# 1997 in chess

Below is a list of events in chess in 1997, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players at the start of that year.

## Top players

FIDE top 10 players by Elo rating - January 1997
* Garry Kasparov Russia 2795
* Viswanathan Anand India 2765
* Anatoly Karpov Russia 2760
* Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2740
* Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2740
* Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2725
* Gata Kamsky United States 2720
* Boris Gelfand Belarus 2700
* Alexei Shirov Spain 2690
* Nigel Short England 2690

## Chess news in brief

* Viswanathan Anand wins FIDE's new knockout-style World Chess Championship qualifier in Groningen at the end of the year. He then has just 2 days before play commences with Anatoly Karpov for the world title in Lausanne.
* Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk wins the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament in Groningen.
* Garry Kasparov loses to chess supercomputer Deeper Blue in a controversial rematch (2½-3½). Afterwards, IBM announce that they are scrapping the machine. The contest is subsequently made the subject of the 2003 documentary film Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
* Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Peter Svidler finish in a 3-way tie at the Fontys tournament, Tilburg (all 8/11).
* Kasparov wins a double round contest at Novgorod with a 6½/10 score and sweeps to victory at the Linares chess tournament by a score of 8½/11 (from Kramnik, 7½/11).
* Kramnik is the winner at Dortmund Sparkassen with 6½/11 (from Anand, 5½/11).
* The Investbanka Tournament, Belgrade is won by Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk (both 6/9).
* Anand and Kramnik share the honours at Dos Hermanas (both 6/9).
* Veselin Topalov and Alexei Shirov share victory at Madrid with 6½/9.
* Anand wins the 30th Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland (7/10).
* Valery Salov wins the Wijk aan Zee, Corus chess tournament with 8½/13.
* The European Team Chess Championship, held in Pula, is won by England, on tie-break from Russia. England's Matthew Sadler posts an outstanding 7/9 score, which echoes his performance at last year's Chess Olympiad. The bronze medal goes to Armenia. In the Women's event, Georgia take gold, from Romania (silver) and England (bronze).
* Alexander Shabalov wins the World Open, Philadelphia, scoring 8/9.
* Michael Adams and Sadler tie in the British Chess Championship held at Hove. Harriet Hunt is the Ladies Champion.
* Joel Benjamin wins the (Interplay) U.S. Chess Championship in Arizona. Esther Epstein wins the U.S. Women's Chess Championship.
* Alex Yermolinsky wins 98th U.S. Open in Orlando, Florida. (10½/12).
* Julian Hodgson wins the Canadian Open at Winnipeg.
* Grandmasters John Nunn, Mark Hebden and Eduardas Rozentalis tie for first at the Hastings International Chess Congress.
* Tal Shaked wins the World Junior Chess Championship held at Żagań in Poland. The girls' event is won by Harriet Hunt.
* Jānis Klovāns of Latvia wins the 7th World Senior Chess Championship, Germany. The victory earns him the GM title at age 62.
* Jonathan Mestel gains his Grandmaster title in Chess problem solving and becomes the first over-the-board (OTB) GM to do so.
* Étienne Bacrot becomes the youngest Grandmaster ever at 14 years, 2 months, but later in the year loses his record to Ruslan Ponomariov, who achieves the same at 14 years, 1 month.
* Luke McShane becomes an International Master at 13 years, 2 months.
* Jennifer Shahade becomes the youngest ever female U.S. Master at 15 years, 11 months.
* GM Joël Lautier marries Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Almira Skripchenko.
* The PCA rating list is published: Kasparov - 2827; Kramnik - 2774; Anand - 2765 ...
* The British Chess Variants Society is founded.

## Births

* February 8 – Suri Vaibhav, Indian GM (2012)

## Deaths

* February 2 – Erich Eliskases, leading Argentinian (formerly Austrian/German) Master of the 1930s and 40s
* February 16 – Alvis Vītoliņš, Latvian IM and seven times winner of the national championship
* July 4 – Miguel Najdorf, leading Argentinian (formerly Polish) Master and World Championship Candidate
* July 9 – Walter Korn, former U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administrator and renowned chess writer