1 February 2016

We Play, Therefore We Live

IM Nikolai Mishuchkov remembers World Senior Chess Championships of the past.

The 25th World Senior Championship is nearing its end in Acqui Terme, Italy. FIDE decided back in 1991 to hold world senior championships, along with those for children, young people and students, to determine the best among older generation players who have retained their love for chess and the health allowing them to wage battles on the board. Since then, senior championships have gained an important place in the FIDE calendar and are very popular among players of the older generation. Great chess players are now getting younger, and experienced players can barely rival with those who are young enough to be their children or grandchildren.

At senior tournaments, the vibes are very special. Experienced players from many different countries get together, both professionals who devoted decades of life to chess, and those who played chess as young people, then stopped as they started working on different jobs, and finally returned to their hobby after retirement. The tournaments are open for everyone. While grandmasters pursue their old ambitions fighting for the world champion's title and masters have the additional incentive of adding the prefix 'grand' to their title if they win in the tournament, most participants are just happy to meet famous chess players and even cross swords with them if the pairings allow it. 

The leadings players have long known each other and are bonded together by years of rivalry and mutual respect; others are happy to meet their old friends with whom they competed as young people. Despite the spirit of competition permeating this tournament as well as any others, the fight for the champion's title and the very modest money prizes stands out with its chivalrous dignity and friendly atmosphere. As GM Alexey Suetin wrote, "One of the most attractive things at senior championships is the agreeable, hearty atmosphere. Respectable, good-mannered people who simply radiate warmness and kindness get together. But this doesn't mean that the games are of a pacifist nature. On the contrary, they are often played with great taste and enthusiasm. Sometimes even with an athlete's fury, but a noble one." As a participant of four such events, I can fully confirm these words.

I have to say that almost all chess players travel at their own expense, and only those in the top three get prizes that make up for the participation costs. Your author couldn't afford to go to the championship, but every cloud has a silver lining: I was able to find the time to look for information on the senior world championship in the media and the Internet and share it with younger chess players. I think it would be of interest, particularly for masters and GMs over 40 who started to notice that they can no longer compete with the young and tournament prizes are beyond their reach. They start asking themselves: what should I do now? Some become coaches and pass on their experience to young players while abstaining from active performance. But some can't live without chess and fall into a depression. And I would like to tell them that soon they would be able to feel the emotions stirred up by tournament play. As a Russian song goes, "There is something good at any age." And it is good that since 2014 FIDE decided to hold senior world championships in two age groups: 65+ and 50+. This means that pre-pension age players have an extra opportunity to face opponents of their own generation at the board.

Before moving on to the tournament itself, I would like to digress a little. They say that in the German city of Münster (I never had a chance to visit it) there is a museum item ― a manuscript named "How to Prolong One's Existence in This Wicked World." The sages of the past advised to stay healthy for many years in a very nice way: "Try to make friends with chess from an early age: when you are young, chess will distract you from a thousand stupid things; when you are middle-aged, it will chase away the clouds of anxiety; and when you are old, it will make your days longer." One can fall in love with chess at any age.

 

The first World Senior Championship was held in Bad Wörishofen, Germany, in 1991, bringing together 111 participants from 23 countries. FIDE established the minimum age for seniors then: not younger than 60 years old, which remained unchanged till 2014. But by 2014 chess experienced a real boom around the world and new young talents emerged who started to overwhelm older masters. So FIDE decided to have men's and women's senior world championships in two age categories.

