City on the move: Graz wasn’t mate at all in chess

By author Kurt Jungwirth

From the dream of a World Cup duel to the founding of an association: Graz has helped shape the history of chess.

The historical traces of the sport of chess in Graz can essentially be traced back to Johann Nepomuk Berger (1845–1933) – a master player and chess theorist who was particularly well known in the chess-loving Soviet Union. When the student world championship took place in Graz in 1972 with a certain Anatoli Karpow (later world champion), the author of this text was immediately approached by the Soviet delegation to Berger. The forgotten Graz chess pioneer later received a memorial plaque in the foyer of the Graz Commercial Academy, in whose new building he had played a key role as director. The student world championship was the starting signal for Graz to participate in the further positive development of the sport of chess.

No World Cup luck

World political tensions in the midst of the Cold War motivated the state capital to act as a bridge builder in world chess. A candidacy was submitted to the World Chess Federation FIDE to host the 1978 World Cup duel between Victor Korchnoi and Karpov.
Despite Korchnoi’s express request, the contract was not awarded, the title fight was held in the Philippines and Karpov won after 32 games. But: Graz had finally made a name for itself in world chess with its candidacy. The return match took place three years later, in 1981, in Merano. Under the direction of the referee Gertrude Wagner from Graz, the first woman ever to lead a men’s World Cup duel, Karpow was able to confidently defend his title.

When Kasparov was in Graz

In the same year, the city was to become an early witness to a future world champion: At the junior team world championship in the Styrian capital, none other than Garri Kasparov led the Soviet selection as captain.
In 1985 the state capital hosted the 56th FIDE Congress. 124 countries took part. It was a turbulent time in the chess world as a number of problems piled up. Among other things, the rift between FIDE and the new world champion Kasparov, whereupon he founded his own association, the “Professional Chess Association”.

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It was the turn of the chess computer

In order to be able to better represent European interests in FIDE, the “European Chess Union” was finally brought into being in Graz on August 30, 1985, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union was also joined by its constituent states. The European club cup developed, in which the 13-time club state champion “Merkur Graz” regularly took part under the direction of manager Peter Detter. The sport of kings also had to develop further, so that a chess computer world championship took place in Graz in 2003, the year of the cultural capital. The author of these lines was allowed to act as President of the Austrian Chess Association until 2017 and can look back on a wonderful time.

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