Has the highest per capita chess population in the world. A government-run lottery helps finance chess and handball tournaments. Iceland had 9 Grandmasters, 7 International Masters, and 16 FIDE masters in a country of only 250,000 inha... Read more »
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky (1894-1941) was the Russian master who had to learn the game twice. He was gassed, then shell-shocked in World War I, which took away his memory. Irving Chernev wrote that a bullet entered Ilyin-Genevsky&r... Read more »
The first chess rating system. It was introduced by Anton Hoesslinger in 1948 and named after his birthplace of Inglostadt, Bavaria. It was first described in Bayerische Schacht chess magazine. In this system, the lower ratings ... Read more »
A isolated d-pawn(or queen pawn) that can often be found in the Queen's gambit and many other openings. If used properly, it can be very powerful. Read more »
Italian chess players dominated the game during the first two centuries of the modern game. The players included Pedro Damiano (1500?-1544), Paolo Boi (1528-1598), Giulio Polerio (1550-1610), Leonardo da Cutro (1552-1597), Alessandro Salvio ... Read more »
Vassily Ivanchuk, born March 18, 1969 in Berejiany, Ukraine, is a Grandmaster (1988). In tournaments he was the winner of the 1988 New York Open, Wijk Aan Zee (Corus) 1996, Linares in 1989, 1991 and 1995. He played in the finals... Read more »
Alexander Ivanov, born May 1, 1956, is a Grandmaster (1991) born in Omsk in the former USSR. He arrived in the United States in 1988. He is married to Esther Epstein, a top woman chess player. In 1989, he won that National Open.&... Read more »
Igor Ivanov (1947-2005) was a Grandmaster (2004) who defected from the Soviet Union to Canada in 1980. He had been part of a Soviet team which went to Cuba to play in the Capablanca Memoria. On the way back to Russia, during a ref... Read more »
Borislav Ivkov, born Nov 12, 1933, is a Yugoslav (Serbia and Montenegro) Grandmaster (1955). He was the winner of the first World Junior Championship, held in England, in 1951. In 1965 he lost to Bent Larsen in the Candidates match quarterfi... Read more »