4 Historic Chess Events

Chess, a game that has captivated minds and inspired strategists for centuries, boasts a remarkable history filled with noteworthy events. From ancient origins to modern-day grandmaster clashes, the annals of chess are replete with enthralling tales of triumph, innovation, evolution and malpractice.

Let's delve into some of the most significant historical events in chess...

The 1ˢᵗ Chess Tournament

Our first historic chess event takes us back to 1851, during the London International Chess Tournament.

• Held at: London
• Main organizer: Howard Staunton
• Prize Money: £500 back then, but equal to around £359,000 in today's money. (fund)
• Starting Date: 26th of May, 1851.
• Winner: Adolf Anderssen

The tournament was planned as a knock-out contest involving sixteen of Europe's best chess players.

Original Player List:

• Vincent Grimm (wiki)
• József Szén (wiki)
• Johann Löwenthal (wiki)
• Adolf Anderssen (wiki)
• Bernhard Horwitz (wiki)
• Carl Mayet (wiki)
• von der Lasa (wiki)
• Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (wiki)
• Lionel Kieseritzky (wiki)
• Carl Jaenisch (wiki)
• Alexander Petrov (wiki)
• Ilya Shumov (wiki)
• Howard Staunton (wiki)
• Henry Thomas Buckle (wiki)
• Marmaduke Wyvill (wiki)
• Elijah Williams (wiki)
• Captain Hugh Alexander Kennedy (wiki)
• Samuel Newham (chessgames)
• Henry Bird (wiki)

But things went south immediately...

Vincent Grimm, a Hungarian chess master, was exiled in Aleppo after his participation in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant was unavailable as the French government had sent him to California as a diplomat following its independence from Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Alexander Petrov, Buckle, Von der Lasa, Jaenisch and Shumov were also not able to play. Even Adolf Anderssen was reluctant to accept the invite to play in the tournament due to the travel costs, but Howard Staunton offered to pay all costs for him if he just played.

In the end, Adolf Anderssen won the tournament and earned the status of "best chess player in the world". Marmaduke Wyvill won second place and Elijah Williams won third.

The Biggest Chess Cheating Scandal

You probably know about this one...

THE SINQUEFIELD CUP

• Held at: Missouri, USA
• Main organizer: Saint Louis Chess Club
• Prize money: $87,500 to the winner
• Start Date: September 1st, 2022
• Winner: Alireza Firouzja

During the Sinquefield Cup, a controversy arose involving chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann.

Carlsen, after surprisingly losing in their third-round matchup, dropped out of the tournament. In their next tournament (online) meetup, Carlsen abruptly resigned after one move, confusing the viewers and commentators again. It became the most serious scandal about cheating allegations in chess in years and garnered significant attention in the news media worldwide. 

Many interpreted these events as Carlsen indirectly accusing Niemann of having cheated in the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen even changed his Twitter (X) account's bio to "beating someone isn't revenge" and said that if he were to express his honest thoughts, he would be in big trouble.

In some interviews, Niemann admitted to cheating many times in online chess but said that he had never cheated OTB. Chess.com made a huge document claiming that Hans Niemann had cheated in many prize-money-involved online games, and his current OTB play was also suspicious.

Here is what a former World Champion, Vishy Anand had to say about this:

On October 20, 2022, Niemann filed a federal lawsuit in Missouri against Carlsen, his company Play Magnus Group, Chess.com, Danny Rensch, and Hikaru Nakamura. In his suit, Niemann's lawyers claimed he had been subject to defamation and unlawful collusion, and requested at least $100 million in damages. Luckily, the case was dismissed in June of 2023.

Magnus Carlsen on the left and Hans Niemann on the right

This cheating scandal made many people to join the game of chess, and was one of the causes for the "Chess Boom" of early 2023

Chess speaks for itself

- Hans Niemann after defeating Carlsen

The ToiletGate - 2006 WCC

This was another heavy cheating controversy in chess. Even though I could've chose some other historic chess event, I chose this because I personally think that it's very interesting.

The World Chess Championship 2006 was a match between Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov. The title of World Chess Champion had been split for 13 years. This match was to reunite the two World Chess Champion titles and produce an undisputed World Champion.

• Held at: Elista, Russia
• Organizer: FIDE
• Prize Money: $1,000,000 (fund)
• Start Date: September 23, 2006
• Winner: Vladimir Kramnik

Kramnik on the left and Topalov on the right

After the first two games of the championship, Veselin Topalov accused Vladimir Kramnik of cheating using a computer. This was due to Vladimir Kramnik's frequent visits to the bathroom. This resulted in the players not being allowed to go to their private bathrooms. As Kramnik's camp wasn't okay with this, Kramnik didn't show up for the fifth match and lost it by forfeit.

Game 2 of the 2006 WCC

Many people famous in the chess world including Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi supported Kramnik. Kramnik was not happy with the result of the fifth match and his team insisted that the result of that game should not be taken into account. They (Kramnik and his camp) threatened to take legal action if Topalov won the World Championship because of that game. Because of all the drama, the president of FIDE at the time flew out to Elista, Russia to negotiate with Kramnik and Topalov.

During this, a security agency came and started checking the bathrooms for hidden cables, computers, or anything of that sort. They found a hidden cable in the ceiling of one of the bathrooms and said that Kramnik might have used that to cheat. Kramnik responded to that by saying that the "suspicious" wire would be useless unless he drilled a hole in the ceiling and carried a computer with him at all times. The security agency took many tests on the two players, and Kramnik described it as being "worse than going to the Airport".

At the press conference during the match, Kramnik commented on the second game where the Fritz analysis had shown a match with 87% of Kramnik's moves (implying that he might have used the computer's help). Kramnik responded by saying that the "87%" stuff is all nonsense and that Topalov's percentages at San Luis (the previous world championship) were higher! (Which caused another controversy).

Kramnik won the championship in a tiebreaker match.

Man vs Machine

Advancements in technology have undeniably shaped the world we live in, and chess is no exception. In 1996 and 1997, the world witnessed an unprecedented match between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Garry Kasparov, one of the greatest chess players of all time, played against IBM's supercomputer, Deep Blue. This historic match held immense significance, showcasing the capabilities of AI technologies in the realm of strategic decision-making.

In the first match, held in 1996, Garry Kasparov won 4 - 2.

The team at IBM, in 1997, offered a rematch, and Kasparov accepted. Kasparov won the first game and lost the second and proceeded to draw the next three games. It came down to the last game. Kasparov ended up losing the match, 3.5 - 2.5. 

Kasparov believed that the IBM team was cheating and claimed that they hired a grandmaster to help them. However, after additional research and in-depth analysis of the games, he concluded that they were not cheating. 

After Deep Blue, more companies and programmers made many chess computers.

Today, chess computers have become so strong that it is impossible to beat them fairly.

Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov - 1996

• Held at: Pennsylvania, USA
• Organizer: IBM
• Prize Money: $500,000 (prize fund)
• Start Date: February 10th, 1996
• Winner: Garry Kasparov

Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov - 1997 (The Rematch)

• Held at: New York City, USA
• Organizer: IBM
• Prize Money: $700,000 to the winner
• Start Date: February 10th, 1996
• Winner: Deep Blue

How did you get here??!

This blog is coming to a close. From the astonishing tournament in 1851 to the clash between human intellect and artificial intelligence in Kasparov's match against Deep Blue, these events have forever left their mark on the world of chess.

This blog has only covered a few events out of the many that the chess world has to offer. I might return to make a second part of this blog.

Thank you for reading.