The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation^[1] is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE ( /ˈfiːdeɪ/), its French acronym.^[2]

FIDE was founded in Paris, France on July 20, 1924.^[3] Its motto is Gens una sumus, meaning "We are one people". Its current president is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who for a long time was also the president of Kalmykia, an autonomous Republic in Russia.

Role[link]

FIDE's most visible activity is organizing the World Chess Championship (overall and for women and juniors), regional championships and the Chess Olympiad. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the supreme body responsible for the organization of chess and its championships at global and continental levels.^[4] FIDE oversees few other tournaments, although other top-level events, almost without exception, respect FIDE rules and regulations.

It defines the rules of chess, both for playing individual games (i.e. the board and moves) and for the conduct of international competitions. The international competition rules are the basis for local competitions, although local bodies are allowed to modify these rules to a certain extent. FIDE awards a number of organisational titles, including International Arbiter, which signifies that the recipient is competent and trusted to oversee top-class competitions.^[5]

FIDE calculates the Elo ratings of players and uses these as the basis on which it awards titles for achievement in competitive play: FIDE Master, International Master, International Grandmaster, and women's versions of those titles.^[6] It also awards Master and Grandmaster titles for achievement in problem and study composing and solving, and periodically publishes FIDE Albums of the best problems.^[7]

Correspondence chess (chess played by post or email) is regulated by the International Correspondence Chess Federation, an independent body that co-operates with FIDE where appropriate.

History[link]

Foundation and early years (up to 1939)[link]

In April 1914, an initiative was taken in St. Petersburg to form an international chess federation. Another attempt was made in July 1914 during the Mannheim International Chess Tournament, but further efforts temporarily came to an end as a result of the outbreak of World War I during the latter event. In 1920, another attempt to organize an international federation was made at the Gothenburg Tournament.^[8]

Players also made the first attempt to produce rules for world championship matches—in 1922, world champion José Raúl Capablanca proposed the "London rules": the first player to win six games outright would win the match; playing sessions would be limited to five hours; the time limit would be 40 moves in 2.5 hours; the champion would be obliged to defend his title within one year of receiving a challenge from a recognized master; the champion would decide the date of the match; the champion was not obliged to accept a challenge for a purse of less than $10,000; 20% of the purse was to paid to the title holder, with the remainder being divided, 60% to the winner of the match, and 40% to the loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Maróczy, Réti, Rubinstein, Tartakower and Vidmar promptly signed them.^[9] The only match played under those rules was Capablanca vs Alekhine in 1927.^[10]

In 1922, the Russian master Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, while participating in an international tournament in London, announced that a tournament would be held during the 8th Sports Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 and would be hosted by the French Chess Federation. On 20 July 1924 the participants at the Paris tournament founded FIDE as a kind of players' union.^[4][8][11] In its early years, FIDE had little power, and was poorly financed.

FIDE's congresses in 1925 and 1926 expressed a desire to become involved in managing the world championship. FIDE was largely happy with the "London Rules", but claimed that the requirement for a purse of $10,000 was impracticable and called upon Capablanca to come to an agreement with the leading masters to revise the Rules.^[12]

FIDE's third congress, in Budapest in 1926, also decided to organize a Chess Olympiad. The invitations were, however, late in being sent, with the result that only four countries participated, and the competition was called the Little Olympiad. The winner was Hungary, followed by Yugoslavia, Romania, and Germany. In 1927, FIDE began organizing the First Chess Olympiad during its 4th Congress in London. The official title of the tournament was the "Tournament of Nations", or "World Team Championship", but "Chess Olympiad" became a more popular title. The event was won by Hungary, with 16 teams competing.^[8]

In 1928 FIDE recognized Bogoljubow as "Champion of FIDE" after he won a match against Max Euwe.^[12]

