January Babies: A Chess Zodiac
So, you were born in January? Or maybe a family member or significant other celebrates their birth in the first month of the year? And one or the other or both or all of you love chess? Well, consider this your personal Chess Zodiac. Click on the date that interests you and explore the chess lineage of those born on a day that's special to you or yours. Inside you'll find folks like Paul Keres, Boris Spassky, and Herman Helms (who the heck is that last one you ask? Read and find out).
So, here's the big question: What do the biographies of the chess personalities born on a given day say about the chess potential of those born that same day in January?
Like any good zodiac, it often admits to multiple interpretations. What? Did you expect more than pseudo-science? And for now, you'll have to draw your own inferences from the information provided. The lucre, and stunning lack thereof, received to date from these blogs hardly pays for me to walk over to the faucet and fill up my glass of water. Let alone to provide my keen insights into how people are influenced by those with whom they share a random day of birth.
Below you'll find images of photos, stamps, YouTube videos, paintings, book covers, or sketches of various chess luminaries, along with bios that range from short and pithy to chess-boy extremes. In some cases, you'll also find links to websites they maintain and their handle on various social media, including your fave, chess.com. Scroll through the entire list or just click on a specific date below if you're only interested in a specific day. And after looking at the bio of the birthday personality or personalities on a given day you should find a link that returns you here so you can select another day of the month. If you want. Enjoy!
Links to January Birth Dates
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Links to January Classical World CCs (not blitz, rapid, Fischer Random, etc.)
Maia_Chiburdanidze, Boris_Spassky
Links to Other January GM Notables
Pedro_Damiano, Gioachino_Greco, Paul_Keres, Sergey_Karjakin, Louis_Paulsen
Links to January Chess Couples
Bartel, (under construction...very slowly)
Looking for birthdays in other months?
October Babies: Chess Zodiac
February Babies: A Chess Zodiac
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources including A-Z Quotes | Quotes for All Occasions. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is implausible. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor).
Pedro Damiano may have been born on 1 January 1480 in Portugal. The exact date is unknown, so why not start the year off that way! The quote, “If you see a good move, try a better one” can be found in his book, the front cover shown above. But al-Suli offered similar advice in his earlier writings on Shatranj, the Persian precursor to chess. In Damiano’s book he listed the rules of the game and his is the oldest book to state that the right-hand corner must be a white square. He also advised on strategy, offered problems to solve, and analyzed a few openings, among them the Philidor Defence, Giuoco Piano, Petroff’s Defence and the QGA.
He is perhaps best known for the mating pattern named after him, Damiano's Mate. At that link the mating pattern is described, and the post also offers a number of puzzles to solve based on the pattern.
Gioachino Greco (c. 1600 – c. 1634), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently il Calabrese, was an Italian chess player and writer. For our purposes, we are starting the year off with a bang and assuming that he was born on the first day of the year! Initially, Greco’s writings were manuscripts written for individual patrons. They presented the rules of the game, offered advice, and presented illustrative games that would have prepared his patrons for openings they might encounter over the board along with some middle game principles. A key aspect of Greco’s writings was that he was the innovator who introduced the idea of presenting entire game, rather than snippets. Botvinnik considered Greco to be the first chess professional because he earned his living entirely off the royal game. Several openings are named for Greco including the Greco Defence, Calabrese Countergambit, Giuco Piano, Greco’s Attack, and King’s Gambit Accepted, Bishop’s Gambit, Greco Variation. From this you should gather that Greco very much believed in attacking the opponent, material being somewhat irrelevant to his style of play.
Want to learn the underlying patterns of Greco's Mate and try to solve some puzzles? You can do that at Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Greco's Mate.
Nana Dzagnidze (Georgian: ნანა ძაგნიძე; born 1 January 1987) is a Georgian GM with a peak rating of 2573 in June 2015. Her rating was 2518 as of November 2024. She won the Women’s U12 World CC in 1999 and four years later won the Women’s U20 World CC, two points ahead of second place. In 2017 she became a world champion for the third time, winning the Women’s World Blitz CC. She has played for her national team in multiple Olympiads, winning one team gold medal. In 2014 she won the individual gold medal on board one, finishing ahead of Hou Yifan. In 2017 she received the Chess Award of Caissa, honoring the best female player of the year.
Sopiko Guramishvili, born 1 January 1991, is Georgian and Dutch IM and WGM who also provides chess commentary and is a chess author. She won silver in the World U12 Women’s CC and gold in the World U16 Women’s CC. She has qualified twice for the Women’s World Knockout CC. She appears to have effectively retired as her last rated FIDE game was played in March 2020, concluding her career with a 2383 rating. Her peak rating was 2441 in November 2014.
Anna Rudolf collaborated with Guramishvili on an instructional chess series of 14 videos where they were known as Miss Strategy vs. Miss Tactics - YouTube.
You can find her on Instagram @sopikoguramishvili. And on chessable.com she has published two courses on play with the black pieces in the QGA. She is married to GM Anish Giri.
Aleksandra Lach is a Polish WIM born 2 January 1995. Her peak rating was 2303 in July 2024 but that has slipped almost 100 points in the intervening months. She won silver in the World Youth U10 girls CC and four years later in the World Youth U14 girls CC. She also earned a bronze in an earlier World Youth U10 girls CC. In the Polish Women’s Fast CC, she won gold in 2015 and bronze in 2014. In 2016 she won bronze in the Polish Women’s Blitz CC.
She plays intermittently on chess.com as @OlaaLa and also offers coaching services.
Mateusz Bartel, 3 January 1985, is a Polish GM and four-time Polish CC. With a peak rating of 2677 in May 2012, and a #73 world ranking, he is still rated 2618 as of December 2024. He has played five Olympiads for his nation. Interestingly, he was the beneficiary of a cheating scandal in the 2010 Olympiad when his silver medal was upgraded to gold after Sébastien Feller was disqualified for cheating.