Only players born in 1930 or earlier could play in the first World Championship. The cohort of great players who could have played in Bad Wörishofen included, for instance, the famous Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997), Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992), Laszlo Szabo (1917-1998), Julio Bolbochan (1920-1996)... But they were already well past 70, and it was younger players born in the 1920s who joined the race: Vasily Smyslov (1921-2010), Ludek Pachman (1924-2003), Efim Geller (1925-1998), Wolfgang Unzicker (1925-2006), Alexey Suetin (1926-2001), and Nikolai Krogius (born in 1930). Four of them represented the Soviet Union, who started to fall apart by then, and two others were from other countries. Now only one of them, Nikolai Krogius, the former chief of the USSR State Sports Committee's Chess Department, still lives (he moved to the United States), while all the others are no longer with us. The first and second places were shared by Efim Geller and Vasily Smyslov, the latter becoming the first world champion among seniors by tiebreakers. The third to sixth places were shared by Nikolai Krogius, Wofgang Unzicker, Mark Usachy (1921-2010), and Andreas Duckstein, an Austrian master. Interestingly, Duckstein (born in 1927) is still in good health, and although he never played in world championships since then, he performs regularly and successfully for the Austrian team in European senior championships, which have also been held since 1999. 

 

Smyslov – Gergs
Bad Wörishofen, 1991

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Nbd7 6.b3 Bd6 7.Bb2 Qe7 8.Ne5 Ba3 9.Bxa3 Qxa3 10.Bd3 Nxe5 11.dxe5 Nd7 12.f4 f5 13.0–0 Nc5 14.Nf3 0–0 15.Nd4 Nxd3 16.Qxd3 Bd7 17.Rfd1 Rfd8 18.Qc3 Qe7 19.c5 Be8 20.b4 a6 21.a4 Rdc8 22.Rdc1 Rc7 23.h3 h5 24.Nf3 Rac8 25.Ng5 Bg6 26.Kf2 Kf8 27.Rg1 Rb8 28.Qd4 Rcc8 29.g4 Kg8

 

30.a5 Rf8 31.Ke1 Rbd8 32.Ra2 Kh8 33.Rag2 Rg8 34.Kd2 Rd7 35.Kc3 Rdd8 36.Qd1 Qe8 37.Kd4 Rd7 38.Qe1 Rc7 39.Qh4 Re7 40.Nf3 Rf8 41.gxh5 Bxh5 42.Rg6 Black resigns.

The 1992 world championship took place in Bad Wörishofen too, bringing together even more participants: 136 from 25 countries. A women's championship was also organized there for the first time. Nine grandmasters played in the men's tournament. Vasily Smyslov was absent this time, but newcomers included Pal Benko (born in 1928), Mark Taimanov (born in 1926) and the "young" seniors Anatoly Lein, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States (born in 1931), and Yugoslavia's Juraj Nikolac (born in 1932). Efim Geller took a clear first place. All the grandmasters were among the top ten, with Pachman being the only unlucky exception. Boris Arkhangelsky (1931-2010) participated in the tournament for the first time and later became one of the world senior championships' regular players (he played there 16 times with the best performance in 1997 when he finished second).


Geller ― Suetin
Bad Wörishoven, 1992

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Qc7 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Be3 d6 9.f4 Be7 10.Qe1 0–0 11.Rd1 Bd7 12.Qg3 b5 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Nxe5 15.Bf4 Bd6 16.Nb3 b4

 

17.Rxd6 Ng6 18.Rd3 Nxf4 19.Rxf4 bxc3 20.Rxf6 Qa7+ 21.Kh1 cxb2 22.Rf1 a5 23.a4 Bxa4 24.Qe5 Qb8 25.Qxb2 Bb5 26.Rg3 e5 27.c4 Bc6 28.Qa3 a4 29.Nd2 Qc7 30.Bf3 Rad8 31.Qc5 Rxd2 32.Qxc6 Qxc6 33.Bxc6 f5 34.Ra3 g6 35.Rxa4 e4 36.Ra7 Rb8 37.Bd5+ Kh8 38.h4 h5 39.Rfa1 Rbb2 40.Re7 Ra2 41.Rxa2 Rxa2 42.c5 Black resigns.