Alekhine, the reigning world champion, attended part of the 1928 Congress and agreed to place future matches for the world title under the auspices of FIDE, although any match with Capablanca should be under the same conditions as in Buenos Aires, 1927, i.e. including the requirement for a purse of at least $10,000. FIDE accepted this and decided to form a commission to modify the London Rules for future matches, though this commission never met; by the time of the 1929 Congress, a world championship match between Alekhine and Bogoljubow was under way, held neither under the auspices of FIDE nor in accordance with the London Rules.^[12]

While negotiating his 1937 World Championship re-match with Alexander Alekhine, Euwe proposed that if he retained the title, FIDE should manage the nomination of future challengers and the conduct of championship matches. FIDE had been trying since 1935 to introduce rules on how to select challengers, and its various proposals favored selection by some sort of committee. While they were debating procedures in 1937 and Alekhine and Euwe were preparing for their re-match later that year, the Dutch Chess Federation proposed that a super-tournament (AVRO) of ex-champions and rising stars should be held to select the next challenger. FIDE rejected this proposal and at their second attempt nominated Salo Flohr as the official challenger. Euwe then declared that: if he retained his title against Alekhine he was prepared to meet Flohr in 1940 but he reserved the right to arrange a title match either in 1938 or 1939 with José Raúl Capablanca, who had lost the title to Alekhine in 1927; if Euwe lost his title to Capablanca then FIDE's decision should be followed and Capablanca would have to play Flohr in 1940. Most chess writers and players strongly supported the Dutch super-tournament proposal and opposed the committee processes favored by FIDE. While this confusion went unresolved: Euwe lost his title to Alekhine; the AVRO tournament in 1938 was won by Paul Keres under a tie-breaking rule, with Reuben Fine placed second and Capablanca and Flohr in the bottom places; and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the controversy.^[13][14] Although competitive chess continued in many countries, including some that were under Nazi occupation, there was no international competition and FIDE was inactive during the war.

1946 to 1993[link]

Birth of the World Championship challenge cycle[link]

From the time of Emanuel Lasker's defeat of Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894, until 1946, a new World Champion had won the title by defeating the former champion in a match. Alexander Alekhine's death created an interregnum that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it difficult to organize the early discussions on how to resolve the interregnum, because problems with money and travel in the aftermath of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives, most notably the Soviet Union. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confused.^[15] See Interregnum of World Chess Champions for more details.

This situation was exacerbated by the Soviet Union having long refused to join FIDE, and by this time it was clear that about half the credible contenders were Soviet citizens. The Soviet Union realized, however, it could not afford to be left out of the discussions regarding the vacant world championship, and in 1947 sent a telegram apologizing for the absence of Soviet representatives and requesting that the USSR be represented in future FIDE Committees.^[15]

The eventual solution was similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to a proposal put forward by the Soviet Union (authored by Mikhail Botvinnik). The 1938 AVRO tournament was used as the basis for the 1948 Championship Tournament. The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO—Alekhine and former world champion Capablanca—had since died; but FIDE decided that the other six participants at AVRO would play a quadruple round robin tournament. These players were: Max Euwe (from The Netherlands); Botvinnik, Paul Keres and Salo Flohr (from the Soviet Union); and Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky (from the United States). FIDE soon accepted a Soviet request to substitute Vasily Smyslov for Flohr, and Fine withdrew in order to continue his degree studies in psychiatry, so five players competed, in a quintuple round robin. Botvinnik won, thus becoming world champion, ending the interregnum.^[15]

The proposals which led to the 1948 Championship Tournament also specified the procedure by which challengers for the World Championship would be selected in a three-year cycle: countries affiliated with FIDE would send players to Zonal Tournaments (the number varied depending on the number of strong players each country had); the players who gained the top places in these would compete in an Interzonal Tournament (later split into two, then three tournaments as the number of countries and eligible players increased^[16]); the highest-placed players from the Interzonal would compete in the Candidates Tournament, along with the loser of the previous title match and the runner-up in the previous Candidates Tournament; and the winner of the Candidates played a title match against the champion.^[15] From 1950 until 1962 inclusive, the Candidates Tournament was a multi-round round-robin—how and why it was changed are described below.