He plays regularly on chess.com as @Matibar.
He is married to WGM Marta Bartel (20 May, peak rating of 2379), so this chess power couple has a peak combined rating of 5056.
Pavel Kotsur, 3 January 1974, is a Kazakhstani GM, three-time Kazakhstani CC, and FIDE Arbiter. With a peak rating of 2607 in July 2004, and peak world ranking of #91 in July. His rating had slid to 2478 as of December 2024. He played for his nation in six Olympiads and the 1997 World Team CC.
He plays as @Barys1974 on chess.com but I found no games for him after February 2024.
Merab Gagunashvili (Georgian: მერაბ გაგუნაშვილი; born 3 January 1985) is a Georgian GM, two-time Georgian CC, and silver medal winner in the 2001 World Junior CC. Merab’s peak rating and ranking were 2625 and #96 in April 2007.
He plays relatively regularly on chess.com as @Gaguna and also offers coaching services.
Salem Abdulrahman Mohamed Saleh (born 4 January 1993) is an Emirati GM, three-time Emirati CC, and three-time Arab CC. With a peak rating of 2690 in October 2021, and peak ranking of #44 in December 2021, he is still rated 2622 as of December 2024.
He plays in surges on chess.com as @Salem-AR.
Hermann Helms (5 January 1870 – 1963) was an American chessplayer of approximately NM strength, but he earned entry into the US Chess Hall of Fame and World Chess Hall of Fame for his activities as a chess writer and promoter. A chess reporter for the NY Times for over fifty years, he also founded the American Chess Bulletin and served as editor for 59 years. He also wrote columns for numerous other New York newspapers. As an organizer he was one of those responsible for two of the most historic tournaments in history: New York 1924 and New York 1927. He also edited Alekhine’s books on thse tournaments. Further, Helms organized and promoted chess tours for World CCs Alekhin, Capablanca, and Lasker, along with other chess stars such as Géza Maróczy and Frank Marshall. In 1943 the US Chess Federation designated Helms the “Dean of American Chess.”
Below is a very brief and entertaining, typical example of the flashy tactics Helms was known for, a skill that helped him defeat players such as Pillsbury and Frank Marshall.
Alexandr Aleksandrovich Predke (Russian: Александр Александрович Предке, Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Александрович Предке; born 5 January 1994) is a Russian-born Serbian GM with a peak rating of 2696 in November 2020, placing him #40 in the world. He is still rated 2634 as of December 2024 and was one of the Russian GMs who took the opportunity of a 2022 FIDE Grand Prix to refrain from returning to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, and briefly played under the FIDE flag before changing to the Serbian Federation (Russian Grandmasters Leave Russia: 'I Have No Sympathy For This War' - Chess.com).
Predke plays as @Alexandr_Predke on chess.com though I found no games for him more recent than September 2024. His chess.com home page displays the Serbian flag.
Vladislav Vladimirovich Kovalev (Russian: Владислав Владимирович Ковалёв; born 6 January 1994) is a Belarusian GM and was the Belarusian CC in 2016 and winner of the 2018 Aeroflot Open. He is not currently a member of any national chess federation and plays under the FIDE flag. His peak ELO was 2703 in February 2019 after winning the Tata Steel Challengers in January! That rating coincided with his peak ranking of #40 in the world. His rating has declined surprisingly over the past few years, and he now sits at 2557.
He plays regularly in Titled Tuesday events as @vladislavkovalev and also offers coaching services and has a YouTube channel, with links provided on his chess.com home page.
Karen Movsziszian (Armenian: Կարեն Մովսիսյան, born January 6, 1963) is an Armenian GM. He won the Armenian CC in 1981 and the World Senior CC (50+) in 2018. His peak rating was 2570 in July 2009. and he still retains an ELO of 2439 as of December 2024.
Artyom Timofeev (Russian: Артём Тимофеев; born January 6, 1985) is a Russian GM. He tied for first on points in the World Youth CC (U14) but finished second on tiebreaks. His peak ELO was 2690 in July 2010 but he has receded to 2548 as of December 2024. He reached #38 in the world in January 2007. In 2008 he won the Russian Open and the Russian CC Higher League, thus qualifying for the Superfinal of the Russian CC.
I did not find a game for him on chess.com since November 2023 where he can be found as @TimofeevAr.
Hall Of Fame - 22: Paul Keres
Paul Keres, 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975, was an Estonian GM and chess writer. Keres sharpened his skills as a teenager by playing hundreds of correspondence games and in 1935 he won the International Correspondence CC. Although FIDE lists his peak rating and ranking at 2615 and #11 in the world in 1971, if you look at ChessMetrics evaluations his peak rating would have been 2786 and he was #2 in the world a total of 52 months between July 1943 and July 1960.
Many consider he and Korchnoi the prime contenders as the strongest players never to ascend the throne as World CC. Had it not been for the outbreak of WWII, he might have beaten a declining Alekhine after Keres tied for first in the 1938 AVRO Tournament. A three-time USSR CC, he represented the Soviet Union in seven consecutive Olympiads, earning seven team golds to go with five individual golds and a bronze.
His exploits continued in the world of writing where he co-authored the brilliant The Art of the Middlegame with Alexander Kotov and solo ventures Practical Chess Endings and a deeply annotated collection of his own games The Grandmaster of Chess.
Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian GM and correspondence Senior IM. A former super-GM with a peak rating of 2720 in May 2012 he peaked at #21 in the world in May 2012. A four-time winner of the Indian CC, Krishnan served as one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the 2013 World CC. In 2002 Sasikiran won the Arjuna Award for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, India’s second-highest sporting honor. In 2014 he earned an individual silver on board three in the Olympiad while the team took the bronze medal.
