Chess families

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Chess families

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:08 am

Gordon Cadden wrote:Baruch H Wood and his children, all played chess. His daughter Margaret, married the International Master, P.H. Clarke.
Clarke's daughter recently sold some of her father's books on eBay (I bought a couple), so evidently the chess playing gene has not been inherited by her!

Ian Kingston
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Re: Chess families

Post by Ian Kingston » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:10 am

William Metcalfe wrote:Arnt there two womens grand masters that are sisters also
Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva are both GMs, 4th and 5th on the women's list with ratings of 2560 and 2557 respectively.

William Metcalfe
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Re: Chess families

Post by William Metcalfe » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:07 am

Thank you Ian those are the sisters i meant
I am speaking here for myself and not the NCCU which i am now president of

Malcolm Clarke
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Re: Chess families

Post by Malcolm Clarke » Wed Jul 06, 2011 5:35 pm

On 16th January 2004 Ordnance Survey played Eastleigh Working Mens Club in the Southampton Chess League's Robertson Plate. All five players in the Eastleigh Working Mens Club team had the same surname, and they were all relatives of each other. Frequently the same team fielded four members of this family, although it should also be mentioned that the team played in division 4 of the Southampton chess league.

On the subject of families in other sports then the Clarke brothers (Allan, Frank, Derek, Kelvin and Wayne) all played league football, although only Allan played to international level.

In relation to cricket the grandfather/father/son combinations of Len, Richard and Ben Hutton, Maurice, Tim and Chris Tremlett, Jim (senior), Jim (junior) and Bobby Parks all produced two Test match cricketers and one good county cricketer. Also Walter Hadlee captained New Zealand, and his three sons Dayle, Sir Richard and Barry also played international cricket.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess families

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:25 pm

If we are talking cricket the Mohammads in Pakistan (Hanif, Mushtaq and Sadiq only being the best known) are surely worth a mention.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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Ben Purton
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Re: Chess families

Post by Ben Purton » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:28 pm

One of the most dominate Brother Sister combo's has to be in Tennis, Marat Safin and Miss Safina are both former World Number 1's in their respective Gender of the Sport. Their are many great Families in NFL especially in the United States
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I would die happy if I beat Wood Green in the Eastman Cup final - Richmond LL captain.
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Chess families

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:34 pm

Safin and Safina have only won two grand slam singles titles between them, though, which isn't normally what you'd consider dominant.

(The other great sibling pair of their generation, Venus and Serena Williams, have won twenty.)

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Ben Purton
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Re: Chess families

Post by Ben Purton » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:50 pm

But it is very rare to have a Male and Female their respective sports. That was the reference. Becoming World Number 1 is a fair achievement . Safina got to 4 finals in a year I believe(lost them all). Their are plenty of great Brothers and Sisters. But to have both is very cool.

Hardaway's, Woodson's(cousins) , etc etc in the United States they love Brother/Sister combined. The guys who sued facebook for 70 million and got Olympic golds in Rowing are a good example.
I love sleep, I need 8 hours a day and about 10 at night - Bill Hicks
I would die happy if I beat Wood Green in the Eastman Cup final - Richmond LL captain.
Hating the Yankees since 2002. Hating the Jets since 2001.

Chris J Greatorix
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Re: Chess families

Post by Chris J Greatorix » Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:07 pm

NeilJerzynek wrote:the spelling may be different but to anybody in the northwest when I read this thread this song came into my head

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSseI1hao8

lol
huh :?

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Chess families

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:48 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Safin and Safina have only won two grand slam singles titles between them, though, which isn't normally what you'd consider dominant.

(The other great sibling pair of their generation, Venus and Serena Williams, have won twenty.)
And for another sibling (actually, twin) combination, the Bryan brothers are dominant in doubles and have won lots of men's doubles titles. Back in chess, the Pert twins are the only twins I'm aware of, though I think there are others. Yes, Alisa and Mirjana Maric, mentioned earlier in this thread, are twin sisters.