Bobby Fischer controversies[link]

FIDE found itself embroiled in some controversies relating to the American player Bobby Fischer, the first of which took place when Fischer alleged that at the 1962 Candidates Tournament in Curaçao, the Soviet players Tigran Petrosian, Keres and Efim Geller had pre-arranged draws in their games played amongst themselves, and that Viktor Korchnoi, another Soviet player, had been instructed to lose to them (Fischer had placed 4th, well behind Petrosian, Keres and Geller). Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh, a member of the Soviet delegation at the tournament, said in 2002 that Petrosian, Keres and Geller privately agreed to draw their games, and a statistical analysis in 2006 supported this conclusion.^[17][18] FIDE responded by changing the format of Candidates Tournaments from a multi-round round-robin to a series of elimination matches, initially 10–12 games in duration, though by the 1970s, the Candidates final would be as long as 24 games.

In 1969, Fischer refused to play in the U.S. Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. Since that event was being treated as a Zonal Tournament, Fischer forfeited his right to compete for the right to challenge world champion Boris Spassky in 1972. Grandmaster Pal Benko agreed to relinquish his qualifying place at the Interzonal in Fischer's favor, and the other participants waived their right to claim the spot. FIDE president Max Euwe interpreted the rules very flexibly to allow Fischer to play in the 1970 Interzonal at Palma de Mallorca, which he won convincingly. Fischer then crushed Mark Taimanov, Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian in the 1971 Candidates Tournament and won the title match with Spassky to become world champion.^[19]

After winning the world championship, Fischer criticized the existing championship match format (24 games; the champion retained the title if the match was tied) on the grounds that it encouraged whoever got an early lead to play for draws. While this dispute was going on, Anatoly Karpov won the right to challenge in 1975. Fischer refused to accept any match format other than the one he proposed. Among Fischer's demands was a requirement that the challenger must beat him by at least two games in order to take his title. The FIDE argued that it was unfair for a challenger to be able to beat the world champion, yet not take his title. Fischer would not back down, and eventually FIDE awarded the title to Karpov by default.^[20] Some commentators have questioned whether FIDE president Max Euwe did as much as he could have to prevent Fischer from forfeiting his world title.^[19]

Other 1970s controversies[link]

FIDE had a number of conflicts with the Soviet Chess Federation. These conflicts included:^[19]

• The defection of grandmaster Gennadi Sosonko in 1972. The Soviets demanded that Sosonko should be treated as an "unperson", excluded from competitive chess, television or any other event that might publicize his defection. FIDE refused, and no Soviet players took part in the 1974 Wijk aan Zee tournament in The Netherlands because Sosonko was playing in it.
• In 1976 world championship contender Viktor Korchnoi sought political asylum in The Netherlands. In a discussion a few days earlier Euwe told Korchnoi, "...of course you will retain all your rights ..." and later opposed Soviet efforts to prevent Korchnoi from challenging for Anatoly Karpov's title in 1978.
• FIDE decided to hold the 1976 Chess Olympiad in Israel, which the Soviet Union did not recognize as a country. The Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union then started plotting to depose Euwe as president of FIDE.

Rapid expansion of membership[link]

During his period as president of FIDE (1970–1978) Max Euwe strove to increase the number of member countries, and Florencio Campomanes (president 1982–1995) continued this policy, with each member nation receiving one vote. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov later said this was a mixed blessing, as the inclusion of so many small, poor countries led to a "leadership vacuum at the head of the world of chess......"^[19][21] Yuri Averbakh said the presence of so many weak countries made it easy to manipulate decisions.^[22]

World Championship 1983–1985[link]

The events leading to Garry Kasparov's winning the world championship involved FIDE in two controversies. While arranging the Candidates Tournament semi-final matches to be played in 1983, FIDE accepted bids to host Kasparov versus Victor Korchnoi in Pasadena, California. The Soviet Union refused to accept this, either because it feared Kasparov would defect or because it thought Kasparov was the greater threat to reigning champion Anatoly Karpov. Their refusal would have meant that Kasparov forfeited his chance of challenging for the title. FIDE president Florencio Campomanes negotiated with the Soviet Union, and the match was played in London.^[21][23]