He plays blitz and bullet quite regularly on chess.com as @g3god.
Luke James McShane, 7 January 1984, is an English GM with a peak rating of 2713 in July 2012. Later that year his world ranking rose to #29 and he still maintains an ELO of 2609. He should not be confused with the English footballer of the same name. Regularly deemed the world’s strongest amateur by many chess connoisseurs, Luke has regularly found himself declining invitations due to full-time employment in the financial sector.
He plays infrequently on chess.com as @LMcShane and offers rather pricey online coaching services. My take is that he finds his daily career quite lucrative and doesn’t want to earn a mere pittance as a coach.
Elisabeth Päehtz, 8 January 1985, is a German GM with a peak rating of 2513 in September 2024, who still clocks in at 2430 as of December 2024. In 1999 she won the German Women’s CC. Later, she was the Women’s World Youth CC (U18) in 2005 and won the European Women’s Rapid CC in 2018. A participant in ten Olympiads, she won an individual bronze on board one of the Women’s World Team Chess CC in 2007.
A well-known streamer, she plays occasionally on chess.com as @ElliPaehtz. She can also be found on Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube. Her father Thomas is also a GM, and she was married for a number of years to the Italian GM Luca Shytaj.
Fiona Steil-Antoni, 10 January 1989, is a Luxembourgish WIM with a peak ELO of 2218 in July 2022 and a current rating of 2182. With a score of 10/12 she earned an individual gold medal on board two at the 2006 Women’s Olympiad. Fiona has won the Luxembourg Women’s CC several times.
She is a well-known chess.com commentator and streams at fionchetta - Twitch, a lovely play on words. She plays somewhat infrequently on the site as @Fiona.
Henri Rinck (January 10, 1870 – February 17, 1952) was a French chemist, chess composer, chess player, and non-fiction writer…the real reason for including him is that his parents were brewers!! Actually, he is included because he published four editions of chess endgame studies between 1909 and 1927. In 1947 he published 111 endgames of two rooks against two minor pieces and a separate section book of queen versus rook and knight, the latter being composed in concert with Louis Malpas.
Christian Bauer, 11 January 1977, is a French GM and three-time French CC. He was the #57 ranked player in April 2005, achieved his peak ELO of 2682 in August 2012, and is still competitive with a 2554 rating as of December 2024.
He has also produced some training materials for ChessBase such as The Evergreen Philidor and The Alekhine Revisited. Books he has written include Play 1...b6: A Dynamic and Hypermodern Opening System for Black, The Philidor Files, Play the Scandinavian, and Candidate Moves: A Grandmaster's Method.
Christian maintains an account on chess.com as @crazyboy26 but I found no games after 1 May 2021—he won both games.
Héðinn Steingrímsson, 11 January 1975, is an Icelandic GM, FIDE Senior trainer, German-A Trainer, three-time Icelandic CC, and was the World U12 CC in 1987. His peak rating was 2583 in June 2018, and he still retains a 2492 rating as of December 2024.
Given all that training background you won’t be surprised to learn that he provides online lessons and can be contacted via email hedinn.steingrimsson@gmail.com.
He has not played on chess.com since 10 May 2020 but his presence is still maintained as @Hedinn.
49: Sergey Karjakin | Chess Lessons - Chess.com
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, 12 January 1990, is a Russian super-GM with a peak rating of 2788 in July 2011 that saw him #4 in the world. His current rating of 2750 is a reflection of the fact he has not played many FIDE-rated games since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Because he refuses to play except under the Russian flag, banned in FIDE events, he fell off the rating list in June 2024.
Karjakin previously held the world record for the youngest-ever GM at 12 years and 7 months—he was so good that at age twelve he served as the official second to Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov during the 2002 FIDE World CC. Karjakin played two Olympiads for the Ukrainian team, winning a team and individual gold in 2004. In 2009 he transferred to the Russian Federation and has played in five Olympiads for the team, winning an individual gold in 2010.
Despite winning the 2022 World Rapid CC, those skills did not allow him to claim the classical World CC in 2016 when he lost in rapid tiebreaks.
He is found on chess.com as @SergeyKarjakin but has not played a game on the site since 15 October 2021.
Harika Dronavalli, born 12 January 1991, is an Indian GM. Part of the Women’s Indian Team at the 2024 Olympiad, she has three bronze medals as a contestant in the Women’s World CC. She also won a bronze medal as a member of the Indian Women’s Team the 2022 Olympiad. In 2007-08 she received India’s Arjuna Award for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games the second-highest sporting award in India. Her peak ELO is 2543, reached in November 2016. As of January 2025, she is slightly lower, rated 2489.
She plays on chess.com as @Elegance_Riks but I found no games more recent than 11 May 2024. She played a large number of bullet games that day.
Vlastimil Hort, 12 January 1944, is a Czechoslovak and later German GM. His official ELO peak is cited as 2620 in January 1977, placing him #6 in the world. Interestingly, ChessMetrics estimates his actual peak as 2725 in three different months between the January and July 1977 rating lists. A five-time Czechoslovak CC, he defected to West Germany in 1985, going on to win five West German CCs.
Hort reached the Candidates once in his career. The day after losing a very close match to Spassky in the Candidates, Hort set what was then a world record for a simultaneous exhibition against 600 players. “He explained that he gave the exhibition in order to get the loss against Spassky out of his head.”
Hort played in fourteen Olympiads, the last three for Germany. Hort is a Chess 960 Senior World CC, a title he secured in 2006.
Zhansaya Abdumalik, 12 January 2000, is a Kazakhstani IM and WGM who is currently listed as inactive by FIDE. Her peak ELO was 2507 in October 2021, and she was #11 in the world in the women’s rankings. Her rating has slipped slightly to 2473 as of October 2023. She is a two-time girl’s World Youth CC, one-time girl’s World Junior CC, and two-time Kazakhstani Women’s CC.
