The English invasion, led by the Beatles and Rolling Stones was near its peak when Chess Informant made its debut in 1966. The impact on the chess world by the Yugoslav publication was just as great as that by the Brits to the music scene. No less than Bobby Fischer was soon giving the publication his strongest recommendation to participants in the US Junior Closed. Later the franchise expanded to include not only the Informators but also major series devoted to openings (Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) and endings (Encyclopedia of Endings) as well as various specialist publications.
Forty-four years later the world is a much different place. Today many young players study almost exclusively on a computer and ChessBase is the standard for viewing data. Where does that leave a 46-year-old institution that is still primarily reliant on print publications?
One might think this company, whose products are based on detailed analysis of high-level games using symbols instead of language, would seem to be in great shape for the computer age. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case. Chess Informant has its own proprietary system for viewing its publications, but like Beta against VHS it did not turn out the winner against Chess Base – most people only wanted to learn one system and CB was it.
Chess Informant did release some of its material in Chess Base format (many years of Chess Informant) but this presented a different problem, one that continues to plague them today – software pirates. Look at the price of all but the latest hard copy Chess Informants and it’s clear they plummet in price very quickly. Why? Because a few months after the electronic version of the respective issue appears in CI format someone breaks the code and puts up a free version online in Chess Base format. Some people have no qualms taking the labor of others for free but in the case of Chess Informant the matter is sometimes more complicated – I know of several individuals who continue to buy Informators in paper and/or electronic form but never use them preferring to access the material in CB format. They want to show their support but also use the material in a way that is convenient for them.
This background information leads to a review of the latest Chess Informant publication: THE GREATEST TOURNAMENTS 2001-2009. This 520 page book presents eighty-six of the strongest tournaments played during the last decade that met the following criteria:
• They were round-robin tournaments
• A normal time-control was used
• There were a minimum number of six participants
• Category 17 (2650 average) and higher
The tournaments are presented in chronological order. Along with a crosstable of the event, each tournament is represented by the best game of the winner, the best game played at the tournament, and the game with the most important theoretical novelty. There is also a selection of game fragments, the most beautiful combinations and endings. Fans of chess statistics can find plenty of interesting data with three tables given at the end of the book featuring tournament category statistics, tournament winner stats and a record for all participants in these high level events.
The curious may be interested to know that Bilbao 2008 was the highest rated tournament of all time (2769), eclipsing the 2005 Candidates event in San Luis (2739). The winner in both events was the same player – Veselin Topalov. He also happens to have won ten other of these elite events.
The analysis of these games is top notch as one would expect from a list of the annotators – Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Ivanchuk, etc. The physical productions of this book is also of the highest standards. This thick book is sturdily bound, the layout is generous and easy to read. The games, analysis and diagrams are crisp and clear. There is enough material in THE GREATEST TOURNAMENTS 2001-2009 to keep one busy for months if not for years.
The question is not if this is a good book – it certainly is – but if it is the right one for you. First off, if you have all the Chess Informants of the last decade, it does appear that the chess analysis presented here has been published before. That said most chess fans interested in this work will appreciate having all the information in one place. A more important question, in fact the major one, is do you play over games using a board and set(s)? If you do this book is for you – if not look elsewhere.