In the 1984 world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov the winner was to be the first to win 6 games. In the first 27 games Karpov gained a 5–0 lead but by the end of the 48th Kasparov had reduced this to 5–3.^[24] At this point the match had lasted for 159 days (from September 1984 to February 1985), Karpov looked exhausted and many thought Kasparov was the favorite to win. After six days of talks, on February 15, FIDE president Campomanes announced that "the match is ended without decision", that a new one would begin in September 1985 with the score 0–0, and that it would consist of at most 24 games. Karpov entered the press conference rather late and said he wished to continue the existing match, with his version of the Mark Twain line: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!" Although nobody has revealed what had happened behind the scenes, there were ESPN cameras and reporters from Sports Illustrated in addition to American Grandmaster Max Dlugy. When the good cop-bad cop routine of Karpov and Campamanes caused a commotion an agitated Karpov stared at Campomanes, who was caught on film saying: "But Anatoly, I told them what you said!" Dlugy also reported this event in the US magazine Chess Life. Kasparov won the second match and became world champion.^[21][25][26]

1993 to present[link]

World Championship divided 1993–2006[link]

In 1992 Nigel Short surprised the world by winning the Candidates Tournament and thus becoming the official challenger for Garry Kasparov's world title. FIDE very quickly accepted a bid from Manchester (England) to host the title match in 1993. But at that time Short was travelling to Greece and could not be consulted as FIDE's rules required. On learning of the situation Short contacted Kasparov, who had distrusted FIDE and its president, Florencio Campomanes ever since Campomanes had stopped his title match against Anatoly Karpov in 1984. Kasparov and Short concluded that FIDE had failed to get them the best financial deal available and announced that they would "play under the auspices of a new body, the "Professional Chess Association" (PCA). FIDE stripped Kasparov of his FIDE title and dropped Kasparov and Short from the official rating list. It also announced a title match between Karpov and Jan Timman, whom Short had defeated in the semi-final and final stages of the Candidates Tournament. Kasparov and Karpov won their matches and there were now two players claiming to be world champion.^[27]

In 1994 Kasparov concluded that breaking away from FIDE had been a mistake, because both commercial sponsors and the majority of grandmasters disliked the split in the world championship.^[28] Kasparov started trying to improve relations with FIDE and supported Campomanes' bid for re-election as president of FIDE. But many FIDE delegates regarded Campomanes as corrupt and in 1995 he agreed to resign provided his successor was Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the Republic of Kalmykia.^[29]

In the next few years several attempts to re-unify the world championship failed for various reasons - notably inability to finance a match or Kasparov's opposition to any plan that required him to play in a qualifying series rather than go straight into a re-unification match. In 2000 Vladimir Kramnik defeated Kasparov in a match for what was now the Braingames World Chess Championship (the PCA had collapsed by this time). But Kramnik was also unwilling to play in a qualifying series, and objected strongly to FIDE's attempt to have the world championship decided by annual knock-out tournaments and to reduce the time limits for games, changes which FIDE hoped would make the game more interesting to outsiders.^[29][30]

Finally in 2006 a re-unification match was played between Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, which Kramnik won after an unpleasant controversy which led to one game being awarded to Topalov.^[29][31]

But the split in the world-title had after-effects, as shown by FIDE's complicated regulations for the 2007–2009 world championship cycle. Because Topalov was unable to compete in the 2007 World Chess Championship Tournament, FIDE decided he should have a "fast track" entry into the 2007–2009 cycle. And FIDE also decided that, if Kramnik did not win the 2007 championship tournament, he should play a championship match in 2008 against the winner—and this provision became applicable because Vishwanathan Anand won the tournament and thus became world champion.^[32][33][34]

World Championships from 2007[link]

In the Chess World Cup 2009, Boris Gelfand was the top seed, and defeated Judit Polgár, reigning World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Sergey Karjakin to reach the final. He then faced former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov for the championship, and won the match 7–5 in a playoff.^[35] As winner of the Chess World Cup 2009, Gelfand will be automatically seeded into the World Chess Championship 2011 Candidates Tournament.

