Kasparov and Karpov remained the top two players in the world, positions that they had held since July 1982. Over the year, English players Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelman moved up the list, whilst Dutch player Jan Timman fell out of the top 10, having stood third in the January 1988 list.
The following major chess tournaments took place in 1989:
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 last three of these tournaments were held in 1989.
20 March - 20 April: The fourth tournament was held in Barcelona and won by Kasparov and Ljubomir Ljubojević, each with 11/16.
3 June - 24 June: The fifth tournament was held in Rotterdam and won by Timman with 10½/15, ahead of Karpov with 9½.
12 August - 3 September: The sixth and final tournament was held in Skellefteå, Sweden and won by Karpov and Kasparov, each with 9½/15. Kasparov won the World Cup series, and prize money of $175,000, with Karpov second.
23 November - 3 December: The 9th European Team Chess Championship in Haifa was won by the USSR, ahead of Yugoslavia in second and West Germany in third.
The gold medal on the first board was won by Olivier Renet of France with 6/9. Valery Salov of USSR was second with 5/8.
18 February - 5 March: The Linares tournament was won by Ivanchuk with 7½/10, ahead of Karpov with 7.
9 September - 16 September: The 9th World Microcomputer Chess Championship was held in Portorož, Slovenia, and won by Mephisto X from the United Kingdom with 6½/7.
15 September - 2 October: The Tilburg tournament was dominated by Kasparov who won 10 games and drew only 4 to finish with 12/14. Viktor Korchnoi was second with 8½/14. This event took Kasparov's rating past Bobby Fischer's record of 2780.
28 December - 9 January 1990: The Reggio Emilia tournament was won by Jaan Ehlvest with 7½/10, ahead of Ivanchuk with 6½.
The Wijk aan Zee tournament ended in a 4-way tie between Viswanathan Anand, Zoltán Ribli, Predrag Nikolić and Gyula Sax, each with 7½/13.
Grandmaster
In 1989, FIDE awarded the Grandmaster title to the following 17 players:
Michael Adams (born 1971) England
Evgeny Bareev (born 1966) Soviet Union
Branko Damljanovic (born 1961) Yugoslavia
Alexey Dreev (born 1961) Soviet Union
Boris Gelfand (born 1968) Soviet Union
Alon Greenfeld (born 1964) Israel
Alexander Goldin (born 1965) United States
Ferdinand Hellers (born 1969) Sweden
Daniel J. King (born 1963) England
Bachar Kouatly (born 1958) France
Zdenko Kožul (born 1966) Yugoslavia
Michał Krasenkow (born 1963) Poland
Stefan Mohr (born 1967) Germany
Jeroen Piket (born 1969) Netherlands
Miodrag Todorcevic (born 1940) Yugoslavia
Evgeny Vladimirov (born 1957) Soviet Union
Alexey Vyzmanavin (born 1960) Soviet Union
Woman Grandmaster
In 1989, FIDE awarded the title Woman Grandmaster to the following 2 players:
Anna Akhsharumova (born 1957) Soviet Union
Zsofia Polgar (born 1974) Hungary
The following chess grandmasters were born in 1989:
19 January Maxim Rodshtein Israel
27 January Avetik Grigoryan Armenia
10 February Manuel León Hoyos Mexico
11 March Zaven Andriasian Armenia
28 March Sergei Zhigalko Belgium
29 March Geetha Narayanan Gopal India
6 April Robin Swinkels Netherlands
21 April Li Chao China
30 April Hrant Melkumyan Armenia
4 August Wang Hao China
28 August Aleksandr Rakhmanov Russia
4 November Axel Bachmann Paraguay
27 December Kateryna Lahno Ukraine
Abhijeet Gupta India
Eduardo Iturrizaga Venezuela
Davit Jojua Georgia
Rinat Jumabayev Kazakhstan
Aleksandr Lenderman United States
Michal Olszewski Poland
Tornike Sanikidze Georgia
Krisztian Szabo Hungary
Daniele Vocaturo Italy
The following leading chess personalities died in 1989:
4 April Baruch Harold Wood (born 1909): founded British magazine CHESS in 1935
15 October Anatoly Lutikov (born 1933): Russian Grandmaster who finished third in the USSR Championships 1968-9
Karen Grigorian (born 1947): Armenian International Master who was champion of Moscow in 1975 and 1979. Committed suicide by jumping from the tallest bridge in Yerevan
The game between Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović in Belgrade 1989 lasted for over 20 hours and consisted of 269 moves. This is still the record number of moves played in a single tournament game. The game was eventually drawn.