Some more chess siblings mentioned here:

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2006/01 ... lings.html

The strongest siblings (minimum of at least 2 GMs) appear to be (changed this from an earlier version):

GM Susan Polgar and GM Judit Polgar (sisters)
GM Jozsef Horvath and GM Csaba Horvath (brothers)

I looked at the Horvaths on the FIDE rating list and there are a lot of them (at least four GMs named Horvath)! It must be a very common name in Hungary. I'm presuming that Susan Polgar and/or whoever suggested the Horvaths is correct that they are brothers. The next (silly) question is which surname has the most GMs associated with it... (would you believe that there are no current GMs called Smith?) It should be a simple case of downloading the FIDE rating list and sorting by title and then surname (unless non-Western name ordering messes things up, and Anglicised names, and variant spellings, and female-male spellings), but even then you have to take into account deceased holders of the GM title and add those ones in.

Hmm. From Susan Polgar's blog:

"GM-elect GB Prakash and GM RB Ramesh"

But the FIDE rating list only gives Ramesh as a GM:

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=5002109

GB Prakash is only listed as an IM:

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=5001285

So I don't know why Susan Polgar's blog (of 4 January 2006) says he is a GM-elect (and anyway, would they be brothers - I don't know how Indian surnames work).

To go with the four Horvaths, there are four Ivanovs and four Gurevichs, if anyone is still trying to find the most common surname among GMs...(quite a lot of triples, including 3 Wangs and 3 Zhaos, but nothing more than 4 that I could see).
Last edited by Christopher Kreuzer on Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Richard James
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Re: Chess families

Post by Richard James » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:25 pm

John Purdy, his father Cecil Purdy and his grandfather Spencer Crakanthorp were all Australian chess champions.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Chess families

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:27 pm

Richard James wrote:John Purdy, his father Cecil Purdy and his grandfather Spencer Crakanthorp were all Australian chess champions.
Thanks. When it goes into the maternal side of the family, the names change, so you have to know the relationships there. Might be quite a lot of generational links that are not well known.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Chess families

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:30 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Richard James wrote:John Purdy, his father Cecil Purdy and his grandfather Spencer Crakanthorp were all Australian chess champions.
Thanks. When it goes into the maternal side of the family, the names change, so you have to know the relationships there. Might be quite a lot of generational links that are not well known.
It's even more fun trying to investigate this in countries like Iceland, where a player may well not have the same surname as either parent.

Richard Bates
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Re: Chess families

Post by Richard Bates » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:32 pm

George, Ron and Dean Headley.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Chess families

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:38 pm

For the record (with current FIDE affiliations) players with the same surname (most of these are not related, though from the above blog post, it seems two of the Horvaths are brothers):

Dmitry Gurevich (born 1956) - USA
Ilya Gurevich (born 1972) - USA
Mikhail Gurevich (born 1959) - Turkey
Vladimir Gurevich (born 1959) - Ukraine

Adam Horvath (born 1981) - Hungary
Csaba Horvath (born 1968) - Hungary
Jozsef Horvath (born 1964) - Hungary
Peter Horvath (born 1972) - Hungary

Alexander Ivanov (born 1956) - USA
Mikhail Ivanov (born 1969) - Russia
Sergey Ivanov (born 1961) - Russia
Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov (1947-2005) - Canada

That last name has a real story behind it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Vasilyevich_Ivanov

"He was sent as a member of a Soviet delegation to play chess at the Capablanca Memorial tournament in Havana, Cuba. On what was supposed to have been a direct flight home to Moscow, the airplane, a Czechoslovak airliner, had to make an emergency refueling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Ivanov, seizing his chance, ran from the plane with only what he was wearing and his pocket chess set, while chased by KGB agents. Ivanov was granted political asylum in Canada."

He was awarded the GM title in 2005, but sadly died later that year.