IOC recognition[link]

In 1999, FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Two years later, it introduced the IOC's anti-drugs rules to chess, as part of its campaign for chess to become part of the Olympic Games.^[36]

Member federations[link]

There are at present 158 member federation of FIDE, including 142 UN member states and 16 other entities. There were 159 until recently, when one was dropped. The list fluctuates, as new nations join and sometimes national federations collapse or are unable to pay their dues.

The states are

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guernsey, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

And the other entities are

Aruba, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Chinese Taipei, England, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, Macau, Netherlands Antilles, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Scotland, US Virgin Islands, and Wales

Ghana and Ivory Coast have been temporarily suspended from membership in FIDE because of their failure to meet their financial obligations.

FIDE Presidents[link]

• 1924–1949 (25 years) Alexander Rueb
• 1949–1970 (21 years) Folke Rogard
• 1970–1978 (8 years) Max Euwe
• 1978–1982 (4 years) Friðrik Ólafsson
• 1982–1995 (13 years) Florencio Campomanes
• 1995–present (16 years) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (as of 2011)

Publications[link]

• Kazic, Bozidar; Keene, Raymond; Lim, Kok Ann (1985). The Official Laws of Chess. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-4802-4 
• FIDE (1989). The Official Laws of Chess (2nd ed.). Macmillian. ISBN 0-02-028540-X 

See also[link]

Chess portal

• Arab Chess Federation
• Australian Chess Federation
• Chess around the world
• Chess tournament
• Chinese Chess Association
• English Chess Federation
• FIDE Federations Rankings
• FIDE World Rankings
• Glossary of chess
• International Correspondence Chess Federation
• Italian Chess Federation
• List of FIDE chess world number ones
• List of international sport federations
• New Zealand Chess Federation
• Swiss-system tournament
• United States Chess Federation

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

The Clarks are an American rock band from the Pittsburgh region, originating at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of twenty years, they have produced a total of 12 studio, live and solo releases, selling near a quarter of a million copies.

History[link]

Scott Blasey, Rob James, and Dave Minarik Jr. began playing together in the early 1980s as "New Boots And Panties". Then later as "The Administration." After Greg Joseph joined in 1986, the band renamed itself "The Clarks", performing mainly at fraternity parties, the Soccer House", and The Coney Island bar, covering artists such as U2, Joe Jackson, The Del Fuegos, English Beat, and The Long Ryders. Shortly after Joseph joined, the group wrote their first original songs and took second place in a competition in Pittsburgh.^[1]

The band gained popularity throughout the Western Pennsylvania region after moving to Pittsburgh and playing at colleges and bars, especially the long defunct "Graffiti". They eventually toured along the East Coast, then the Southwest and Pacific states. Performances have drawn thousands of fans across the country, and tens of thousands in Pennsylvania. The group headlined Rolling Rock Town Fair in 2005, performed at Milwaukee's Summerfest, shared performance with John Mayer, Marc Broussard, OAR, and Steely Dan, and co-headlined with Three Doors Down.^[2]

The members have been recognized as distinguished alumni at IUP, where a recording studio has been named in their honor.

Music[link]

Their first release, 1988's I'll Tell You What Man..., saw a great deal of success via the local hit "Help Me Out." The three following releases introduced "Penny on the Floor," "Cigarette" and "Mercury" sequentially—songs that were immortalized throughout the area and still receive frequent radio play today. With the release of 1996's Someday Maybe on King Mouse Records (BMI), the band furthered their fame. In 2000, The Clarks saw perhaps their greatest success, with Let It Go outselling many major national releases in the Pittsburgh area and generating three huge radio hits popularized by WDVE and WXDX (as well as rock radio stations in Johnstown, Wheeling and Youngstown, among other areas in the region): "Born Too Late," "Better Off Without You" and "Snowman." "Born Too Late" is a conversation piece, containing references to important figures of the past and present, such as Vincent van Gogh, Elvis, Mother Theresa, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Muhammad Ali, Thomas Edison, Jimi Hendrix, Jesus, Buddha, and William Shakespeare. The title track, "Let It Go," found its way into the 2001 Warner Bros. film Summer Catch and "Better Off Without You" was regularly featured during the closing credits of The Anna Nicole Show.^[3] Since then the band has continued to increase their catalog via 2002's Another Happy Ending, 2004's Fast Moving Cars, and 2009's Restless Days.

