1989 in chess


Events in chess in 1989.

Top players

Kasparov and Karpov remained the top two players in the world, positions that they had held since July 1982. Over the year, English players Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman moved up the list, whilst Dutch player Jan Timman fell out of the top 10, having stood third in the January 1988 list.

Events

The following major chess tournaments took place in 1989:

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 last three of these tournaments were held in 1989.
The gold medal on the first board was won by Olivier Renet of France with 6/9. Valery Salov of USSR was second with 5/8.

Other major tournaments

Grandmaster

In 1989, FIDE awarded the Grandmaster title to the following 17 players:
In 1989, FIDE awarded the title Woman Grandmaster to the following 2 players:
The following chess grandmasters were born in 1989:
The following leading chess personalities died in 1989:
The game between Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović in Belgrade 1989 lasted for over 20 hours and consisted of 269 moves. This is still the record number of moves played in a single tournament game. The game was eventually drawn.