The third championship, Bad Wildbad, Germany, 1993, saw Mark Taimanov fulfill his champion ambitions, scoring 8.5 points and taking first place. He finally added the world champion's title, even if among seniors, to his other numerous titles (world champion among students, Olympic Champion, European Champion, USSR Champion). Even more participants attended the tournament ― 155 from 28 countries, including 7 grandmasters. Efim Geller was absent this time. He was replaced in the top five by the Georgian grandmaster Bukhuti Gurgenidze (1933-2008), who won the silver medal. Other top five winners included Boris Arkhangelsky, Wolfgang Unzicker and Alexey Suetin. Evgeny Vasyukov (born in 1933) joined the fray for the first time, remaining the only participant who is still competing for the world crown. He won the 1995 World Championship on his third try, and in 2015, aged 82, he played in the tournament for the 12th time. A commendable longevity!

 

Taimanov – Gurgenidze
Bad Wildbad 1993

1.Nf3 c5 2.b3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 d5 5.e3 e5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bb2 f6 8.Be2 Be6 9.0–0 Qc7 10.c4 dxc4 11.Bxc4 Bxc4 12.bxc4 Bb4 13.Qb3 Nh6 14.Ba3 Bxa3 15.Nxa3 0–0 16.Nb5 Qe7 17.c5+ Kh8 18.Nd6 Rab8 19.Rab1 e4 20.Nd2 f5 21.Qd5 Rbd8 22.N2c4 Rd7 23.h3 Nf7 24.Rfd1 Nfd8 25.a3 Qf6 26.Rd2 Re7 27.Nb5 h6 28.Rbd1 Kh7 29.Nbd6 Qg6 30.Kh1 Qf6 31.Nb5 Ne6 32.Ncd6 a6 33.Nd4 Ncxd4 34.exd4 Nf4 35.Qb3 Qg5 36.Qg3 Qxg3 37.fxg3 Nd5 38.Rb2 Rb8 39.Nxf5 Rd7 40.Re1 Kg6 41.Nh4+ Kf7 42.Rxe4 Nf6 43.Re1 Rxd4 44.Nf5 Rd5 45.Nd6+ Kf8 46.Rxb7 Rxb7 47.Nxb7 Rd3 48.a4 Rxg3 49.Re6 Rb3 50.Rb6 Rxb6 51.cxb6 Nd7 52.a5 Ke7 53.g4 Nb8 54.h4 Kd7 55.h5 Kc6 56.Nd8+ Kd7 57.Nf7 Nc6



58.Nxh6 Ke6 59.Nf5 Nxa5 60.Nxg7+ Kf7 61.Nf5 Nb7 Black resigns.

In 1994, the event moved from Germany to Biel, Switzerland. The number of participants went down sharply to 61 people. That can be explained by the fact that Germany has a highly developed seniors' movement, so when a world championship is held in that country, many seniors from German clubs take part in it, and their level of play is no match for leading players' level, to put it mildly.

I didn't find any information on the tournament in the media, but it's clear from the list of participants that half of them had an international rating. This wasn't the case at the previous championships. Grandmasters Wolfgang Unzicker and Nikolai Krogius, who had played in the previous year, were absent this time, and Mark Taimanov was able to stay ahead of the competition and repeat his success. The tournament was also remarkable because, for the first and only time, the oldest player living, IM Zhukhovitsky from Novocherkassk (born in 1916) participated in it, and played quite well scoring 7 points in 11 games. He was 78 years old, and I need to say that no one over 70 has ever been able to take the first place in Seniors' world championships. The only exception was Viktor Korchnoi in 2006 (born in 1931), but this is Korchnoi...

Taimanov – Wade
Biel 1994

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.b3 d6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Nbd2 e6 5.Bb2 Be7 6.g3 Nbd7 7.Bg2 d5 8.0–0 0–0 9.Qe1 a5 10.e4 dxe4 11.Nxe4 c6 12.c4 Bf5 13.Nfd2 a4 14.Qe3 Nxe4 15.Nxe4 Nf6 16.Nc5 axb3 17.axb3 Bxc5 18.dxc5 Qd3 19.Qxd3 Bxd3 20.Rfc1 Rfd8 21.b4 Rxa1 22.Bxa1 Ra8 23.b5 Be4 24.f3 Bd3 25.Bxf6 gxf6 26.f4 Ra4 27.bxc6 bxc6 28.Bxc6 Rxc4 29.Rxc4 Bxc4