In 2014 she and her parents opened the Zhansaya Abdumalik Chess Academy. Anatoly Karpov participated in the opening ceremonies and Zhansaya played an exhibition match against the former World CC. She lost both rapid games but managed a victory and a draw in the two blitz games. She has represented Kazakhstan at three Women’s Olympiads.
Perhaps her most interesting outside hobby is boxing!
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (born 13 January 1987) is a Polish GM and a four-time Polish CC. For some time, he qualified as a “super-GM” with a peak ELO of 2750 in January 2017. Curiously, his peak world ranking was #15 in the world a bit over two years earlier, in December 2015. Radoslaw is rated 2658 as of January 2025 and ranked #68 in the world. In 2004 he won the World Youth (U18) CC, and the following year won his first Polish CC, the first of four.
He was one of the seconds to Viswanathan Anand after 2008. Wojtaszek assisted the former World CC in his successful title defense against Kramnik, in 2010 against Topalov, in 2012 against Gelfand, and in 2013 and 2014 against Magnus Carlsen.
Then, in 2024, he was a second for Gukesh Dommaraju in his successful bid to win the World CC from Ding Liren.
Radoslaw occasionally plays on chess.com as @Radzio1987, but I found no games after 2 April 2024. He is married to Russian-born Polish IM Alina Kashlinskaya.
Nadezhda Anatolyevna Kosintseva (Russian: Надежда Анатольевна Косинцева), born 14 January 1985, is a Russian GM. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the Women's Olympiads of 2010 and 2012, and in the Women's European Team CCs of 2007, 2009 and 2011. She was the World Junior CC (Women’s U-14) in 1998 and the bronze medalist at the same event (U-20) in 2001 and 2002. Winner of the 2008 Russian Women’s CC she placed second the following year. Her peak ELO was 2576 in November 2010, the same year she was honored by FIDE with the Caissa Award for the year’s best female chess player. Nadezha has no recorded FIDE-rated games since February 2016, retaining an inactive rating of 2483 as of January 2025.
She is married to GM Leonid Kritz and her one-year younger sister, Tatiana Kosintseva, is also a GM.
Louis Paulsen (15 January 1833 – 18 August 1891) was a German chess master. Paulsen lost the final match of this the First American Chess Congress to Morphy in 1857, scoring only one victory against two losses and two draws. Later in his career Paulsen played three matches against Adolf Anderssen, drawing a match in 1862 and winning matches in 1876 and 1877.
Paulsen was renowned for his defensive prowess and both Wilhelm Steinitz and Aron Nimzowitsch praised his ideas and games. ChessMetrics ranked Paulsen as the world’s best player (#1!!) in 39 different months between April 1862 and July 1878. They estimate his peak rating at 2710 in October 1862, three months before he turned thirty.
Paulsen pawns, a term coined by Nimzowitsch, finds the central pawns advanced only one square. That would mean e6 and d6 for Black, a characteristic formation found in the Paulsen variation of the Sicilian Defense. That restrained advance makes it difficult for the opponent to rapidly whip up an attack.
Victor Ciocâltea (January 16, 1932 – September 10, 1983) was a Romanian GM, who achieved the title at age 56! An eight-time Romanian CC, he participated in eleven Olympiads.
Among his notable games is a defeat of Bobby Fischer at the 15th Chess Olympiad in 1962. His highest published rating was 2480 in January 1976, but FIDE did not adopt a rating system until 1970. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2601 in December 1964 and lists him as the #49 player in the world the month prior.
Victor passed away in the fashion any serious chess player would desire, at the board during a tournament. One presumes his opponent was appropriately conflicted regarding the outcome of the game.
Jules Moussard (16 January 1995) is a French GM. He won seven titles at the French Youth CCs and won the French CC in 2022. That made him the only individual to have won a French title in every age category. Moussard’s peak ELO was 2686 in September 2022, good enough to rank him #51 in the world. As of January 2025, he is rated 2599, losing six rating points in December to fall out of the 2600 club.
He plays regularly on chess.com as @Annawel and also streams on Twitch.
Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgian: მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; 17 January 1961) is a Georgian GM, the second woman in the world to receive the title. She was the sixth Women's World CC, a title she held from 1978 to 1991.
She was the youngest Women’s World CC until 2010 when Hou Yifan broke that record. In 1976 she won the USSR girl’s CC and a year later stepped up to win the women’s title. Maia was also the first woman to break into the world’s Top 50, in the August 1985 ChessMetrics rankings, when ChessMetrics lists her highest-ever rating, 2661. Chiburdanidze was a member of nine gold-winning Women's Olympiads and was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2014.
Barring a brief burst of FIDE rapid and blitz games in 2020, she has been inactive since May 2011 with a rating of 2500 classical.
Alexander Khalifman (Russian: Алекса́ндр Вале́рьевич Халифма́н; born 18 January 1966) is a Russian GM and former FIDE World CC, when Kasparov held the PCA title. His peak ELO was 2702 in October 2001, but his peak world ranking occurred almost a decade before, ranked #10 in July 1991. He still maintains a superlative rating of 2597, but I found no FIDE-rated games for him after December 2023. He has been a member of four gold-medal winning Russian Olympiad teams.
He and his trainer run “The Grandmaster Chess School” and he has been coaching Fedoseev since 2011. He acted as second to Alisa Galliamova in the Women's World CC 1999 and then to Anna Ushenina in 2013.
In 2022 Khalifman was one of the Russian GMs to sign the open letter to Putin urging him to stop the invasion of Ukraine.
