CHESS INFORMANTS vs. NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOKS

Reviewed by John Watson

It’s easy for me to take the Chess Informant series for granted. At the risk of repeating myself, I can’t overemphasize the position that Informants hold in the chess community.  It is the bible of strong players and one of the most useful ways that average players can learn openings. This is due to the fact that every game is annotated by a strong player; usually a grandmaster and often one of the world’s top 10. One forgets that the near-universally applied opening classification system (A00 through E99) originated with the Informant editors (I think), and the games are still presented in that order. CHESS INFORMANT 90 has a variety of features, the core of the volume being 501 games. High-profile annotators include Anand, Dreev, Gelfand, Kramnik (11 games!), Lautier, Leko, Shirov, I Sokolov, etc. Over the years World Champions Karpov and Kasparov have annotated scores of their games for Informant.

The core of Informants has always been the games, which cover every opening. But over the years Chess Informant has steadily expanded its offering. CHESS INFORMANT 90, for example, has regular features such as a vote of the top 10 games from the preceding volume as judged by Belyavsky, Christiansen, M Gurevich, Korchnoi, Matanovich, Piket, Speelman, and Xie Jun! A star-studded jury, to say the least. The 20 other games receiving votes follow. In CHESS INFORMANT 90, the game Short-Pogorelov, Gibraltar 2004 tops the list with a lengthy and beautiful combination/attack that would easily make the collections of 100 Best Games written 40 or more years ago. But so would a good chunk of these games, as would several from every Informant! We also see that even players in the second or third ranks of world chess produce astonishing brilliancies. One could unquestionably learn what makes an attack work by studying these games. On top of that, the positionally-oriented games in Informant are an education in strategy that will match any other. I have heard that Psakhis became a strong player by going over 100 games from Informants extremely carefully. I suspect that this technique would produce much better results than spending an equivalent time reading the “how-to-master [the middlegame/endgame/tactics/training techniques/psychology]” books.

The Informant also has a list of the 10 most important novelties (and 20 other vote-getters) from the previous volume. This time the judges are Anand, Bareev, Benjamin, Yusupov, Lutz, Mihalchisin, Salov, I Sokolov, and Timman. Guess what percentage of top players read Chess Informant?

Other regular sections are selections of Combinations, Endgames, and Studies, along with a list of rated tournaments and results since the last number. Finally, each Informant has a special section devoted to the games of a leading player. In Informant 90 we are treated to a dazzling display of best games, combinations, endings, and novelties by Judit Polgar. This extends over 21 pages. For serious players, the Informant is the answer to that “If I only had one publication to read, which would it be?” question.

The main disadvantage of the Informant series is the fact that they are wordless (except for a few informational pages – these have text written in 9 languages!). Thus one gets no positional or strategic guidance beyond that gleaned by implication from the game and notes. Of course this is probably a very good way to study if you have the discipline and time because (a) you are forced to learn for yourself and draw your own conclusions; (b) instead of being fed some generalities, however time-saving, you obtain a more subtle and nuanced feel for an opening by absorbing the timing and balance necessary to make those generalizations meaningful.

Perhaps that approach isn’t comfortable for many players, and others turn to what is the other first-rank non-electronic publication for openings, the NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK (NICY). Most eager masters get both Informant and NICY, but if you want to find specialized articles about individual openings, NICY is the way to go. The core of NICY is the Surveys about particular variations, written by GMs and IMs including many of the world’s best theoreticians. They are introduced by a short commentary and are followed by a lengthy game selection. The Yearbook also features book reviews. In the case of #71 we have:

- Khalifman: Opening for White according to Anand: 1.e4 - Book 1

- Khalifman: Opening for White according to Anand: 1.e4 - Book 2

- Müller/Voigt: Danish Dynamite

- Sakaev: How to Get the Edge Against the Gruenfeld

Everyone’s favorite sections (mine, at least) are The Forum and Sosonko’s Corner. The Forum is full of fascinating reader contributions about every type of opening:

