14 July 2009

Early Kasparov Annotations

While rummaging through old Informants, looking for a game that would ultimately turn into a blog post I wanted to do (see Unclear : Some Huebner Analysis for the game), I noticed Kasparov's name referenced as annotator on Informants from the late 1970s. This led to the question: What was his first annotated game in Informant (INF)? It turns out that it's this one from INF25 (covering 1978-H1)...

Garry Kasparov vs Anatoly S Lutikov, Minsk Sokolsky-mem (17) 1978
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1069748

...The game is typical of Kasparov's early style, showing unrelenting aggressiveness that never leaves his opponent a single move to catch his breath and consolidate his position. Kasparov's 'Fighting Chess' (American Chess Promotions, 1983) mentions that it was the first game where Kasparov defeated a GM in one-on-one competition. Despite being unrated, he won the event +11-2=4, a half point ahead of Kupreichik, rated at 2530. Lutikov was the highest rated player in the event at 2540.

What about other early Informants? Here are more games annotated by Kasparov, listed with PGN tags:-

INF25 1978-H1:
"?","Minsk Sokolsky-mem (17)","1978.??.??","17","Kasparov Garry","Lutikov","1-0"

INF26 1978-H2:
"?","Daugavpils","1978.??.??","9","Kasparov Garry","Ivanov I","1/2-1/2"

I touched on the Ivanov game in my post on 'Premier League' and 'First League'. It was a crucial game that helped put Kasparov's career on the fastest track available.

INF27 1979-H1:
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","1","Kasparov Garry","Petrosian, T.","1/2-1/2"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","2","Shibarevich, M.","Kasparov Garry","0-1"
"?","Banja Luka i","1979.??.??","8","Knezevic M","Kasparov Garry","0-1"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","5","Kasparov Garry","Marovich, D.","1-0"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","3","Kasparov Garry","Browne, W.","1-0"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","7","Kasparov Garry","Marjanovich, S.","1-0"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","4","Hernandez, R.","Kasparov Garry","0-1"
"?","Banja Luka","1979.??.??","10","Kasparov Garry","Vukich, M.","1-0"

INF28 1979-H2:
"?","Minsk","1979.??.??","3","Kasparov Garry","Yusupov, A.","1-0"
"?","Minsk","1979.??.??","9","Tseshkovsky, V.","Kasparov Garry","1/2-1/2"
"?","Moscow","1979.??.??","3","Kasparov Garry","Polugaevsky, L.","1-0"
"?","Minsk","1979.??.??","16","Kasparov Garry","Dolmatov, S.","1-0"
"t","URS","1979.??.??","8","Kasparov Garry","Butnoris A J","1-0"
"?","Moscow","1979.??.??","2","Veingold, A.","Kasparov Garry","1-0"
"?","Moscow","1979.??.??","4","Averkin, O.","Kasparov Garry","1/2-1/2"

INF28 appears to be the first where Kasparov was listed with a rating, 2595, plus an IM title. Subsequent Informants had even more Kasparov annotations. INF29: x 18 games, INF30: x 13, INF31: x 11, and INF32: x 24. The same early Informants listed the pair 'Kasparov, Sakarov' annotating a few games: INF26: x 8, INF28: x 3, INF29: x 2, INF30: x 2, INF31: x 3, and INF32: x 9 (also 'Kasparov, Akopov' x 2). I drew a blank with Sakarov and Akopov. Were they early trainers?

INF32 (1981-H2) included the 1981 USSR championship, where Kasparov tied for first place with Psakhis. That was about the same time I first became aware of Kasparov and I remember spending several hours playing through all of his games from the event. They were simply amazing.

Why mention all of this? I can think of one or two promising directions to take the idea further.

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