Chess (#1129)

Looking back on an entire year is always going to be a subjective exercise. But here goes anyway.

One big theme was the rise of talent in Asia and other non-traditional centres. Circa 2001, it would have been hard to imagine China or India, let alone Iran and Vietnam challenging at Olympiads. Ladbrokes would have given asking odds to anyone mad enough to think of a Norwegian champion.

172 nations played the Tromso Olympiad. China won gold, Hungary silver, India bronze. India won gold at the Junior Olympiad where two 15-year-olds from Chennai became GMs. Iran took the Junior bronze. Nine Indians and nine Chinese are in the Junior Top 100, (as are 19 Russians). China's standout performer was Yu Yangyi, the World Junior Champion, who won the Super-open in Qatar.

Top Ten demographics emphasise "cosmopolitanism". Eight nations are represented. Two players (#3 Alexander Grischuk, #8 Vladimir Kramnik) are Russian, and two are American. The #1 is Norwegian. There's an Indian (#5 Viswanathan Anand), a Dutchman of Nepali-Russian extraction (#7 Anish Giri), an American of Japanese-Sri Lankan extraction (Hikaru Nakamura), a Filipino who is a naturalised American (Wesley So), an American-born Italian (#2 Fabiano Caruana) and an Armenian (#6 Levon Aronian).

Another theme was, unfortunately, FIDE gridlock. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov stays. Russian oligarchs fund. This is a barrier to Fortune 500 sponsorship, which would otherwise be easy, given a personable champion and chess' natural attraction for rich geeks.

Magnus Carlsen defended the classical title and won rapid and blitz crowns for an unique treble. It was a bittersweet year for Anand, the man Carlsen beat for the second time. Though, he did win three big tournaments.

He's not retiring. But at 45, Anand must now know that he is unlikely to be champion again. The man most capable of a successful challenge is Caruana, who registered the greatest performance in tournament history when he won seven straight at the Sinquefield Cup.

Judit Polgar did retire, at 37. She is the only woman to reach the Top Ten and she smashed multiple gender barriers. Hou Yifan could be a worthy successor - the 20-year-old women's world champion is one of nine Chinese GMs in the top 100.

From THE DIAGRAM WHITE TO PLAY ( White: Judit Polgar Vs Black: Garry Kasparov, Moscow 2002) Polgar created history by 26.Re1! Bd6 27.Bxe5 Kd7 28.c4 c5 29.Bxd6 cxd6 30.Re6 Rah8 The rook endgame is won after 31.Rexd6+ Kc8 32.R2d5 Rh3+ 33.Kg2 Rh2+ 34.Kf3 R2h3+ 35.Ke4 b6 36.Rc6+ Kb8 37.Rd7 Rh2 38.Ke3 Rf8 39.Rcc7 Rxf5 40.Rb7+ Kc8 41.Rdc7+ Kd8 42.Rxg7 Kc8 (1-0). After 43. Rxa7 Kb8 44. Raf7 forces off a pair of rooks.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player