Forum and Sosonko's Comer
Opening	Variation	HIC-Key	Author	Page
Queen's Indian Defence	Nimzowitsch Variation 4...Ba6	QI16.11	Pezzica	10
Dutch Defence	Leningrad Variation 7...Nc6	HD 6.4	Edlund	11
Dutch Defence	Leningrad Variation 7... Nc6	HD 6.4	Conroy	12
Griinfeld Indian Defence	Exchange Variation 7.Bc4	G16.8	Da Costa Junior	12
French Defence	Steinitz Variation 4.e5	FR 4.4	Aagaard	13
French Defence	Winawer Variation 3...Bb4	FR 11.4	Watson	14
Sicilian Defence	Najdorf Variation 6.Bg5	S19.2	Van derTak	15
King's Indian Defence	Samisch Variation 5.f3	KI 40.5	Herbold	16
French Defence	Franco-Polish Gambit 2...b5	FR 1.3	Van der Tak	17
Sicilian Defence	Najdorf Variation 6.Bg5	S18.5	Busemann	18
French Defence	Chatard-Alekhine Variation 6.h4	FR 6.2	Da Costa Junior	20
Slav Defence	Botvinnik Variation 5.Bg5	SL 7.8	Van der Tak	23
Sosonko's Corner	column		Sosonko	24

Sosonko’s Corner is an article of varying length about just about any openings and/or ideas. In Yearbook 90 he talks about Sveshnikov and in particular his Gambit 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Bc4 5.d3 Nf6 6.Ng5 0-0 7.f4 d5!?. The games cited are from 2004, so this appears to be a hot line.

NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK comes out periodically, usually 4 times a year (I confess that I don't get all the copies!). Every International Master that I know reads it (as I’m sure most grandmasters do) and many prefer it to the Informant because they like the writing, both in the Forum, Corner, and in the Introduction to the Surveys.

A note regarding the last column. I just received NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK #72, so the reader should be aware that it’s out. I also didn’t address the contents of the Forum and Sosonko’s Corner. The former is a compilation of reader's contributions and comments on previous article. In #72, for example, we have letters about: (a) Weaver Adams and his contribution to a King’s Gambit line (along with a reply by A.C. van der Tak, who had written the original article); (b) A game with lengthy theoretical notes about the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn; (c) An analytical contribution to the Budapest Defense (again with a reply by A.C. van der Tak, who again had written the original article); (d) a contribution by Jose Luis Vilela on the line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bd6 (the subject of an earlier NIC survey) 5.g4!?; (e) Comment on who gets credit for a French Defense innovation on move 20!; (f) a contribution from Bogdan Lalic on the main line 6.Bg5 Najdorf; and (g) a suggestion of a fascinating new continuation in the Caro-Kann by Robin Edlund: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nc3 e6 5.g4 Bg6 6.Nge2 c5 7.h4 h5 8.Nf4 Bh7 9.g5!?.

Genna Sosonko’s Forum has the GM addressing early g4 moves that “up to recently would have been regarded as bizarre or forbidden.” These include (a) 3 ideas after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 Qc7 6.Nf3 Bxc5: 7.g3 Qb6 (another game went 7...a6 8.Bf4 Qb6 9.0-0-0 Qa7 10.e3 Be7 11.g4!, and still another 7.b4 be7 8.Nb6 Qc6 9.Nf3 d6, and now Sosonko suggests 10.g4!?) 8.e3 Be7 9.g4!? (from Bareev-Akopian, Wijk aan Zee 2004); (b) 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g4 (“still part of the opening repertoire of many a top player as we speak”); (c) 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4. “The number of top-level games featuring [7.g4] is still on the increase”; (d) 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.g4!? (Shirov’s new move, already being tested by other top players).

Finally, Sosonko takes a look into the past at Bronstein-Simagin, Moscow 1967: 1.d4 Nf6 2.g4.

Clearly, the NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOKS are both fun and informative.

NOTE BY SILMAN: I own all the Informants and all the New In Chess Yearbooks. I can’t imagine being without both series! These books are highly recommended by just about every IM and GM on Earth, so if you’re interested in opening theory or simply love going over top quality annotated games, don’t miss out.

Click if you would like to purchase INFORMANT 90 and/or NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK 72.