:

• Bassem Amin (b. 1988)
• Levan Aroshidze (b. 1985)
• David Arutinian (b. 1984)
• Valeriy Aveskulov (b. 1986)
• Pascal Charbonneau (b. 1983)
• Paweł Czarnota (b. 1988)
• Chakkravarthy Deepan (b. 1987)
• Dzhakay Dzhakaev (b. 1980)
• Grzegorz Gajewski (b. 1985)
• José González García (b. 1973)
• Andrey Gutov (b. 1978)
• Gennadij Ginsburg (b. 1971)
• Bartłomiej Heberla (b. 1985)
• Peter Horvath (b. 1972)
• Alojzije Janković (b. 1983)
• Radosław Jedynak (b. 1982)
• Zoran Jovanović (b. 1979)

• Meelis Kanep (b. 1983)
• Melikset Khachiyan (b. 1970)
• Ibragim Khamrakulov (b. 1982)
• Aleksandr Kharitonov (b. 1986)
• Petr Kostenko (b. 1976)
• Tigran Kotanjian (b. 1981)
• Sergei Krivoshey (b. 1971)
• Yuriy Kryvoruchko (b. 1986)
• Vitaly Kunin (b. 1983)
• Viktor Láznička (b. 1988)
• Quang Liem Le (b. 1991)
• Constantin Lupulescu (b. 1984)
• Nidjat Mamedov (b. 1985)
• Mikulas Manik (b. 1975)
• Andrei Murariu (b. 1986)
• Das Neelotpal (b. 1982)
• Magesh Panchanathan (b. 1983)

• Eugene Perelshteyn (b. 1980)
• Reefat Bin-Sattar (b. 1974)
• Davor Rogic (b. 1971)
• Andrey Rychagov (b. 1979)
• Bator Sambuev (b. 1980)
• Vasile Sanduleac (b. 1971)
• Konstantine Shanava (b. 1985)
• John Shaw (b. 1968)
• Andrey Sumets (b. 1980)
• Jurij Tihonov (b. 1978)
• Todor Todorov (b. 1974)
• Marko Tratar (b. 1974)
• Yge Visser (b. 1963)
• Jan Werle (b. 1984)
• Andrey Zhigalko (b. 1985)
• Zhou Jianchao (b. 1988)
• Yaroslav Zinchenko (b. 1987)

Woman Grandmaster

In 2006 FIDE awarded the title Woman Grandmaster to the following players:

• Evgeniya Doluhanova (b. 1984)
• Marina Guseva (b. 1986)
• Anastasia Gutsko (b. 1985)
• Sopio Gvetadze (b. 1983)
• Thi Bao Tram Hoang (b. 1987)
• Beata Kądziołka (b. 1986)

• Julia Kochetkova (b. 1981)
• Tatiana Kostiuk (b. 1982)
• Liubov Kostiukova (b. 1983)
• Lija Kucherova (b. 1986)
• Naira Movsisian (b. 1977)
• Jessica Nill (b. 1979)

• Niina Sammalvuo (b. 1971)
• Anna Sharevich (b. 1985)
• Shen Yang (b. 1989)
• Elena Tairova (1991–2010)
• Carmen Voicu (b. 1981)

Births

• March 13 – Leon Luke Mendonca
• May 29 – Gukesh D

Deaths

• January 15 – Herbert Avram (1913–2006), 92, United States.
• May 13 – Ratmir Kholmov (1925–2006), 80, Soviet/Russian Grandmaster.
• May 13 – Burt Hochberg (1933–2006), 73, chess writer and editor, editor of Chess Life.
• May 20 – Wolfgang Unzicker (1925–2006), 80, German Grandmaster, "world champion of amateurs".
• July 2 – René Letelier (1915–2006), 91, Chilean International Master.
• July 14 – Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (1963–2006), 43, Polish Grandmaster.
• July 23 – Rudolf Teschner (1922–2006), 84, German Grandmaster and chess writer.
• July 26 – Jessie Gilbert (1987–2006), 19, English Woman FIDE Master.
• August 14 – Adriaan de Groot (1914–2006), 92, Dutch chess master and psychologist.
• November 29 – Krystyna Hołuj-Radzikowska (1931–2006), 75, Polish Woman Grandmaster.
• December 5 – David Bronstein (1924–2006), 82, Soviet/Ukrainian Grandmaster and renowned chess writer, challenger in the 1951 World Championship match.

References