1988 in chess


Events in chess in 1988.

Top players

Kasparov and Karpov remained the top two players in the world, positions that they had held since July 1982. Over the year, Dutch player Jan Timman and Alexander Beliavsky of the USSR moved up the list, whilst Andrei Sokolov from the USSR and Ljubomir Ljubojević of Yugoslavia moved down.
January 1988 FIDE rating list. Top 11 players

Events

The following major chess tournaments took place in 1988:

Grandmasters Association World Cup

The Grandmasters Association held six World Cup tournaments over 1988 and 1989, with some of the world's best players invited. The first three of these tournaments were held in 1988.
  • 1 April – 22 April: The first tournament was held in Brussels and won by Karpov with 11/16, ahead of Valery Salov with 10.
  • 14 June – 3 July: The second tournament was held in Belfort, France and won by Kasparov with 11½/15, ahead of Karpov with 10½.
  • 3 October – 24 October: The third tournament was held in Reykjavík and was again won by Kasparov, with 11/17. Beliavsky was second, with 10½/15.

    28th Chess Olympiad

The 28th Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece was held between 12 November and 30 November. It was won by the USSR, ahead of England in second and the Netherlands in third.
The gold medal on the first board was won by Kasparov of USSR with 8½/10. Lajos Portisch of Hungary was second, also scoring 8½, but from 11 games.
The Women's Chess Olympiad was held alongside the open tournament. The winners were Hungary, ahead of the USSR and Yugoslavia.

Other major tournaments

Grandmaster

In 1989, FIDE awarded the Grandmaster title to the following 20 players:
  • Viswanathan Anand
  • Zurab Azmaiparashvili
  • Emir Dizdarevic
  • Yury Dokhoian
  • Boris Gelfand
  • Krum Georgiev
  • Jörg Hickl
  • Julian Hodgson
  • Miguel Illescas
  • Gregory Kaidanov /
  • Stefan Kindermann
  • Josef Klinger
  • Bogdan Lalić /
  • Valentin Lukov
  • Gilberto Milos
  • Michael Rohde
  • Harry Schussler
  • Elizbar Ubilava /
  • Reynaldo Vera
  • Michael Wilder
In addition George Koltanowski was awarded an honorary Grandmaster title in 1988.

Births

The following chess grandmasters were born in 1988:
The following leading chess personality died in 1988:
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