"A group of neutral individual athletes cannot, by definition, be considered a team"(IOC). How the FIDE-team may - anyway - win its own FIDE World Women's Team Championship 2025 explained by Andre Schulz from Chessbase: en.chessbase.com/post/after-e... #chess

There was this crucial encounter in round 10 - Bronstein-Keres (both trailed Geller by half a point). Which 41st move did Bronstein seal after half an hour's thought? And which fine defensive opportunity did he pass by on move 50 (instead of 50.Bb5?) #chess bsky.app/profile/tuur...

The 10th & 11th round of the Amsterdam candidates 1956 were played in Leeuwarden, in the spacious hall of the 'Beursgebouw", housing a thousand spectators. According to Szabo, most participants were less pleased by the 35 km distance that had to be travelled to the Lauswolt hotel. #chess

Paul Keres leading the Candidates' tournament of Amsterdam 1956 after the two rounds in Leeuwarden (10 &11 from 19). Photo by Sjoerd Andringa, April 13th 1956. #chess

In the footsteps of a.o. Botvinnik, Eline Roebers manoeuvres her queen 16....Qg8! & 17...Qh7 #creepingqueen #chesspattern and goes on to beat Shirov! #Hoogeveenchess #chess

Nimzowitsch & Flohr look on how Euwe is about to defeat Alekhine in Zurich 1934 with 31.Nf7! #chess

1975 #chess

bsky.app/profile/tuur... In his younger years in Belarus Mazel composed studies & promoted #chess in far-away Irkutsk & UIan-Ude. His behaviour during chessgames wasn't impeccable: in 1939 he was suspended for a year. In 1941 Lieutenant Mazel faithfully patrolled between rounds.

In this position apparently Isaak Mazel (left) lost on time with White vs Bastrikov, USSR trade union 1938. Arbiter Volkovitsky inspects the matter. Mazel (1911-1945) was 2-time participant of the USSRch, won a match vs Kmoch in 1934 & the Moscow-ch 1941. Husband of Olga Rubtsova #chess

In fact, at this moment Nikolai Riumin was leading the tournament - undefeated, half a point ahead of Botvinnik, with 3 rounds to go. Yet he would lose this crucial game (as well as the last 2 games!), still he came 2nd in this 1931 USSR #chess championship. bsky.app/profile/tuur...

The picturesque position of Botvinnik-Riumin live(?) in 1931. The onlookers are Vainstein, Volkovisky and Zubarev.

Tamaz Giorgadze in later years #chess bsky.app/profile/tuur...

Baadur Jobava pictured in 2004. At the age of 16 he played 1st board of Georgia II at the European Team Ch 1999 in Batumi. Today at the #ETCC2025 - also in Batumi - he snatched victory from (two-time European champion & world championship candidate) Matthias Bluebaum.

Picture of a young Tamaz Georgadze (no moustache yet). He won the 3rd edition of the USSR Young Masters in 1969, which was held in Batumi #ETCC2025. Later ao he obtained a 4th place in the 1978 & 1979 USSRch, was part of Karpov's team, whereafter "Don Tomasio" went into business in Spain

Nino Khurtsidze played 1st board of Georgia's first women's team at the 3rd European Team #chess championships 1999 in Batumi (only two boards & one reserve player those days). The year before she had won the national men's championship. She died much too young in 2018.

Batumi #ETCC2025 1960, Georgian #chess championship: Tengiz Georgadze-Alexander Buslaev. Viktor Goglidze, main arbiter this time, is looking on. As usual in those years Bukhuti Gurgenidze (pictured vs Petrosian, Moscow Spartakiad 1959) won the championship.

At the Siegen Olympiad 1970 Albania refused to play South Africa. The were forfeited (0-4). During the 1974 Olympiad in Nice the FIDE-memberships of South Africa & Rhodesia were suspended by the FIDE-congress (26-17, 21 abstentions). The IOC had boycotted South Africa since 1964. #chess

Nxg2....whatever it takes! Hakobyan-Nihal,Samarkand #FIDEGrandSwiss saw the spectacular 18...Qf6 19.Bxf8 Nxg2. In Psakhis-Chekhov USSRCh Vilnius 1980 Black also went all out with 14...Nxg2. Both Black players were rewarded! #chess

Where Shneider, away from chess, has been involved in a transport business in Luhansk, before he moved to Kyiv with his family, he recently has played #chess again for SV 1920 Hofheim. Kishnev is regularly interviewed in Russian media as Nepo's coach. bsky.app/profile/tuur...

Alexander Shneider (1962) is a Ukrainian grandmaster from Luhansk. Ao he came shared 1st in Groningen open 1991. Another notable win was vs Beliavsky, USSRch 1990. GM Sergey Kishnev (1956) focused on #chess training early together with the likes of Krogius, Estrin & Zlotnik bsky.app/profile/tuur...