Appearances[link]

A major highlight for the band and their fans was a musical appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman on August 31, 2004, and also an appearance on ESPN's Cold Pizza on June 23, 2006. On June 21, 2005, they released their first "Best Of" compilation, Between Now and Then (Retrospective). With an average of 150 live shows every year, many of which remain local, and over 250,000 local album sales, the band is still primarily a Pittsburgh regional band. They have had much success with their live act and can fill larger venues to capacity for their bigger concerts in the Pittsburgh area. On June 4, 2009, they performed their newest album, "Restless Days", on Pittsburgh's 102.5 WDVE to promote the new CD which went on sale June 9, 2009. On June 9, 2009, they performed at the Robinson Mall in Pittsburgh to promote their album courtesy of FYE and then had a signing session after their set.

On December 21, 2010, the NHL announced that The Clarks were selected to perform during the first intermission of the 2011 NHL Winter Classic to be held in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field on New Year's Day 2011.^[4]

Members[link]

• Scott Blasey: lead and background vocals, electric & acoustic guitars
• Rob James: electric & acoustic guitars, background vocals
• Greg Joseph: bass guitar, background vocals
• Dave Minarik: drums, background vocals

Discography[link]

• [[Live In The Soccer House Basement}} (1986)- ONE-OF-A-KIND RECORDING, ESTIMATED VALUE $4,500
• Live At The Coney Island (1987)- RARE BOOTLEG CASSETTE TAPE
• I'll Tell You What Man... (1988)
• The Uni-Mart EP (1989)- OUT OF PRINT
• The Clarks (1991)
• Love Gone Sour, Suspicion, and Bad Debt (1994)
• Someday Maybe (1996)
• Let It Go (2000)
• Another Happy Ending (2002)
• Fast Moving Cars (2004)
• Restless Days (2009)

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Clarks Online (official site)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

Deathspell Omega are a French black metal band. Their lyrical content deals primarily with Satanism on a metaphysical level – as the band has stated that "all other interpretations of Satan are intellectually invalid"^[1] – and other various theological topics. They have recently completed a series of three concept albums which focus on the theological aspects of God, Satan and man's relationship with the two. Some of their lyrical inspiration has come from the post-surrealist Georges Bataille^[1] as well as existentialist themes.^[2]

Biography[link]

Initially, Deathspell Omega produced raw, traditional black metal akin to Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger. However, their 2004 release, Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, marked a change to a vastly more technical, experimental, and well-recorded sound featuring such musical influences as Russian Orthodox chanting and choral music.

The band's work after Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice has been even more experimental and technical, with the 5 tracks they released in 2005 – on Kénôse and a pair of splits – totaling nearly eighty minutes in length and actually exceeding the length of Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice. The second volume of the band's trilogy, Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, was released on July 16, 2007, outside the United States, and the following day within the United States, to considerable acclaim.^[3][4] The band released another EP in January 2009, entitled Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon. The final album in the trilogy, Paracletus, was released by Norma Evangelium Diaboli and Season of Mist on 9 November 2010.^[5]

Very little is known about the members of Deathspell Omega, as the band doesn't have an official website and does not release information about their membership. However, they have given interviews over the years that explain more about their beliefs and ideology.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Infernal Battles (2000)
• Inquisitors of Satan (2002)
• Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (2004)
• Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (2007)
• Paracletus (2010)

Compilation albums[link]

