Home • Learn to Play Chess • Improve Your Game • Chess History • Chess for Fun • Chess Blog

The Best of Chess Informant - Anatoly Karpov

About.com Rating : 3.0/5.0

The Bottom Line (March 2007) CD 'The Best of Chess Informant - Anatoly Karpov' by Chess Informant (Informator), published 2007. • 'Karpov will be remembered in chess history as the champion with the greatest number of tournament wins. In four different formats (Chess Informant Expert, PGN, ChessBase and Chess Assistant)' [from the Informant site] • Contains Chess Informant Expert (CIE) lite software (version 6.6), Karpov software for CIE, and files for other formats. Pros CD & CIE organized like 'Best of Chess Informant - Garry Kasparov'; see our review for Pros & Cons. After Kasparov and Fischer, Karpov is the greatest of the 'modern' (i.e. FIDE era) players. Unfortunately, his playing style is incredibly difficult to penetrate and understand. The 'Best of Informant - Karpov' CD might possibly be the tool that helps to explain his genius. We suggest the CIE software be used to explore the games, then the other (e.g. PGN) files be used. Cons Installation of the CD to our PC was problematic; see 'Guide Review' below for details. Will the next 'Best of CI' CD require reinstalling all previous modules? CIE Search didn't work properly; click 'Search' returns 'Error: File does not exist!' Several World Championship matches missing last game: Baguio City 1978, Moscow 1984-85, etc. To utilize the full value of this resource, the games should be used in software other than CIE. Description Note: Our Kasparov review covering the CIE format, applies equally here; see specifically:- - 'Bio & Facts'; Selection lists; Individual games & embedded annotations; Repertoire trees & stats - In addition, for this review we looked at the PGN files, but not the other two formats Other facts specific to the 'Best of Karpov' CD:- '1600 published games, 559 annotated by Karpov' means published and annotated by Chess Informant. Best games: 14 Golden Games, 100 best games chosen by Informant; 69 by Chess Informant Jury. Novelties: 81 by Karpov, 40 by CI Jury; Theoretical surveys: 3 variations practiced by Karpov. Play like Karpov ('CI Solver's Kit' technology emulates solitaire chess):- - 40 Combinations, 45 Excellent moves, 12 Attack, 10 'Storming Initiative', ... - 10 Defense, 79 endings, 41 Rare Blunders & Misconceptions Guide Review - The Best of Chess Informant - Anatoly Karpov The CI intro by Zdenko Krnic, starts, 'We have published 97 volumes of Chess Informant, spanning a period of forty years, and it was as far back as our second volume in 1966 that Anatoly Karpov first made his appearance in our pages. [...] Tal once said: "Many of Karpov’s intentions become understandable to his opponents only when salvation is no longer possible."' The CD was shipped without the 'CD serial' number required for installation to a PC. After it was speedily supplied by CI via email, we installed the 'Best of Karpov' software on top of the CIE 6.5 and 'Best of Kasparov' software from our previous installation. The Karpov module looked correct, but certain CIE functions failed to work. We realized that it probably required a newer version of CIE. After uninstalling CIE 6.5, installing CIE 6.6, then reinstalling the Karpov (and Kasparov) module, the functions worked correctly. We have several books by Karpov and know that his game notes can be skimpy, even lazy. We wanted to see if his CI annotations were better. We tried to isolate the '559 games annotated by Karpov', but the search failed to work. At this point we looked at the Karpov files installed on our PC and discovered 285 PGN files. A little work showed that these files corresponded exactly to the CIE functions. For example, CIKarpovGames.pgn has all 1600 annotated games, Endings.pgn has all 79 'Play like Karpov' endings. Loading the PGN files into our favorite chess software, we were able to perform tasks other than built into CIE. We isolated the '559 games annotated by Karpov' without further problem. The 'skimpy/lazy' analysis will be a future project. Recommended for experienced players who want to study Karpov's games.

Related Guide Picks • Review: 'Best of Chess Informant - Garry Kasparov' • Anthology of Chess Combinations (3rd edition)  Suggested Reading (offsite) • Glossary: PGN • Chess Book/CD Reviews