| Ulf Andersson | |
|---|---|
 Andersson in 2008 | |
| Country | Sweden |
| Born | 27 June 1951 Västerås, Sweden |
| Title |
|
| FIDE rating | 2518 (May 2024) |
| Peak rating | 2655 (January 1997) |
| Peak ranking | No. 4 (January 1983) |
| ICCF rating | 2737 (April 2004) |
| ICCF peak rating | 2821 (July 1998) |
Ulf Andersson (born 27 June 1951) is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972. [1]
At his peak, Andersson reached number four on the FIDE rating list. Tournaments which he has won or shared first include the 1969 Swedish Chess Championship, Göteborg 1971, Dortmund 1973, Camagüez 1974, Cienfuegos 1975, Belgrade 1977, Buenos Aires 1978, Hastings 1978–79, Phillips & Drew 1980, Johannesburg 1981, Phillips & Drew 1982, Turin 1982, Wijk aan Zee 1983, Reggio Emilia 1985, Rome 1985, and Rome 1986. Andersson drew a six-game match against former world champion Mikhail Tal in 1983, and played top board in the second USSR versus The Rest of The World Match in 1984. He led the Swedish Chess Olympiad Team during the 1970s and 1980s, and reached his best personal result in the 23rd Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires 1978, where he finished in third place on first board, after Viktor Korchnoi and Orestes Rodríguez Vargas. [2] Now in his seventies, Andersson still participates in tournaments from time to time.
Andersson is a very solid positional player . He draws a high percentage of his games against fellow grandmasters ( Kaufeld & Kern 2011 :12). He is renowned as a great player of endgames, especially rook endgames, and is famous for winning seemingly "unwinnable" endgames, often in very long games ( Kaufeld & Kern 2011 :167). Jacob Aagaard wrote about Andersson in his book Excelling at Chess, stating: "He is a very prophylactic player, seeing all kinds of tactics well in advance and avoiding pitfalls with great skill." Chess writer Dennis Monokroussos once remarked of Andersson's style,
For most of us, if we're playing a peer and major exchanges occur, a quick draw is the likely result ... for Andersson ... exchanges [are] often not the prelude to a quick draw but the signal that it [is] time for his opponent to start suffering. [3]
In 1995, [4] Andersson began playing correspondence chess, this year [5] becoming a grandmaster in that form of chess as well. In 2002, he reached the top of the correspondence chess rating list ( Kaufeld & Kern 2011 :11). His correspondence games tend to be very tactical, which contrasts sharply with his style of play over the board . Very few players in history have been as successful as Andersson at both forms of chess.
In the following game, using the "hedgehog" formation he in part originated (characterized by a half-open c- file and pawns on a6, b6, d6, and e6, knights on d7 and f6, bishops on b7 and e7, a rook on c8, and kingside castling), Andersson inflicts upon Anatoly Karpov the latter's first loss as world champion:
| h | g | f | e | d | c | b | a | ||
| 1 |              | 1 | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| h | g | f | e | d | c | b | a | ||
Anderssen's Opening is a chess opening defined by the opening move:
Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in Orenburg, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S. Champion.
Nolot is a chess test suite with 11 very difficult positions from real games. They were compiled by Pierre Nolot for the French chess magazine Gambisco and posted on the rec.games.chess Usenet group in 1994. Some of these positions were particularly hard to solve for chess engines at the time.
The chess endgame of a queen versus pawn is usually an easy win for the side with the queen. However, if the pawn has advanced to its seventh rank it has possibilities of reaching a draw, and there are some drawn positions with the pawn on the sixth rank. This endgame arises most often from a race of pawns to promote.
The Balogh Defense is an unusual chess opening beginning with the moves:
The World Chess Championship 1886 was the first official World Chess Championship match contested by Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. The match took place in the United States from 11 January to 29 March, the first five games being played in New York City, the next four being played in St. Louis and the final eleven in New Orleans. The winner was the first player to achieve ten wins. Wilhelm Steinitz won the match 10–5, winning his tenth game in the twentieth game of the match. There were five draws.
The World Chess Championship 1889 was the second official World Chess Championship, and was between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. It took place in Havana, Cuba. Steinitz defended his world title, and was the first of the two players to reach 10½. He won the match 10½-6½.
The third World Chess Championship was held in New York City from 9 December 1890 to 22 January 1891. Holder Wilhelm Steinitz narrowly defeated his Hungarian challenger, Isidor Gunsberg.
A World Chess Championship was played between challenger Max Euwe and title-holder Alexander Alekhine in various cities and towns in the Netherlands from 3 October to 16 December 1935. Euwe was the winner by overcoming a three-point deficit as late as the ninth game.
The 1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines, from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won, thereby retaining the title.
The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won with six wins against two, with 10 draws. The two players had already played against each other in the World Chess Championship match 1978 in the Philippines, when Karpov also won.
The World Chess Championship 2014 was a match between the world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Viswanathan Anand, to determine the World Chess Champion. It was held from 7 to 25 November 2014, under the auspices of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in Sochi, Russia.
The 1992 Fischer–Spassky match between former world chess champions Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky was billed as a World Chess Championship, though it was an unofficial rematch of their 1972 World Championship match. Fischer won 10–5, with 15 draws.
The World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Sergey Karjakin to determine the World Chess Champion. Carlsen had been world champion since 2013, while Karjakin qualified as challenger by winning the 2016 Candidates Tournament. The best-of-12 match, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played in New York City between 10 and 30 November 2016.
The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and the challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played at The College in Holborn, London, between 9 and 28 November 2018. The games were broadcast on worldchess.com and by NRK.
The World Chess Championship 2021 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi to determine the World Chess Champion. It was held under the auspices of FIDE and played during Expo 2020 at Dubai Exhibition Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between 24 November and 12 December 2021. It was originally scheduled for the latter half of 2020 but was postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this is the first sporting event to be held at an international exposition since the 1904 Summer Olympics during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, United States.
The 14th season of the Top Chess Engine Championship took place between 17 November 2018 and 24 February 2019. Stockfish was the defending champion, having defeated Komodo in the previous season's superfinal.
The Berlin Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The 20th season of the Top Chess Engine Championship began on 1 December 2020 and ended on 1 February 2021. The defending champion was Stockfish, which defeated Leela Chess Zero in the previous season's superfinal. The season 20 superfinal was a rematch between the same two engines. Stockfish once again came out ahead, winning by 6 games.
The World Chess Championship 2023 was a chess match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren to determine the new World Chess Champion. The match took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 9 April to 30 April 2023, and was a best of 14 games, plus tiebreaks.
Bibliography
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