Alisa Mikhailovna Galliamova (Russian: Алиса Михайловна Галлямова, Tatar: Алисә Михаил кызы Галләмова; born 18 January 1972) is a Russian IM and WGM. A two-time runner-up at the Women's World CC, in 1999 and 2006, she is a three-time Russian Women's CC. She won the World U16 Girls’ CC in 1987 and 1988, and in 1988 she also won the World Junior Girls’ CC, doubling up that year! Galliamova played for gold-medal winning Women’s Olympiad teams with Russia in 2010 and with Ukraine in 1992. She won silver medals at the 1990 and 1992 Olympiads. Her peak rating was 2560 in July 1988 but as of July 2024 it dropped to 2397.
For a number of years Galliamova was married to GM Ivanchuk, but that marriage ended in 1996.
Maxim Rodshtein (Hebrew: מקסים רודשטיין, Russian: Максим Эдуардович Родштейн, romanized: Maksim Eduardovich Rodshtein) is an Israeli GM born January 19, 1989. He held a world title, the World Youth (U16) CC in 2004, and was a member of the silver-medal winning Israeli team in the 2008 Olympiad. His peak rating of 2710 in March 2016 placed him #37 in the world.
He plays on chess.com as @ColErranMorad but I found no games after 1 October 2024. Rodshtein is married to Czech WGM Tereza Olsarová.
Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin (Russian: Геннадий Павлович Кузьмин, Ukrainian: Геннадій Павлович Кузьмін, romanized: Hennadiy Pavlovych Kuzmin; January 19, 1946 – February 28, 2020) was a Ukrainian GM and trainer. A three-time Ukrainian CC whose highest rating was estimated by ChessMetrics as 2711 in November 1970 with a world-best ranking of #12 in November 1975. His best individual performance suggests a 2788 ELO with a score of 9/12 at Sochi 1970. Because FIDE did not establish a rating system until 1970 Kuzmin’s highest rating in FIDE records is shown as 2600 in May 1974 and his peak ranking as #14 world-wide in January 1975.
Later, Kuzmin was a trainer for Ruslan Ponomariov when Ponomariov became the youngest FIDE World CC.
Puchen Wang (born 20 January 1990) is a New Zealand IM. In January 2007 he became the New Zealand CC, Rapid CC, and Lightning CC at age 17. He has played for the home team in two Olympiads. With a peak rating of 2478 in September 2010, he never quite finished climbing the mountain to GM status.
From all indications, he retired from chess in 2014 after again winning the New Zealand CC at age 26. He played a few FIDE-rated rapid and blitz games in 2016, but I found nothing after that.
Ilya Yulievich Smirin (Hebrew: איליה יוליביץ' סמירין; Belarusian: Ілля Юльевіч Смірын, romanized: Illa Juljevič Smiryn; Russian: Илья Юльевич Смирин; born January 21, 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli GM. His peak ELO 2702 was reached in July 2001, placing him at #13 worldwide. As of January 2025 his rating has slid to 2581. He has won the Byelorussian SSR CC, the first league of the USSR CC (twice), and is a three-time Israeli CC.
He plays regularly on chess.com as @Tapuah
Étienne Bacrot, born 22 January 1983, is a French GM and the first French player to enter the world’s top ten, reaching #9 in January 2005 and maintaining that spot the entire year. A prodigy, he held the record for nine months as the youngest ever to earn the GM title at age 14 years and two months, until being displaced by Ponomariov. An eight-time French CC, including five in a row starting in 1999, Étienne won an individual bronze at the 2006 Olympiad. He was, no surprise given his early maturation as a very strong player, the World Youth (U10) and (U12) CC.
From 1996 – 2002 and again in 2004 he held individual matches in his hometown against well-known players such as Smyslov, Korchnoi, Robert Hübner, Beliavsky, Short, Sutovsky, Gelfand, and Sokolov (listed here in calendar order by year). With a peak rating of 2749 in November 2013, he reached #9 globally in January 2005. His 2640 rating in January 2025 leaves him at #93 in the world.
Bacrot plays quite regularly on chess.com as @baki83.
Ortvin Sarapu (born Ortvin Sarapuu; 22 January 1924 – 13 April 1999), was an Estonian-born New Zealand IM, and 20-time New Zealand CC. ChessMetrics lists his peak rating at 2577 in September 1950 and placed him at #55 globally in December 1949 and January 1950.
He immigrated to New Zealand on the advice of IM Robert Wade and proceeded to tear the place up! So much so that he became known as Mister Chess. In 1980 he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to chess.
Henrique Costa Mecking (aka, "Mequinho") (born 23 January 1952) is a Brazilian GM. Per FIDE his peak ELO was 2635 in January 1977, and a full twelve months later his ranking peaked at #3, behind Karpov and Korchnoi. ChessMetrics rates Mecking at 2740 in July 1976, placing him #4 in the world. His best individual performance generated a 2768 rating in the 1973 Petropolis Interzonal where he scored 71% in seventeen games against 2644-rated opposition. Considered a World CC contender, his career was derailed by myasthenia gravis. Effectively retired through the 1980s he returned to competition in the early 1990s. He was still a member of the 2600 club until December 2017 and his current classical rating stands at 2555, with ratings approaching 2590 in blitz and rapid chess.
In his heyday, Meqhino was so popular in Brazil that he was mentioned in the same breath as Pelé (I'll assume everyone knows who that is) and Emerson Fittipaldi of Formula 1 racing fame. A three-time Brazilian CC, his name was lyricized in song, and he appeared on numerous magazine covers.
Meqhino can be found on chess.com as @Jpsmo but I found no games after March 2021.
Theodor Ghițescu (24 January 1934 - 22 November 2008) was a Romanian IM and honorary GM. The Romanian CC in 1963, and four-time second place finisher, he represented his nation in twelve Olympiads. FIDE depicts his peak ELO at 2460 in 1971 but ChessMetrics offers a better estimate of his strength, listing his rating at 2505 in October 1962 (pre-ELO) when he would have been #49 in the world.
