Events in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

in 2003:

Deaths

*February 4 – Jaroslav Šajtar (1921–2003), 81, Czech Grandmaster and

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

vice chairman. *May 10 – Milan Vukcevich (1937–2003), 66, Yugoslav/American

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

, Grandmaster of Chess Composition, and scientist. *May 11 –

Luděk Pachman Luděk Pachman (German: Ludek Pachmann, May 11, 1924 – March 6, 2003) was a Czechoslovak-German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change governmen ...

(1924–2003), 78, Czech Grandmaster, chess writer, and political activist. *May 16 –

Bogdan Śliwa Bogdan Śliwa (4 February 1922 in Kraków – 16 May 2003) was a Polish chess master. Śliwa won the championship of Poland six times. In 1946, he won the first Polish Chess Championship after World War II in Sopot (5th POL-ch). In 1948, ...

(1922–2003), 81, Polish Grandmaster. *June 24 – Russ Chauvenet (1920–2003), 83, American International Master, chess writer, U.S. deaf champion. *July 11 –

Ken Whyld Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) was a British chess author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', a single-volume chess reference work in English. Whyld was a str ...

(1926–2003), 77, British chess writer and researcher. *August 31 - Péter Székely (1955–2003), 48, Hungarian Grandmaster. *October 31 – Antonio Medina (1919–2003), 84, International Master, many time Spanish Champion. *December 20 – Denis Barry (1929–2003), 74, American chess organizer and President of the USCF. *December 28 – Frank Parr (1918–2003), 85, English chess player. {{chess 21st century in chess Chess by year