March 8 – 5th Interzonal Tournament at Stockholm won by Bobby Fischer (USA) with 17.5/22. Tigran Petrosian (USSR) and Efim Geller (USSR) tied for 2nd–3rd with 15 points, Victor Korchnoi (USSR) and Miroslav Filip (Czechoslovakia) tied for 4th–5th with 14 points. Pal Benko (USA) won the sixth and final qualifying position for the Candidates Tournament in a three-way playoff with Leonid Stein (USSR) and Svetozar Gligorić after all tied for 6th–8th with 13.5 points. Although Stein scored the most points in the playoff, he was barred from qualifying for the Candidates Tournament by a FIDE rule that allowed no more than three players from the same federation to qualify. The Interzonal was originally scheduled to be played in the Netherlands in 1961, but difficulties obtaining visas caused a delay while another site was found.
5th Candidates Tournament in Curaçao won by Tigran Petrosian (USSR) with 17.5/27, a half point ahead of Paul Keres (USSR) and Efim Geller (USSR) tied for 2nd–3rd. Bobby Fischer (USA) finishes fourth. The victory makes Petrosian the challenger in the 1963 World Championship against Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR).
October 10 – 15th Olympiad in Varna won by the USSR team with 31.5 points. Yugoslavia earns the silver medal with 28, and Argentina the bronze with 26.
Martin Kreuzer, German ICCGM, FM, and mathematics professor.
February 12 – Nana Ioseliani, Georgian IM and WGM, two time challenger for the Women's World Championship.
February 19 – Rogelio Antonio Jr., Filipino GM.
April 5 – Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Kalmyk President of FIDE since 1995.
April 10 – Alexander Huzman, Ukrainian born Israeli GM and trainer.
April 18 – William Watson, British GM and lawyer.
June 13 – Paul Motwani, Scottish GM.
July 31 – Agnieszka Brustman, Polish WGM.
August 17 – Michael Wilder, American GM and attorney.
August 25 – Alexander Graf, Uzbek-German GM.
September 17 – Xu Jun, Chinese GM.
October – Deen Hergott, Canadian IM, mathematician, and chess writer.
October 14 – Jaan Ehlvest, Estonian/American GM.
March 11 – Viacheslav Ragozin (1908–1962), 53, Soviet GM, International Arbiter, chess writer, and World Correspondence Chess Champion 1956–59.
April 3 – Ernst Grünfeld (1893–1962), 68, Austrian GM and opening theorist, eponym of the Grünfeld Defence.
May 4 – Josef Rejfiř (1909–1962), 52, Czechoslovak IM.
July 27 – Roy Turnbull Black (1888–1962), American chess player and judge who defeated Capablanca in 1911.
October 9 – Milan Vidmar (1885–1962), 77, Yugoslav/Slovene GM.
October 25 – Abe Turner (1924–1962), 38, American chess expert, murdered at the offices of Chess Review.
November 30 – Ossip Bernstein (1882–1962), 80, Russian born French GM and a financial lawyer.
December – Menachem Oren (1901–1962), Polish-born Israeli chess player and mathematician.
1962 in chess Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