Ghitescu has the unfortunate dishonor of one of the most abysmal blunders by an IM in Olympiad history, as seen in this short video narrated by Ben Finegold.
Igor Miladinovic (25 January 1974) is a Serbian GM and won the 1993 World Junior CC, a result that clearly contributed to his being named Athlete of the Year in FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). In 1994 he earned a bronze on fourth board in the Olympiad for FR Yugoslavia and then switched federations to Greece, playing for that nation in four Olympiads. He later returned to Serbia. His peak ELO of 2630 in July 2004 saw him at #65 in the world. He is rated 2501 as of January 2025.
He plays intermittently on chess.com as @DuleMudule. As I am jotting these notes he has played several blitz games on 13 Jan 2025, winning twice against a 2839-rated FM. I quite like his pfp on chess.com, shown above.
At one point, Miladinovic was married to WGM Anna-Maria Botsari.
Benjamin Bok (25 January 1995) is a Dutch GM. A finance student at St Louis University in Missouri, USA, he obviously played on their highly ranked intercollegiate chess team. His peak rating was 2645 in July 2019, and he climbed as high as #50 in the world in November 2022. He lost 10 rating points in December 2024 and his rating is currently established at 2583 in January 2025.
Benjamin produces some short, interesting chess.com opening videos as seen here Accelerated Dragon | Grandmaster Chess Openings. He is also a popular streamer.
Bok plays regularly on chess.com as @GMBenjaminBok and is a member of 44 clubs, the most interesting being his membership in Witty_Aliens.
Alexey Vasilyevich Sarana (Russian: Алексей Васильевич Сарана, Serbian Cyrillic: Алексеј Васиљевич Сарана; born 26 January 2000) is a Russian-born GM currently representing the Serbian Federation. That transfer was completed in April 2023 and Sarana issued statements reviling the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With a peak rating of 2717 in July 2024, he reached #24 worldwide in August 2024. October 2024 was a bad month for Alexey as he shed 38 rating points to fall out of the 2700+ super-GM category to 2679. He enters January 2025 at 2677 ELO.
Sarana plays regularly, particularly on Titled Tuesdays, as @mishanick.
Friðrik Ólafsson, 26 January 1035, is an Icelandic GM, six-time Icelandic CC, two-time Nordic CC, and served five years as FIDE President beginning in 1978. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2692 in October 1958 and his top world ranking as #13 from October to December that year.
As Black he usually played the Sicilian against 1.e4 and either the KID or the Nimzo against 1.d4. As White he primarily championed 1.c4 but also played 1.e4, 1.d4, and 1.Nf3 enough to make it difficult for his opponents to prepare for him.
The Soviets were enraged when Ólafsson delayed the start of the 1981 Karpov – Korchnoi World CC Match in an attempt to force the Soviet’s hand and release Korchnoi’s son. The following year the Soviets supported Campomanes for the presidency of FIDE and Ólafsson was deposed.
Anders Gideon Tom Ståhlberg (26 January 1908 – 26 May 1967) was a Swedish GM and one of the inaugural recipients of the GM title in 1950. Winner of the Swedish CC in 1927, he won and held the Nordic CC title from 1929 – 1939. Perhaps he would have retained his title after that, but he moved to Argentina following the 1939 Olympiad in Buenos Aires. His results in a number of matches cemented his reputation, with victories over Spielman in 1933 and Nimzowitsch in 1934, followed by a draw against Keres in 1938. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2762 in March 1948 and ranks him as #3 globally for three different months that year. Ståhlberg umpired all five World CC matches between 1957 and 1963.
A prolific author he published over ten chess books, some in Spanish.
Anastasia Sorokina, (Belarusian: Анастасія Сарокіна; born 26 January 1980 in Minsk, Soviet Union) is an Australian (ex-Belarusian) WIM, International Arbiter, FIDE Trainer, and International Organiser. She played in three Olympiads, including one for Australia in 2004. Her peak rating was 2230 in April 2005, but she slipped to 2194 in October 2007, and I found no FIDE-rated games after then.
The FIDE VP from 2018 – 2022 she has been Chair of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess since then.
Once again showing that chess family bloodlines seem to matter, her uncle is Belarusian GM Viktor Kupreichik.
Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was an American master and college chess instructor. He is a member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame based on his writings in the field. That said, according to ChessMetrics, he was the #64 player in the world in March and April 1943, with a highest rating of 2532 using the calculations of that same organization. Furthermore, the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) listed him as #6 in the country in 1950 (the USCF was ahead of FIDE regarding ratings) with a rating of 2593.
Nevertheless, Reinfeld is best remembered for his authorship. He wrote 126 books on chess, 42 books on other topics, and was a charter writer for Chess Review in 1933 and a senior editor by 1947. Reinfeld’s books covered the chess spectrum including openings, the middlegame, game collections, ad biographies of world-class players. Most of his books were geared towards beginners and novices.
I still remember the disparaging comments of many of my teenage peers with reference to Fred’s manuscripts. Mind you, these peers all went on to become NMs in their own right but with maturity I recognized that Reinfeld was focused on a much larger audience than the gifted. Some of Reinfeld’s chess books included 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations and Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead. Outside of the realm of chess he wrote books about checkers, numismatics, philately, geology, history, medicine, physics, political science, and jurisprudence.
Hans Jack Berliner (January 27, 1929 – January 13, 2017) was an American ICCF GM who was the Fifth World Correspondence CC for a tournament with the first games beginning in 1965 and the championship finally closing in 1968. As an over-the-board master, he was strong enough to play for the 1952 Olympiad team, drawing the sole game he played. ChessMetrics estimates his highest rating at 2536 in January 1961 which would have placed him #113 worldwide.
