Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns.
François-André Danican Philidor, often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique. He is widely regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book Analyse du jeu des Échecs was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century. A well-known chess opening, an endgame position, and a checkmate method are all named after him.
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007. He has won three team gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads.
International draughts is a strategy board game for two players, one of the variants of draughts. The gameboard comprises 10×10 squares in alternating dark and light colours, of which only the 50 dark squares are used. Each player has 20 pieces, light for one player and dark for the other, at opposite sides of the board. In conventional diagrams, the board is displayed with the light pieces at the bottom; in this orientation, the lower-left corner square must be dark.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion, four-time World Rapid Chess Champion, and six-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at the elite level in classical chess.
Harry Nelson Pillsbury was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.
Joseph Henry Blackburne was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late age of 17 or 18, but he quickly became a strong player and went on to develop a professional chess career that spanned over 50 years. At one point he was one of the world's leading players, with a string of tournament victories behind him, and popularised chess by giving simultaneous and blindfold displays around the country. Blackburne also published a collection of his own games.
This is a timeline of chess.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, Twitch streamer, YouTube content creator, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest rated player in history. He has represented the United States at five Chess Olympiads, securing a team gold medal and two team bronze medals. In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Nakamura ranked No. 1 in the world on both lists; he has consistently remained at or near the No. 1 rank ever since. As of December 2022, he has won all of the last five Chess.com Speed Chess Championships.
Ronald Koeman is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Netherlands national team. Koeman was capable of playing both as a defender and as a midfielder; he frequently played as a sweeper, although he was equally known for his goalscoring, long-range shooting, and accuracy from free kicks and penalties.
Dirk Kuijt is a Dutch former professional footballer and was the head coach of Eerste Divisie side ADO Den Haag. Originally starting out as a striker, he played much of his career as a winger.
Blindfold chess, also known as sans voir, is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation.
Baba Sy was an African international draughts player and the first world champion from Africa.
The Netherlands national football team has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the governing body for football in the Netherlands, which is a part of UEFA, under the jurisdiction of FIFA. They were sometimes regarded as the greatest national team of the respective generations. Most of the Netherlands home matches are played at the Johan Cruyff Arena, De Kuip, Philips Stadion and De Grolsch Veste.
Guntis Valneris is a Latvian draughts player. He was the 1994 World champion in international draughts, a two-time European champion, two-time World champion in fast draughts, three-time Junior World champion (1984–1986), and multiple-time Latvian national champion.
The 2018 World Draughts Championship match in international draughts was held from December 28, 2018, to January 13, 2019, in the Netherlands. It was held under the auspices of the International Draughts Federation (FMJD) and played between the current 2017 world champion Alexander Schwartzman and 2016 world champion Roel Boomstra. Roel Boomstra won this match and became World Draughts Champion.
Joan Caws was a British English draughts player. Caws was a multiple-times English champion, a 1979 British champion and the first Women's World champion, having successfully defended the title in 1987 and 1989.
Frisian draughts is a variant of draughts native to Friesland in the Netherlands.The rules are similar to International draughts, but is notable for its unique feature of allowing for orthogonal captures in addition to the familiar diagonal capture of most draughts variants.
