Lembit Oll (23 April 1966 – Tallinn, 17 May 1999) was an Estonian chess grandmaster. He was already successful as a junior, becoming champion of Estonia in 1982 and junior champion of the Soviet Union in 1984. He also won multiple European and World junior championships. The FIDE awarded him the IM-title in 1983 and the GM-title in 1992. From that moment, he regularly played for Estonia during Chess Olympiads and European teamchampionships. Early 1998 he reached his highest rating on the FIDE rating list: 2655.
He played his last tournament in 1999 in Nova Gorica reaching a shared 2nd position.
Oll, who was married, fell into severe depressions after he divorced. He jumped out of the window of his house on the fifth floor and did not survive. Despite his personal problems, he still held the 42nd place on the world ranking list at that time. He was buried in Tallinn. His grave is not far from that of Paul Keres, another famous chess player.
Matryoshka
Matryoshka (Russian: матрёшка) is a traditional Russian doll made of wood and painted with colorful ornaments. This doll is one of the most popular souvenirs in Russia. It is also widely distributed abroad under different names such as “Aunt Olga,” “Babushka” or “Mommy doll.” Although Matryoshka is called a doll it is actually a set of dolls of different sizes placed one in another. The reason for that lies behind the name “Matryoshka.” The name "Matryoshka" came from the traditional Russian name "Matryona". This name was associated with motherhood and fertility. The biggest doll symbolizes “mother” with her numerous “doll” family.
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic was born 22 May 1987. He is a Serbian tennis player.
Djokovic has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles: the 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Australian Open, the 2016 and 2021 French Open, the 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 Wimbledon Championships as well as the 2011, 2015, and 2018 US Open. He is the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam tournaments at the same time. He is the third player after Roy Emerson and Rod Laver to win each Grand Slam tournament at least two times.
Djokovic was ranked No. 1 in the world for the first time on 4 July 2011. His longest streak at No. 1 was 122 weeks, from July 7, 2014 until November 6, 2016. On 8 March 2021 he reached 311 total weeks at No. 1, which broke the ATP record by Roger Federer.
He won the ATP World Tour Finals in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and helped Serbia win the Davis Cup in 2010. He won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He has won a record 36 Masters 1000 series titles (breaking single season records with five titles in 2011 and six titles in 2015).
Several tennis critics and former and current players consider Djokovic to be among the greatest tennis players of all time. Djokovic was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019.
This table shows Djokovic's performance in each Grand Slam tournament in singles.
On the 6
On the 6 is the first album by Jennifer Lopez. The album's title refers to a time when Jennifer lived in the Bronx. The label released five singles to promote the album.
J.Lo
J.Lo is a second album by Jennifer Lopez. It was her best-selling album. Epic Records released 4 singles to promote the album.
The album was re-released in July 2001. It contained three bonus tracks. Due to usage of slurs such as "nigga", "bitch" and "fuck" in "I'm Real (Murder Remix)", the re-edition has been released with 'Parental Advisory' sticker. Also the album has been released without label, despite strong language and sexual content.
FIDE
FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) is the world chess organisation. All national federations are members. It decides matters like World Championships and changes in rules of the game.
FIDE was founded on 20 July 1924 in Paris, France. However, it had little influence until the end of World War II. The reigning world champion at that time, Alexander Alekhine, did not want to have anything to do with it. He regarded the world title as his personal property. This only changed when he died with the title, in 1946 (no other champion has ever died while holding the title). It was obvious that some method was needed to find a new champion. FIDE stepped in and, with Russian backing, put forward a solution. The strong Soviet Chess Federation only joined FIDE in 1946. It had a great influence, with resources and many young strong players.
In 1948 a tournament was organized to determine which of the world top players was entitled to call himself World Champion. The death of Alekhine had left a vacuum. Two previous champions, Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca had died in the late 1930s. It was clear that a new champion would come from the younger players.
The six players chosen by FIDE were:
In the end, Reuben Fine dropped out, and the other five contested the event. Mikhail Botvinnik won the tournament and became the new world champion.
In 1950 the FIDE awarded its first IM ("International Master") and GM ("International Grandmaster") titles. However it was not until 1957 that FIDE formulated clear criteria to award these titles. In 1970 a new ranking system, the Elo-rating, was introduced.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union FIDE lost a powerful partner. This resulted in a long period of trouble. In 1993 worldchampion Gary Kasparov and his challenger Nigel Short left FIDE. They founded their own organisation for professional top players, the PCA ("Professional Chess Association"). So now there were two worldchampions: one from FIDE and one from the PCA.
It was not until 2006 that the dust settled down and a re-unification match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov took place. In 1999 FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee. In 2001 FIDE played by anti-doping rules, trying to make chess for like a candidate for the Olympic Games.
Chess master titles
A Master in chess is a player who is awarded a master title by the world chess organisation FIDE, or by a national chess organisation. The term was used for a long time to describe someone who was accepted as an expert player, but it now has an official meaning.
Grandmaster is a chess title for even stronger players. The title comes from the word in Middle French: "Grand maistre". It was the title given to the head of an Order of Knights, such as the Knights Templar or the Teutonic Knights. Its first use in chess is a comment in the periodical "Bell's Life" (18 February 1838) referring to William Lewis as "our past grandmaster".
FIDE titles were first awarded in 1950.<ref name="H/W">Hooper, David and Whyld, Kenneth 1992. "The Oxford companion to chess". 2nd ed, Oxford University Press. </ref> There are four levels of mastery. There are detailed rules as to the number of games played at a given level, and the full rules are quite lengthy. Some countries go with this system entirely, but others have their own system as well.
Once awarded a title, the player keeps it for life.
In order of merit, with official abbreviations, they are:
There are also women-only titles:
It can be seen that a woman grandmaster is a lower standard than an international master. The purpose of women-only titles is to encourage female players, because there are few female players in the game.
A grandmaster is the highest title that a player can get, except becoming a world champion. It is given by the world chess organisation, FIDE.
Meeting the demands is not easy. To become a grandmaster, a player has to play at least 27 games with at least two grandmaster-results. In practice this means achieving at least three grandmaster-results or "norms". The tournament rating must be 2600 at least. Besides this, a player's own FIDE rating must be at least 2500. Men and women can earn the GM-title by meeting the demands.