2006 in chess

Events in chess in 2006:

Events

May

• May 5 – The world's oldest living Grandmaster, Andor Lilienthal, celebrates his 95th birthday. In his career Lilienthal played World Champions Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and Mikhail Botvinnik.^[1]

October

• Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) defeats Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) in the 2006 World Championship title unification match to become undisputed world champion.

December

• December 26 – The All India Chess Federation imposes a ten-year ban on Umakant Sharma for using a Bluetooth device sewn into his cap to gain assistance from a chess computer during a FIDE rated tournament in Delhi.^[2][3]
• December 29 – 44th Indian Chess Championship (National "A" Championship) in Atul won by GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly for the fourth consecutive year with the score 9/13. The tournament format was changed to a 13-round Swiss instead of the 22 player round-robin used previously.^[4]
• December 30 – Iranian Chess Championship in Tehran won by GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami at 8.5/11. The women's champion is WGM Shadi Paridar scoring 9.5/11.^[5]

Titles awarded

Grandmasters

In 2006 FIDE awarded the title of Grandmaster to the following players:^[6][7][8]

Bassem Amin (b. 1988)  Egypt Levan Aroshidze (b. 1985)  Georgia David Arutinian (b. 1984)  Georgia Valeriy Aveskulov (b. 1986)  Ukraine Pascal Charbonneau (b. 1983)  Canada Paweł Czarnota (b. 1988)  Poland Chakkravarthy Deepan (b. 1987)  India Dzhakay Dzhakaev (b. 1980)  Russia Grzegorz Gajewski (b. 1985)  Poland José González García (b. 1973)  Mexico Andrey Gutov (b. 1978)  Russia Gennadij Ginsburg (b. 1971)  Germany Bartłomiej Heberla (b. 1985)  Poland Peter Horvath (b. 1972)  Hungary Alojzije Janković (b. 1983)  Croatia Radosław Jedynak (b. 1982)  Poland Zoran Jovanović (b. 1979)  Croatia

Meelis Kanep (b. 1983)  Estonia Melikset Khachiyan (b. 1970)  United States Ibragim Khamrakulov (b. 1982)  Spain Aleksandr Kharitonov (b. 1986)  Russia Petr Kostenko (b. 1976)  Kazakhstan Tigran Kotanjian (b. 1981)  Armenia Sergei Krivoshey (b. 1971)  Ukraine Yuriy Kryvoruchko (b. 1986)  Ukraine Vitaly Kunin (b. 1983)  Germany Viktor Láznička (b. 1988)  Czechoslovakia Quang Liem Le (b. 1991)  Vietnam Constantin Lupulescu (b. 1984)  Romania Nidjat Mamedov (b. 1985)  Azerbaijan Mikulas Manik (b. 1975)  Slovenia Andrei Murariu (b. 1986)  Romania Das Neelotpal (b. 1982)  India Magesh Panchanathan (b. 1983)  India

Eugene Perelshteyn (b. 1980)  United States Reefat Bin-Sattar (b. 1974)  Bangladesh Davor Rogic (b. 1971)  Croatia Andrey Rychagov (b. 1979)  Russia Bator Sambuev (b. 1980)  Russia Vasile Sanduleac (b. 1971)  Moldova Konstantine Shanava (b. 1985)  Georgia John Shaw (b. 1968)  Scotland Andrey Sumets (b. 1980)  Ukraine Jurij Tihonov (b. 1978)  Belarus Todor Todorov (b. 1974)  Bulgaria Marko Tratar (b. 1974)  Slovenia Yge Visser (b. 1963)  Netherlands Jan Werle (b. 1984)  Netherlands Andrey Zhigalko (b. 1985)  Belarus Zhou Jianchao (b. 1988)  China Yaroslav Zinchenko (b. 1987)  Ukraine

Woman Grandmaster

In 2006 FIDE awarded the title Woman Grandmaster to the following players:^[6][7][8]

Evgeniya Doluhanova (b. 1984)  Ukraine Marina Guseva (b. 1986)  Russia Anastasia Gutsko (b. 1985)  Ukraine Sopio Gvetadze (b. 1983)  Georgia Thi Bao Tram Hoang (b. 1987)  Vietnam Beata Kądziołka (b. 1986)  Poland

Julia Kochetkova (b. 1981)  Russia Tatiana Kostiuk (b. 1982)  Ukraine Liubov Kostiukova (b. 1983)  Ukraine Lija Kucherova (b. 1986)  Russia Naira Movsisian (b. 1977)  Armenia Jessica Nill (b. 1979)  Germany

Niina Sammalvuo (b. 1971)  Finland Anna Sharevich (b. 1985)  Belarus Shen Yang (b. 1989)  China Elena Tairova (1991–2010)  Russia Carmen Voicu (b. 1981)  Romania

Births

• March 13 – Leon Luke Mendonca^[9]
• May 29 – Gukesh D

Deaths

• January 15 – Herbert Avram (1913–2006), 92, United States.
• May 13 – Ratmir Kholmov (1925–2006), 80, Soviet/Russian Grandmaster.
• May 13 – Burt Hochberg (1933–2006), 73, chess writer and editor, editor of Chess Life.
• May 20 – Wolfgang Unzicker (1925–2006), 80, German Grandmaster, "world champion of amateurs".
• July 2 – René Letelier (1915–2006), 91, Chilean International Master.
• July 14 – Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (1963–2006), 43, Polish Grandmaster.
• July 23 – Rudolf Teschner (1922–2006), 84, German Grandmaster and chess writer.
• July 26 – Jessie Gilbert (1987–2006), 19, English Woman FIDE Master.
• August 14 – Adriaan de Groot (1914–2006), 92, Dutch chess master and psychologist.
• November 29 – Krystyna Hołuj-Radzikowska (1931–2006), 75, Polish Woman Grandmaster.
• December 5 – David Bronstein (1924–2006), 82, Soviet/Ukrainian Grandmaster and renowned chess writer, challenger in the 1951 World Championship match.