30.Kf2 Kf8 31.Ke3 e5 32.Ke4 Bf1 33.Kf5 exf4 34.Kxf4 Ke7 35.Be4 h6 36.Bd5 Bh3 37.Bf3 Be6 38.Be4 Kd7 39.g4 Bc4 40.Kg3 Ke6 41.Kh4 Ke5 42.Bf5 Be6 43.c6 Kd6 44.Kh5 Black resigns.

The fifth World Senior Championship took place in 1995 in Bad Liebenzell, Germany. Once again, a lot of participants (168 people in the men's section) with various strength of play. "The top forty men could probably have given at least a two pawns' handicap to the last forty," said Nikolai Krogius. The seniors tested personally all the novelties in the chess regulations coming into force back then, such as shorter time controls, no adjournments, and using a progressive coefficient to distribute shared places. There were also changes in the composition, with a new wave of "young seniors" born in the 1930s stealing the leadership from the old-timers. Wolfgang Unzicker and Nikolai Krogius came back, and Milan Matulovic (1935-2013) jumped into the fray. Masters shared the pedestal with grandmasters for the first time. Evgeny Vasiykov became a world champion on his third try, showing an outstanding performance: 9 points in 11 games. The second and third places were shared by Katalymov (1932 - 2013) from Kazakhstan and the German master Baumgartner (1932 - 2006). That championship was also remarkable because its participants for the first time included the Moscow master Gruzman, who currently lives in Germany, and Davydov, a German master with a Russian last name (both born in 1934). For as long as 20 (!) years, these two "old-timers" (as Viktor Korchnoi called them) have been participating in all the championships no matter in what country they are held. Thus, we can again see them on the participants' list in Italy in 2015. And even if they fail to win again (Gruzman's best result in the world championship was the 6th place in 1996), their example still inspires. Good health to you, dear colleagues! 

 
Khasin – Vasiukov
Bad Liebenzell 1995

1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.b3 Bg7 5.Bb2 0–0 6.Nf3 d6 7.Nbd2 Nc6 8.0–0 Qe8 9.Re1 h6 10.c4 e5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.e4 f4 13.gxf4 Nh5 14.fxe5 Nf4 15.Re3 Bg4 16.Qf1

 
 
16...Rd8 17.h3 Bh5 18.Bc3 Kh7 19.b4 Nxe5 20.Nxe5 Bxe5 21.Bxe5 Qxe5 22.Nf3 Nxh3+ 23.Bxh3 Bxf3 24.Bg2 Bg4 25.Qe1 h5 26.Qc3 Qf4 27.Rf1 Rd1 28.Rxd1 Qxf2+ 29.Kh1 Bxd1 30.Qe1 Qxe1+ 31.Rxe1 Bg4 32.e5 Bc8 33.b5 Kg7 34.Re3 Re8 35.Bd5 a6 36.a4 a5 37.Kg2 g5 38.c5 Rd8 39.Bb3 c6 40.bxc6 bxc6 41.e6 Re8 42.e7 h4 43.Kf2 Kf6 44.Rf3+ Kxe7 45.Rf7+ Kd8 46.Rh7 Bd7 47.Bd1 Rf8+ 48.Ke3 h3 49.Bf3 g4 50.Rxd7+ Kxd7 51.Bxg4+ Kc7 52.Bxh3 Rb8 White resigns.

World senior championships gradually became very popular among players of the older generation and are currently held annually. The 6th championship (1996) was again held in Germany, and again in the quiet town of Bad Liebenzell, but the geography of both the venues and the participants' composition expanded over time. This seemed to be the first time when all the continents except from Africa were represented, with 185 participants and 8 grandmasters playing. The "newbies" included Hungary's Forintosh (born in 1935), Israel's Kraidman (born in 1932), and Germany's Uhlmann (born in 1935). The tournament results showed that the cohort of players born in the 1920s was replaced by the new generation born in the 1930s.
 
