2006 in chess

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.

  October

• Vladimir Kramnik defeats Veselin Topalov 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.
• December 29 – 44th Indian Chess 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.
• 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.

  Titles awarded

Grandmasters

• Bassem Amin
• Levan Aroshidze
• David Arutinian
• Valeriy Aveskulov
• Pascal Charbonneau
• Paweł Czarnota
• Chakkravarthy Deepan
• Dzhakay Dzhakaev
• Grzegorz Gajewski
• José González García
• Andrey Gutov
• Gennadij Ginsburg
• Bartłomiej Heberla
• Peter Horvath
• Alojzije Janković
• Radosław Jedynak
• Zoran Jovanović
• Meelis Kanep
• Melikset Khachiyan
• Ibragim Khamrakulov
• Aleksandr Kharitonov
• Petr Kostenko
• Tigran Kotanjian
• Sergei Krivoshey
• Yuriy Kryvoruchko
• Vitaly Kunin
• Viktor Laznicka
• Quang Liem Le
• Constantin Lupulescu
• Nidjat Mamedov
• Mikulas Manik
• Andrei Murariu
• Das Neelotpal
• Magesh Panchanathan
• Eugene Perelshteyn
• Reefat Bin-Sattar
• Davor Rogic
• Andrey Rychagov
• Bator Sambuev
• Vasile Sanduleac
• Konstantine Shanava
• John Shaw
• Andrey Sumets
• Jurij Tihonov
• Todor Todorov
• Marko Tratar
• Yge Visser
• Jan Werle
• Andrey Zhigalko
• Zhou Jianchao
• Yaroslav Zinchenko

  Woman Grandmaster

• Evgeniya Doluhanova
• Marina Guseva
• Anastasia Gutsko
• Sopio Gvetadze
• Thi Bao Tram Hoang
• Beata Kądziołka
• Julia Kochetkova
• Tatiana Kostiuk
• Liubov Kostiukova
• Lija Kucherova
• Naira Movsisian
• Jessica Nill
• Niina Sammalvuo
• Anna Sharevich
• Shen Yang
• Elena Tairova
• Carmen Voicu

  Deaths

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