Samarkand 1983: Alexander Shneider-Sergey Kishnev. In this one wing battle Black collapsed quickly after 28...h6? (28...Kg7!) 29.Ra1 Bd5? (28...Bb3 29.Raa7 Rd1+ 30.Bf1 e5) 30.Nf6 (1-0/44). In 1994 Shneider would score a fine win over Kasparov; Kishnev would become coach of Nepomniachtchi #chess

Nowadays Azmaiparashvili is known for a lot of things. opponent. bsky.app/profile/bode... Once a promising youngster he beat Karpov with Black in the 50th USSR championship 1983 in a fine game, springing the opening surprise 10...b5 on his opponent. #chess

Georgian trainer Shota Intskirveli (1929-1994), with 7-years old Zurab Azmaiparashvili & Mzia Tsereteli. He also coached oa Nino Gurieli and Gennadi Zaichik. He died 65 years old, apparently of cold and hunger in a house with shattered windows. #chess

Hovering above #chesspolitics

A young (23) Dzindzichashvili at the USSR championship for teams 1967, playing for Georgia. Next to him Bukhuti Gurgenidze. #chess

On the free day before the last round (also the birthday of the participating Fridrik Olafsson) the players of Hoogovens #TataSteelChess 1977 played a football match against Dutch artists. It didn't break Timman's 5 wins out of 5 finishing streak! #chess

Constant Orbaan, later longtime arbiter in the Hoogoven #TataSteelChess tournaments, held the winner of the Przepiorka memorial 1957 to a spectacular draw. Geller's greedy 19..Nb3? (20.Bxg7! came) spoilt his advantage, Orbaan rushed with 22.e5?. 22.Rxc2! Kf7 23.Bxh8 Nh6 24.e5!; 23...Bb7 24.Ng5+!

Four more fine portraits by photographer Valery Levitin (1950-2013): Andrei Sokolov (March 20th 1963), Jaan Ehlvest (October 14th 1962), Alexander Chernin (March 6th 1960) and Artur Yusupov (February 13th 1960)

Leonid Yudasin (August 8th 1959), Sergey Dolmatov (February 20th 1959), Lev Psakhis (November 29th 1958) & Smbat Lputian (February 14th 1958) as pictured by Valery Levitin in 1988. #chess

Alexander Khalifman (January 18th 1966), Evgeny Bareev (November 21st 1966), Valery Salov (May 24th 1964) and Eduardas Rozentalis (May 27th 1963), as pictured by Valery Levitin in 1988.

On the 21st of July 1976, Mikhail Steinberg passed away - much too young. Engaged and intending to return to #chess now he had finished his studies, he died of leukemia, only 24 years old. He was buried in his home town Kharkiv, 9th cemetary, Oleksiivka

Vasily Ivanchuk (March 18th 1969), Alexey Dreev (January 30rd 1969), Boris Gelfand (june 24th 1968) and Ilya Smirin (January 21st 1968) as pictured by Valery Levitin in 1988. #chess

Irina Levitina became USSR champion for the first time in 1971, at the age of 17. She also won in 1978, 79 & 80. In 1984 she was the challenger for the world title, losing vs. Chiburdanidze. Before she quit her active chess career she became US champion in 1991,92 & 93, having moved there in 1990.

Tal-Timman, Skopje 1972 - 1st game beteen these 2, when Timman's cigarette instantly got offered the highest flame from Tal's lighter. (As told in "Timmans Titans"). On the board Tal's assault ratio went up due to the queen's switch Qe4-h4. 17..Nc5 could've lead to a rook switch!

12.Rh3 coming up, then a rusty nail in the knee after 16.Nd6 #Octopus Levenfish-Menchik, 1st round Moscow international 1935

Dubna 1983, Candidates' semi-finals, the 3rd out of 4 additional games. The score is still equal after 12 games. Levitina & Alexandria are now checking whether the position after 48.Kg2 would indeed arise for the third time after 58.Kg2. #chess

O.a. Alekhine and Klaus Junge in Prague 1942. digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/254... #chess #schach

Robert Hübner 16 years old at the German championships 1965 #chess #schach digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/329...

On the way to The Hague for the world #chess championship in 1948 five Soviets gave simuls in Berlin. They scored +69, -15, =37 vs the best Berlin players. From 2'13" Ragozin and 26 year old Smyslov in action: digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/307...

Table bughouse at #TataSteelChess Hoogovens 1970 by Rob Hartoch and Kick Langeweg

Forgotten, but still active, last month Alexei Fedorov scored a lightweight combinationial win in a King's Indian that started like Rapport's spectacular win vs Pragg (vs Debayan Ray, India 2025 18...Nc3 & 24...Rxb3). Photos from Corus #TataSteelChess 2001 bsky.app/profile/tuur...

Who recognizes the player in between Kramnik and Morozevich? Apart from the King's Gambit he advocated the Dragon and the King's Indian. #chess

Earlier that year 18-year-old Ulf Andersson had won the Hoogovens B-group 1970 (today's #TataSteelChess Challengers). bsky.app/profile/tuur...

As John Donaldson pointed out, Fischer adopted the #Nievergeltmanoeuvre #chesspattern in a simul Sunday Sept. 27th 1970 the day after the Siegen Olympiad had finished: en.chessbase.com/post/bobby-f... Likely the very next day Fischer famously confronted 19-year-old Ulf with the same idea!

Because of their religion Fischer & Reshevsky skipped the last round of the finals in the Siegen Olympiad. 1970, like they had done in the preliminary rounds 8 & 9. Thus Dutch champion Eddie Scholl missed the opportunity to play Fischer, but he beat Evans on board 1 (scoring 10½/17 in total) #chess

The USSR-squad (playing & non-playing!) at the 1970 Olympiad in front of the hotel where Fischer-Andersson was to be played after the event. bsky.app/profile/tuur...

The youngest participant 'with a wealth of black hair' in London 1922 - Max Euwe. His 1st round loss vs. Capablanca ended up in Euwe's "The Road to Chess Mastery" among all amateur vs master games, as Euwe insisted "he had played like an amateur". chesshistory.com/winter/extra...