Outside of chess he earned a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, leading to the creation of HiTech, one of the early chess computing programs. HiTech was the first computer to achieve a 2400 US Chess Federation rating.
Jeroen Piket (27 Jan 1969) is a Dutch GM. This four-time Dutch CC also won the World Correspondence CC in 2005, four years after retiring from over-the-board play. While still an active player he drew a 1999 match against Karpov with eight draws in eight games. Amusingly, the following year Piket bested Kasparov in the final to win an online tournament organized by ksaparovchess.com. With a peak rating of 2670 in January 1995, he also reached #11 globally.
Though he formally retired in 2001, he played some rated games until 2003, finishing with a final rating of 2623.
Avetik Nikolayi Grigoryan (Armenian: Ավետիք Նիկոլայի Գրիգորյան, born January 27, 1989) is an Armenian GM and the founder and CEO of ChessMood, which he mentions frequently as a Top Blogger on chess.com. With a peak ELO of 2622 in November 2011, he still clocks in at a 2561 rating since October 2019. He won the Armenian CC in 2010 and was a three-time winner of the Armenian Youth CC.
Avetik also coached the Thailand National Chess Team for two years.
Grigoryan is a streamer who plays relatively regularly as @Avetik_ChessMood.
January 28
The video above is a chess.com product with IM David Pruess moderating that I found amusing, if a bit slow-moving until the games started. I quite liked the wagering features and the "Hall of Fame/Who has the highest score?" aspects were reminiscent of any video game I've ever played. It starts off v-e-r-y slowly but starts to get fun once the rules were explained and the games began. This concept was new to me, so I thought I'd drop this in here. I suspect it's too long to watch for most folks.
Vladimirovich Smirnov (28 January 2001) is an Australian GM. The Australian Junior CC in 2014, his next major victory was the Australian Grand Prix in 2015. He has played on the national team in the 2014 and 2016 Olympiads on boards five and four respectively, scoring 13W-6D-0L over those two events. In 2018 he played board one at the Olympiad for Australia. Smirnov’s peak rating was 2604 in January 2020. Five years later his rating is still 2586.
He plays blitz regularly on chess.com as @AntonSmirnov and sported a blitz rating of 3124 as of 15 January 2025.
Raymond Dennis Keene, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, (29 January 1948) is an English GM, FIDE IA, chess organizer, journalist and author. Keene is also a great source of controversy in the writer’s world. But we’ll get to that. He took the silver medal in the 1967 World Junior CC and won the British CC in 1971, placing second three other times. His peak ELO was 2510 in January 1977 with a peak world rank of #66 five years later. Using ChessMetrics measurements does little to change that, placing him at 2613 and #56 in the world in December 1970, shortly before he turned 23. Keene represented England in eight Olympiads and would have earned two bronze medals, but no medals were awarded in 1976.
Keene retired from competition in 1986 to focus on writing and organizing events. As an organizer, some of his activities included three World CCs and three Mind Sports Olympiads.
His most enduring contribution was probably in the field of writing, but his efforts were mired in controversy. He was the chess correspondent for The Times (why does that pontificating title remind me of “The” Ohio State University) for 34 years and published over two hundred books on chess and mind games. The Russians thought so well of his Aron Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal that they had the book updated and translate into Russian.
All that aside, Keene has been accused on multiple occasions of plagiarism, including work from Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors. That includes some of his books and some of his columns and there is even a website detailing his list of writing crimes at The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog: Ray Keene plagiarism index. Additionally, his book on the 1978 World CC match reportedly violated a contract he had signed as Korchnoi’s second. He had agreed in writing “not to write, compile or help to write or compile any book during the course of the match.” Instead. Batsford published a book under Keene’s name three days after the match ended. AI can type that fast but not a human, let alone any other source in that decade.
Keene does have a chess.com profile @Keene but he has not been online since 11 August 2009.
Irving Chernev (January 29, 1900 – September 29, 1981), a member of the World Chess Hall of Fame, was a Ukrainian-born American NM and prolific author. Interestingly, he is not an entry in ChessMetrics. I am unsure what criteria he failed to meet for inclusion.
He wrote twenty chess books, among them: The Fireside Book of Chess (with Fred Reinfeld); Practical Chess Endings; and Capablanca's Best Chess Endings which was the most highly regarded of his efforts by Edward Winter. Finally, his book An Invitation to Chess, published in 1945 with Ken Harkness as a co-author, was one of the most successful books written in terms of sales, selling over 100K copies. Even more popular was his book Logical Chess: Move by Move.
Maxim Alexandrovich Dlugy (born January 29, 1966) is an American GM who won the World Junior CC in 1985 and was formerly ranked #3 in the world by the World Blitz Chess Association. His peak ELO was 2570 in January 1989, though ChessMetrics places him at 2639 in April 1990 and had him ranked as high as #81 in the world in August 1988. FIDE lists his current ELO as 2514, little changed since September 2015 with few rated games in the interim.
A former president of the U.S. Chess Federation, Dlugy was the first GM hired by IBM to work on Deep Blue. He also operates a chess school with locations in NYC and Connecticut.
Dlugy has been involved in a number of cheating allegations, both as an investigator and a culprit. He investigated then-FM Borislav Ivanov, leading to the latter’s banning by the Bulgarian Chess Federation. Then, in 2017 and 2020, Dlugy was suspected of and later admitted to cheating during Titled Tuesday events, eventually leading to his banishment from all events with cash prizes…it’s unclear to me if he was allowed to play in other events since that’s not the norm.
In 2022 Dlugy became an ancillary character in the Carlsen – Niemann hubbub and issued a lengthy statement denying that Dlugy had ever cheated and denying any involvement in Niemann’s play. “Curiouser and curiouser” to quote Alice in Wonderland.
He is still listed on chess.com as @Dlugy but I found no games after 30 April 2017, and he was apparently last online on May 20, 2017.