The first to third places were shared by Lein, Klovans (1935-2010), and the tireless Suetin, who received the gold medal. This was the last success of players of the 1920s generation, and Suetin repeated the achievement of Vasily Smyslov, who had won a world championship at a considerable age as well: he turned 70 right during the championship. The champion made a number of precious comments regarding the tournament system, which is still relevant today. He wrote: "The number 180 impresses, of course. But there are much fewer real candidates, 25 or 30 people at the most. And the question keeps popping up why Smyslov, Larsen, the three Yugoslav musketeers (Gligoric, Ivkov and Matanovic), and Bronstein aren't playing. Given that grandmasters pay their considerable roundtrip travel expenses as well as the participation payments by themselves and, of course, don't get any fees, you can't bring together all the big shots... The championships are mostly funded with amateur fees. And for amateurs, playing against a grandmaster face-to-face, if only once or twice, and enjoying the nice atmosphere are among the most important incentives. The number of prizes and their modest size are obviously at odds with the number of participants. Say, only those in the top three were barely able to make up for their costs. If the situation doesn't change, the championship's prestige will decline. Some other grandmasters could follow the example of W. Unzicker, who refused to participate this time. 

Everything Suetin wrote about remains just as relevant 20 years later, with respect to both the enormous number of participants with vastly different chess levels and the small prizes that are becoming fewer in number every year. Maybe this is because nowadays, too, many grandmasters do not take part in senior championships. For example, why don't Alburt, Smejkal, Kuzmin, Gulko, Braun, Espig, Adorjan, Palatnik, Bellon, Ljubojevic, Andersson and Vaganian play there?

 

Suetin – Mayers
Bad Liebenzell 1996

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 c5 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.a3 Nc6 6.b4 cxb4 7.axb4 Nxb4 8.Ba3 Bf8 9.Nf3 Nc6 10.Bxf8 Kxf8 11.0–0 Nf6 12.d4 e4 13.Ng5 d5 14.cxd5 Nxd5 15.Nxd5 Qxd5 16.Nxe4 Qxd4 17.Qc1 Kg7 18.Rd1 Qe5 19.f4 Qe7 20.Qc3+ f6 21.Rd6 Be6

 
 
22.g4 Bxg4 23.Nxf6 Kf7 24.Bd5+ Kf8 25.Nd7+ Bxd7 26.Rxd7 Black resigns.

The 7th world championship was once again held in the small resort town of Bad Wildbad, Germany. Chess activist Reinhold Hoffmann played an important role in organizing senior championships in this country. The 2007 championship, too, was held under the patronage of Chess Org led by Hoffman. And again, there was a large number of participants ― 236, including 9 grandmasters. The senior champion's crown was for the first time contested by grandmasters Bagirov (1936 ― 2000), Darga (born in 1934), and masters who were known in the Soviet Union but had no great achievements on the international arena until then, Borisenko (1922 ― 2012) and Chernikov (1936 ― 2014). Borisenko, one of the tournament's oldest participants, scored 8 points out of 11 to take the respectable 9th place and find himself among the prize winners, while Chernikov even shared the second place with a group of grandmasters. The first place, with the excellent score of 9 points out of 11, went on his second try to Klovans, who became the first master awarded with a grandmaster's title after participating in a world senior championship. Klovans set a unique record: he played in 14 championships in a row from 1996 till his death in 2010, without missing a single one. And his results were quite impressive: he was the champion twice and was among the top three winners five times. 