• Manifestations 2000–2001 (2008, Collection of material originally released on LP on the splits with Moonblood and Mütiilation and the Black Metal Blitzkrieg compilation)
• Manifestations 2002 (2008, Eight previously unreleased tracks, initially written for the Crushing the Holy Trinity compilation and a planned split with Cantus Bestiae)

EPs[link]

• Kénôse (2005)
• Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon (2008)
• Mass Grave Aesthetics (2008)
• Diabolus Absconditus (2011)
• Drought (2012)

Split releases[link]

• Clandestine Blaze / Deathspell Omega - Split (2001)
• Sob A Lua Do Bode / Demoniac Vengeance (2001, Split LP with Moonblood)
• Split with Mütiilation (2002)
• From the Entrails to the Dirt (Part III) (2005, Split LP with Malicious Secrets)
• Crushing The Holy Trinity (Part I: Father) (2005, V/A LP with Stabat Mater, Clandestine Blaze, Musta Surma, Mgła, and Exordium)
• Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum (2008, Split EP with S.V.E.S.T.)

Demos[link]

• Disciples of the Ultimate Void (1999, entire release is included as the final four tracks of the band's first album, Infernal Battles)

Compilation appearances[link]

• "Black Crushing Sorcery" on Black Metal Blitzkrieg (2001, End All Life Productions)

Sources[link]

External links[link]

• Allmusic biography
• MusicMight biography

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Full name	Руслан Пономарьов
Country	Ukraine
Born	(1983-10-11) October 11, 1983 (age 28) Horlivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster
World Champion	2002–04 (FIDE)
FIDE rating	2726 (May 2012) (No. 23 in the January 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2764 (July 2011)

Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov (Ukrainian: Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в, Ruslan Olehovych Ponomar'ov; Russian: Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарёв; born October 11, 1983) is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.

Early career[link]

Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just twelve, and the following year won the World Under-18 Championship. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he was awarded the Grandmaster title, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. In 1999, he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Artek, Ukraine.^[1]

Among Ponomariov's notable later results are first at the Donetsk Zonal in 1998,^[2] 5/7 in the European Club Cup 2000 (including a victory over then-FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman), joint first with 7½/9 at Torshavn 2000, 8½/11 for Ukraine in the 2001 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, winning gold medal on board 2, and first place with 7/10 in the 2001 Governor's Cup in Kramatorsk.

FIDE World Chess Champion 2002[link]

In 2002 he beat his fellow countryman Vassily Ivanchuk in the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 by a score of 4½/2½ to become FIDE World Champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and youngest person to ever become FIDE World Champion.

In the same year he finished second in the very strong Linares tournament, behind Garry Kasparov. His result in the strong 2003 Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee was not as good – despite having the third highest Elo rating, he finished only joint eleventh out of fourteen players with 6/13, and at Linares the same year he finished only fifth out of seven with 5½/12.

There were plans for him to play a fourteen-game match against Kasparov in Yalta in September 2003, the winner of which would go on to play the winner of a match between Vladimir Kramnik and Péter Lékó as part of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunify the World Chess Championship (from 1993 until 2006 there were two world chess championships). However, this was called off by FIDE on the grounds that Ruslan Ponomariov failed to sign the contract in time. The latter always alleged lack of equality in the contract for both contenders.

Ponomariov remained FIDE champion until Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004.

Post-championship career[link]

On Ponomariov's 20th birthday, October 11, 2003, he became the first high-profile player to forfeit a game because of his mobile phone ringing during play. This happened in round one of the European Team Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, when Ponomariov was playing Black against Swedish GM Evgenij Agrest.

In 2004, Ruslan won the gold at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in Calvià, Spain, with the Ukrainian team.

In 2005 he won the 15th edition of the Ciudad de Pamplona tournament. He also won a rapid tournament in Odessa, Ukraine, and the Golden Blitz Cup in Moscow. Finally, that year he reached the World Cup final against Levon Aronian, who won the final.

In 2006 he shared first place with Levon Aronian and Peter Leko in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow.