Artur (aka Arthur) Kogan (29 January 1974) is a Ukrainian–born Israeli GM with a peak rating of 2592 in January 2005. His rating has gradually subsided to 2462 as of August 2024.
As White he favors 1.e4. As Black he primarily relies on the Sicilian but has offered up the Scandinavian Defense on a significant number of occasions.
His primary focus is now on coaching at olalachess.com but he maintains a playing presence on chess.com as of 14 January 2025 under @arthurkogan. That day saw him scoring two wins and two losses against Rafael Leitao, one of the regular Game of the Day producers on the site.
16: Boris Spassky | Chess.com Hall of Fame
Boris Vasilievich Spassky (Russian: Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, romanized: Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy) is a Soviet-Russian GM born in January 30, 1937. Twice the Soviet CC he also was relegated to second in two playoffs. The World Junior CC in 1955, Spassky became the tenth World CC after defeating Petrosian in 1969, the man who defeated him in their 1966 title match. Then Boris lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972, a scenario repeated in an unofficial match in 1992. Spassky won the Soviet CC twice and also lost two playoffs that could have seen him as a four-time Soviet CC. His peak rating was 2690 in January 1971, placing him at #2 worldwide and retired from active play with a rating of 2548.
He supposedly learned chess while on a train of evacuees from Leningrad during the WWII siege of Leningrad. During his career Spassky played five times as a Soviet team member in Student Olympiads and seven times in the Olympiad proper. Between those twelve Olympiads he won 21 medals, but I won’t bore you with the breakdown.
Boris also played for the French team in three Olympiads. He immigrated to France in 1976 but returned to Russia 36 years later.
Samuel (Sam) Loyd (30 January 1841 - April 10, 1911) is a member of the World Chess Hall of Fame and was an American chess player whom I first became aware of because of his chess compositions but he was also a very strong player. According to chessmetrics.com he was #15 in the world for 8 different months between October 1869 and July 1889 with a peak estimated rating of 2445 in July 1870.
His most monumental work, Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, was published by his son after Loyd Senior’s death. Interestingly, something I never realized, Loyd was a bit of a huckster and frequently claimed credit for puzzles created by others. Perhaps his most successful hoax was the claim that tangram puzzles were created 4,000 years ago by a god named Tan. He presented this as a true statement in his book The Eighth Book of Tan, which included seven hundred unique Tangram designs.
Alexey Sergeyevich Dreev (Алексей Сергеевич Дреев, also transliterated as Aleksey or Alexei; born 30 January 1969) is a Russian GM who at one time was a member of the super-GM 2700 club, checking in at 2711 in July 2011. His peak world ranking was fifteen years earlier when he was found at #11 globally. He has represented Russia in five Olympiads, earning three team golds and one team silver.
Alexey is the author of multiple opening and middle game books and published a book of his hundred best games.
Dreev plays regularly in Titled Tuesday events and sports a 2866 rating after the 14 January 2026 event where he scored 6W-3L-2D. The draws were against GMs rated almost 3000 blitz and a 90-move game ended up with K+B versus K. He has won at least one Titled Tuesday, accomplished on 21 December 2021.
Ju Wenjun (Chinese: 居文君; pinyin: Jū Wénjūn; born 31 January 1991) is a Chinese GM. She is the reigning four-time Women's World CC, the reigning Women’s World Blitz CC, and a two-time Women’s World Rapid CC. She became the sixth woman to cross the 2600 ELO threshold in March 2017, reaching her peak of 2604 that month. Her ELO entering 2025 stands at 2561. She has participated on gold-medal-winning Chinese Women’s teams in the 2016 and 20a8 Olympiads, as well as the 2009- and 2011-Women’s World Team CC.
The biggest upset victory of her career to date was a defeat of the then #6 Alirez Firouzja in the 2024 Tata Steel Tournament.
Ju Wenjun plays intermittently on chess.com as @Juwen, with the most recent games played on November 19, 2024.
Sanan Sjugirov (Russian: Санан Сюгиров; born 31 January 1993) is a Russian GM representing Hungary. Two years ago, he made it to super-GM status, peaking at 2712 ELO in November 2022. Sjugirov currently maintains an elite rating of 2649, placing him #86 in the world. His peak world rank was #28 in May 2023. In 2003 Sjugirov won the World Youth U-10 CC, then replicated that finish in the U-14 division in 2007.
With a blitz rating of 3010, as of 29 November 2024, it is no surprise that he participates regularly in Titled Tuesday events as @Sanan_Sjugirov.
Let's Wrap it Up!
So, who was your favorite date? Did you share a birthday with anyone you thought was great!
I hope you enjoyed this blog. It continued to scratch my interest in historical and contemporary chess figures. To the extent time and my lack of diligence allowed, there are links to personal websites, chess.com usernames, and individual home pages. There are even references to some of their social feeds. Along this journey, I also found some interesting games and puzzles. Given all the material, I was only able to include a smattering of games, book images, and YouTube clips. I hope you find some of interest.
If there were any errors, please advise me and I'll correct those. And if there is some other information you would like included in every future chess player bio, I'll do what I can to oblige. Please note that at this point I do not intend to list up front the players who had a birthday in a given month. That would reduce the surprise factor, akin to your parents giving you a list of gifts you can expect well in advance of some special event. Plus, they could just be messing with your head. Not that I've ever done that to my kids.
If you did enjoy this post, please let me know as there is a bit of labor involved in putting this together and "me" as an audience of one would be either a testimony to rampant narcissism or perhaps to a masochistic bent. If there is no enthusiasm for this type of blog, well, I'll still publish a monthly update through September 2025 just so there is a full calendar years' worth of birthdays for people to view. The months of October - December were already posted in 2024.
February Preview: You can expect to see some chess power couples celebrating with their Valentine mate.💞