Baumgartner – Klovans
Bad Wildbad 1997

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.0–0 Be7 5.d4 0–0 6.c4 dxc4 7.Ne5 Nc6 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nxc6 Qe8 10.Nxe7+ Qxe7 11.Qc2 c5 12.Qxc4 cxd4 13.Qxd4 Rd8 14.Qh4 Rb8 15.Nc3 Rb4 16.Qg5 e5 17.e4 h6 18.Qh4 Rd3 19.a3 Rc4 20.h3 Bb7 21.f3 Qc5+ 22.Kh1

 

22…Rcxc3 23.bxc3 Rxf3 24.Rxf3 Bxe4 25.Kg2 Bxf3+ 26.Kxf3 Qxc3+ 27.Be3 Qxa1 28.Qb4 Qf1+ White resigns.

The 1998 championship was for the first time held in Austria, in the small town of Grieskirchen, with 198 seniors coming there, including eight grandmasters most of whom were foreigners. Ivkov (born in 1933) and Uhlmann (born in 1935) were among the newcomers, while Smyslov, Vasyukov, Krogius, and Gipslis refused to participate. Korchnoi skipped the championship again: another 10 years would pass before the "frantic" Korchnoi would agree to participate in the event. The crown went to Bagirov, who shared the victory with Uhlmann. Bagirov won a decisive game in the last round versus Israel's Kraidman, who had been leading in the race for quite a while and was as close as ever to the senior champion's title.

As the tournament's winner noticed, this was one of the most badly organized championships. The participants were accommodated far away from the venue, the "European" breakfast was a mockery, as Bagirov put it, there was no free TV in the hotel room (it could be switched on for a separate payment), and Russian players, accustomed to travel with their own immersion heaters, were in for a bad surprise: the use of electric devices was forbidden. Vladimir Bagirov also rightly criticized the small prize fund and the high tournament fee of $150. Today, seniors going to world championships still have to face all these issues, but back at the 8th Championship the prize winners didn't even get medals. 

Bagirov – Dornieden
Grieskirchen 1998

1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 c5 5.e4 Bg4 6.d5 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.cxd5 Nf6 9.0–0 0–0 10.h3 Bc8 11.Bf4 Re8 12.Nd2 a6 13.a4 Qe7 14.Re1 Nfd7 15.Nc4 Ne5 16.Ne3 Qf8 17.Bg3 g5 18.a5 Nbd7 19.Bg4 Ng6 20.Bf5 Be5 21.Na4 Rb8 22.Bxe5 Ndxe5 23.Nb6 Bxf5 24.Nxf5 h6 25.Ra3 Rbd8 26.h4 Nxh4 27.Nxh4 gxh4 28.f4 Ng6 29.Qg4 Kh7 30.Rae3 Qg7

 
 
31.e5 dxe5 32.fxe5 Rxe5 33.Rxe5 Black resigns.

The 9th World Championship was again held in Germany, Gladenbach, where Janis Klovans, now a grandmaster, won for the second time. No big changes occurred among the grandmaster elite, represented by the "title holders" Bagirov, Klovans, Suetin, and Taimanov and their perennial rivals Lein, Uhlmann, and Kraidman. In 2009, the legendary senior Pachman, a participant of the inaugural World Championship, pitched in, too. The group of the usual "runners-up" (as Mark Taimanov put it), Shestoperov, Katalymov, Baumgartner, Fronczek and Khasin, now included several strong "novices": the Russian champion Shabanov (1937-2010) and the Leningrad "blitz king" Chepukaitis (1935-2004). The field was dominated by the "young" players, with eight participants rivaling for the first place before the last round. In that round, Klovans won a decisive game versus Katalymov and won the tournament. He scored three points in a row at the finishing line and got 9 points out of 11, a brilliant performance! Klovans became not only a two-time senior champion but also a "two-time grandmaster": in 2001, he obtained an ICCF Grandmaster's title for winning a world correspondence championship.

Uhlmann ― Klovans
Gladenbach 1999

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 c6 7.Bd3 0–0 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Nf3 Re8 10.0–0 Nf8 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.b4 Bg4 13.Nd2 Rc8 14.Rfc1 Be7 15.b5 c5 16.a4 cxd4 17.exd4 Bb4 18.Ndb1 Qg5 19.Qb2 Bf3 20.g3 Bxc3 21.Nxc3 Ne6 22.Nd1

 
 
22...Rxc1 23.Qxc1 Nxd4 24.Bf1 Qe5 25.Qe3 Be4 26.Nc3 Nc2 White resigns.

