It’s a new year, and for a chess columnist that means a whole bunch of anniversaries and milestones to celebrate in 2023.
We’re not likely to match the hoopla surrounding 2022’s 50th anniversary of the epic Spassky-Fischer world championship duel in Reykjavik, Iceland, but there are some chronologically significant dates that we can use as an excuse to meet a column deadline for the coming 12 months. (See, for example, if we can get through the entire year without noting the centenary of the great Yugoslav grandmaster and writer Svetozar Gligoric, born Feb. 2, 1923.)
Today we celebrate two of the great players of the early modern era and one of the most significant chess tournaments of the 19th century, played 150 years ago this year.