Kasparov and Karpov remained the top two players in the world, positions that they had held since July 1982. Over the year, Dutch player Jan Timman and Alexander Beliavsky of the USSR moved up the list, whilst Andrei Sokolov from the USSR and Ljubomir Ljubojević of Yugoslavia moved down.
January 1988 FIDE rating list. Top 11 players
The following major chess tournaments took place in 1988:
Grandmasters Association World Cup
The Grandmasters Association held six World Cup tournaments over 1988 and 1989, with some of the world's best players invited. The first three of these tournaments were held in 1988.
1 April – 22 April: The first tournament was held in Brussels and won by Karpov with 11/16, ahead of Valery Salov with 10.14 June – 3 July: The second tournament was held in Belfort, France and won by Kasparov with 11½/15, ahead of Karpov with 10½.3 October – 24 October: The third tournament was held in Reykjavík and was again won by Kasparov, with 11/17. Beliavsky was second, with 10½/15.The 28th Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece was held between 12 November and 30 November. It was won by the USSR, ahead of England in second and the Netherlands in third.
The gold medal on the first board was won by Kasparov of USSR with 8½/10. Lajos Portisch of Hungary was second, also scoring 8½, but from 11 games.
The Women's Chess Olympiad was held alongside the open tournament. The winners were Hungary, ahead of the USSR and Yugoslavia.
23 February – 8 March: The Linares tournament was won by Timman with 8½/11, ahead of Beliavsky with 7.6 September – 28 September: The 12th Tilburg tournament was won by Karpov with 10½/14, ahead of Short with 8½.December 1988 – January 1989: The Reggio Emilia tournament was won by Mikhail Gurevich with 6½/9, ahead of Kiril Georgiev and Ulf Andersson Ivanchuk with 5½.The Wijk aan Zee tournament was won by Karpov with 9/13, ahead of Anderssen with 8½.Grandmaster
In 1989, FIDE awarded the Grandmaster title to the following 20 players:
Viswanathan Anand (b. 1969) IndiaZurab Azmaiparashvili (b. 1960) GeorgiaEmir Dizdarevic (b. 1958) YugoslaviaYury Dokhoian (b. 1964) Soviet UnionBoris Gelfand (b. 1968) Soviet UnionKrum Georgiev (b. 1958) BulgariaJörg Hickl (b. 1965) GermanyJulian Hodgson (b. 1963) EnglandMiguel Illescas (b. 1963) SpainGregory Kaidanov (b. 1959) Ukraine/ United StatesStefan Kindermann (b. 1959) GermanyJosef Klinger (b. 1967) AustriaBogdan Lalić (b. 1964) Croatia/ EnglandValentin Lukov (b. 1955) BulgariaGilberto Milos (b. 1963) BrazilMichael Rohde (b. 1959) United StatesHarry Schussler (b. 1957) SwedenElizbar Ubilava (b. 1950) Georgia/ SpainReynaldo Vera (b. 1961) CubaMichael Wilder (b. 1962) United StatesIn addition George Koltanowski (b. 1903) was awarded an honorary Grandmaster title in 1988.
The following chess grandmasters were born in 1988:
9 January Viktor Láznička Czech Republic5 February Markus Ragger Austria8 February Arik Braun Germany14 February Evgeny Romanov Russia14 February Adam Tukhaev Ukraine3 March Timur Gareev Uzbekistan11 March Ante Brkić Croatia11 March Alexandr Fier Brazil14 April Pawel Czarnota Poland18 April Yuriy Ajrapetjan Ukraine20 April Mark Bluvshtein Canada21 April Subramanian Arun Prasad India26 April Boban Bogosavljević Serbia26 April Rauf Mamedov Azerbaijan30 April Denes Boros Hungary13 May Luka Lenič Slovenia11 June Zhou Jianchao China21 June Alejandro Ramírez Costa Rica7 July Wen Yang China8 August Marin Bosiočić Croatia23 August Dmitry Kononenko Ukraine6 September Valentin Iotov Bulgaria9 September Bassem Amin Egypt27 September David Baramidze Germany11 November Yuri Vovk UkraineAnatoly Bykhovsky IsraelNikolai Chadaev RussiaLaszlo Gonda HungaryVitaliy Kiselev RussiaDaniel Alsina Leal SpainWojciech Moranda PolandIoannis Papadopoulos GreecePavel Ponkratov RussiaDeep Sengupta IndiaThe following leading chess personality died in 1988:
27 November Jan Hein Donner (b. 1927): Dutch Grandmaster who won the Dutch Championship in 1954, 1957 and 1958.The German chess magazine, Deutsche Schachzeitung ceased publication in December 1988, having been published regularly since 1846.The musical Chess premiered on Broadway in April 1988. It closed in June 1988.