The 10th World Senior Championship (2010) was for the first and, for now, the only time held in Poland, in the small resort town of Rowy. The town is home to just 500 people at the most, and over 200 chess players from 28 countries came there. At the time, the resort was a kind of Polish "chess Mecca" (as witnessed by Mark Taimanov), international chess festivals had already been held there and all conditions were provided for the participants to play and rest properly.

As always, the tournament composition underwent some changes. As Mark Taimanov pointed out, "Even though the usual suspects ― GMs Uhlmann, Lein, Gurgenidze, Klovans, your author, and IMs Arkhangelky, Baumgartner, Shestoperov and other old-timers ― were still among the favorites, alas, the unforgettable senior Bagirov, who had expected this tournament so much, wasn't there; the championships' frequent guest Suetin, the legendary Pachman and the renowned Katalymov were unable to come; but the still strong Kholmov and the young-looking Karasev, the welcome debutants, joined the battle for the champion's title."

Most of the participants were Polish chess players, who replaced the Germans. It should be noted that this only senior world championship where the 75-year-old Ratmir Kholmov (1925-2006) participated didn't bring him any laurels: he could hardly join the group sharing the 3rd to 6th places. Meanwhile, IM Vladimir Karasev (born in 1938) fought for the gold till the very end.

Acknowledged favorites faced major failures in the first rounds, losing repeatedly to less famous players. The last rounds were dramatic for Mark Taimanov, who had been leading during the entire tournament. In round 10, he lost to Wolfgang Uhlmann, while in the last round he drew versus the "non-defeatable" Yuri Shabanov. The first place was determined in the encounters between masters Vladimir Karasev and Oleg Chernikov and grandmasters Janis Klovans and Wolfgang Uhlmann. In the event of draws in those games, six participants would share the first place and Taimanov would become the champion thanks to the tiebreakers. But this didn't happen: Karasev "burned out," made a blunder and lost, while Klovans outplayed Uhlmann after a hard battle on move 94, catching up with Chernikov by the number of points but remaining second by the Buchholz score. Thus, Oleg Chernikov suddenly became the champion and obtained a grandmaster's title. But his victory was well-deserved thanks to his "sporting stamina and great professionalism," as Taimanov said.

Later on, Oleg Chernikov participated in senior world championships every year, till his death in 2014, and was always among the favorites. He was on the Russian seniors' team for many years and repeatedly won European team championships among seniors. Meanwhile, the uncompromising fighter Vladimir Karasev has continued to rival for the senior world champion's title and has constantly been among the favorites, but has been unable to reach this peak so far. Perhaps he will be lucky at the 25th championship in Acqui Terme, where we see him among the tournament's leaders once again, and will finally become a grandmaster at the age of 77. He has long deserved this title.



Karasev – Chernikov
Rowy 2000

1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 c5 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bg7 5.Be3 Nf6 6.f3 0–0 7.c4 e6 8.Nc3 d5 9.e5 Ne8 10.cxd5 exd5 11.f4 f6 12.Nf3 fxe5 13.Bc4 exf4 14.Bxd5+

14.Qxd5+!

14...Kh8 15.Bc5 Rf5 

 
 
16.0–0??

16.Bd4.

16...Bxc3 17.bxc3 Qxd5 18.Bd4+ Kg8 19.c4 Qd6 20.Re1 Rf8 21.Qb3 Nf6 22.Rad1 Nc6 23.Bxa7 Qb4 24.Qxb4 Nxb4 25.Bc5 Nc2 26.Re7 Ne3 27.Rd2 b6 28.Bb4 Nxc4 29.Rd4 Ne3 30.Rc7 Nc2 31.Bxf8 Nxd4 32.Bd6 White resigns. 

This is where I'll finish describing senior world championships for now.