In 2009 he shared first place with Hikaru Nakamura at the Donostia Chess Festival in San Sebastian, Spain. The latter won the tie-break blitz games 2–0. Ruslan Ponomariov got one more second place by tie-break that year in the Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup, where he reached the final against Israeli Boris Gelfand. After four classic games, four rapid games, and two blitz games with a drawn score, Gelfand finally won in one last set of two blitz games.

In July 2010 Ruslan Ponomariov won the prestigious Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, one point ahead of Le Quang Liem, from Vietnam. In September that year Ukraine won the gold once more at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk with players Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov, Zahar Efimenko, and Alexander Moiseenko.

In February 2011, after occupying an unfortunate last place at the World Blitz Championship in November 2010 in Moscow, GM Ponomariov showed great improvement at the strong Aeroflot Blitz held in the same city by reaching second place, just half a point behind Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In June 2011 he won the 80th Ukrainian Championship, the strongest ever in the country, with 8.5/11 and a performance rating of 2853.^[3]

Opening repertoire[link]

This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

In his games with white, Ponomariov has almost always played 1. e4 (see chess opening), entering the main lines of the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Defence. With black, he has played the Sicilian against 1. e4 and also replied 1... e5, going into the Ruy Lopez. Against 1. d4 he has adopted a variety of defences, including the Queen's Gambit Accepted, the Queen's Indian Defence and the King's Indian Defence. Earlier in his career he experimented with the Benko Gambit and Pirc Defence, but as of 2003 these have fallen out of his repertoire.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ruslan Ponomariov

• Ruslan Ponomariov player profile at ChessGames.com
• OlimpBase
• Links to many articles about Ponomariov
• Rating data
• Interview

Ni Hua
World Mind Sports Games, 2008
Full name	Simplified Chinese: 倪华 Traditional Chinese: 倪華
Country	China
Born	(1983-05-31) May 31, 1983 (age 29) Shanghai, China
Title	Grandmaster (2003)
FIDE rating	2673 (May 2012) (No. 85 in the July 2011 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2724 (April 2009)

Ni Hua (born May 31, 1983 in Shanghai)^[1] is one of China's top chess grandmasters and is the national team captain. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. On April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi both became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue. He is ranked 59th globally, 7th in Asia, and 4th in China.

Ni Hua is to play on 4th board at the World Team Chess Championship in January 3–14, 2010.^[2]

Career[link]

Ni learned to play chess at six. He won the S.T. Lee Cup for under 14 year-olds in 1996 and 1997 and repeated the performance in a higher age group in 1999.

In 2000 he played in his first Olympiad in Istanbul, where he scored 5.5/9. In February 2000, he gained his first GM norm at the 1st Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest with 7/10 score. He achieved his second GM norm at the April 2001 China Team Championship in Suzhou with a score of 6.5/10. His third GM norm was achieved at the Tan Chin Nam Cup with a score of 6.5/9 in Qingdao in July 2002. In the 2001 China-USA Summit Match, Ni Hua scored notable victories against Dmitry Schneider and Hikaru Nakamura.

In February 2003, Ni had his Grandmaster title ratified. He achieved his GM norms at:^[3] the February 2000 1st Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest (score 7.0/10), the April 2001 China Team Championship in Suzhou (score 6.5/10), and the July 2002 Tan Chin Nam Cup GM in Qingdao (score 6.5/9).

In August 2004, Ni won the 1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.^[4][5] In the (August) 2004 FIDE World championship he beat Evgeny Vladimirov in round one but was put out by his fellow countryman Ye Jiangchuan in the next round.^[6]

Ni Hua (left) at the Macau 2nd Asian Indoor Games

Reggio Emilia chess tournament, 2009

In November 2005, the Chinese national team just needed one point to win the championship in the World Team Championship in Beersheba, Israel but Ni Hua's two endgame losses (to Karen Asrian of Armenia and Alexander Morozevich of Russia) in the final two rounds allowed Russia to clinch victory.^[7] Ni won the Chinese National Chess Championship twice consecutively in 2006^[8] and 2007.^[9] In December 2007, he won the Prospero Pichay Cup in Manila with a score of 7.0/9.^[10]