Vassily Ivanchuk

Vassily Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk, also transliterated as Vasyliy or Vasyl (Ukrainian: Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.

Ivanchuk has been a leading player in the world since 1988, ranking as high as No. 2 on the official FIDE Elo rating list (July 1991, July 1992, October 2007). Ivanchuk often has erratic results, dropping as low as 30th in July 2009 before returning to the top ten in the next list.

Ivanchuk was the 2007–2008 World Blitz Chess champion, and won the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament in 1992 and 2010.

In 2011, by the decree of the President of Ukraine, Ivanchuk was awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise IV degree.

Career

Early years

Ivanchuk was born in Kopychyntsi, Ukraine. He won the 1987 European Junior Chess Championship in Groningen and first achieved international notice by winning the 1988 New York Open with 7½/9, ahead of a field of Grandmasters. He tied for first place in the 1988 World Junior Chess Championship at Adelaide, but lost the title on tiebreak to Joël Lautier. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1988, and entered the world top 10 the same year.

Magnus Carlsen

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (Norwegian: [sʋɛn ˈmɑŋnʉs øːn ˈkɑːɭsn̩]; born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster, No. 1 ranked player in the world and reigning World Chess Champion in classical and rapid. His peak rating is 2882, the highest in history.

A chess prodigy, Carlsen became a Grandmaster in 2004, at the age of 13 years, 148 days, making him the third youngest grandmaster in history. On 1 January 2010, at the age of 19 years, 32 days, he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world No. 1. In November 2013, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2013, thus becoming the new world chess champion. On the May 2014 FIDE rating list, Carlsen reached his top Elo rating of 2882, the highest in history. He successfully defended his title in November 2014, once again defeating Viswanathan Anand. In 2015, he won the inaugural Grand Chess Tour, a series of three supertournaments featuring the 10 best chess grandmasters in the world.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (French pronunciation: ​[maksˈim vaˈʃje laɡʁˈav]; sometimes referred to as MVL; born 21 October 1990) is a French chess Grandmaster and the 2009 World Junior Chess Champion. He is currently the No. 1 ranked player in France.

Vachier-Lagrave is a three-time French champion (2007, 2011, shared 2012), four-time winner of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament (2009, 2013, 2014, 2015), semifinalist of the 2013 Chess World Cup, and participant of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour.

Early years

From the age of six years, Vachier-Lagrave competed in numerous sections of youth tournaments, winning the French Under-8 championship in 1997, U-10s in 1999, U-12s in 2000, U-16s in 2002, runner up in the U-18s in 2003 and won the U-20s in 2004 scoring 8/9.

He also took part in the World Youth Chess Championship, coming third in the U-10 division in 2000 (8½/11), third in the U-12 championship in 2001 (8/11), second in the U-14 event in 2003 (9/11) and third in U-16 section in 2005 (8½/11).

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров, Russian pronunciation: [ˈɡarʲɪ ˈkʲiməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsparəf]; born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) chess Grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being passed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).

Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000.

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship (sometimes abbreviated as WCC) is played to determine the World Champion in chess.

The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in Europe and the United States, Johann Zukertort and Wilhelm Steinitz respectively, played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, which led to the creation of the rival PCA championship. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006.

Current world champion Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship 2013 against Viswanathan Anand and successfully defended his title against Anand in the World Chess Championship 2014.

In addition, there is a separate event for women only, for the title of Women's World Champion, as well as separate competitions and titles for juniors (under 20 years of age), seniors (60+ for men, 50+ for women), and computers. Computers are barred from competing for all titles, except the last one.