Kasparov's record

It's been exactly one year since I made my first compilation of games
by a single player. The subject was Kasparov and the occasion was the
Kasparov - Kramnik world championship match sponsored by Braingames.
I documented the process in detail...

Chess History on the Web (2000 no.20); Site review - UPITT (I)
http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01d15/2000-20.txt

...and added a reference page...

Kasparov game collection (tournament, match, & exhibition record)
http://members.tripod.com/~Mark_Weeks/chw00j15/kasparov.htm

...This page, which I update regularly, lists essential information --
year, description & site, exhibition?, result (1st, 2nd, etc. out of
how many players), score (+W-L=D), games on file vs. games played,
PGN filename -- about each event in which Kasparov has played.

One of my objectives in doing this was to evaluate the quality of the
Kasparov game collection on UPITT...

University of Pittsburgh (UPITT) archive
http://www.pitt.edu/~schach/

...one of the most important public chess archives on the Web. The
Kasparov collection was soon followed by similar collections for
Kramnik and Anand after they won their respective world champion
titles. Later, in an exercise to evaluate different player
collections available on the Web, I added a two-part collection on
Karpov...

Chess History on the Web (2001 no.5-7)
http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01d15/2001-05.txt
http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01d15/2001-06.txt
http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01d15/2001-07.txt

...For this review I thought it would be useful to take a critical
look at my Kasparov collection in the same way I look at other Web
material. This should help me to improve the quality of the
collections that I've assembled, as well as those that are currently
in process.

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Many fans of the game consider Kasparov to be the greatest player of
all time. Even those who do not consider him the greatest always
place him near the top of the greats. This is one of many reasons why
a good collection of his games is a valuable resource for chess
players and for chess historians.

A year ago my collection had 1530 unique games on file. The latest
update, which I prepared along with this article, has 2266 games. Why
has there been more than a 50% increase? The first release, which was
derived entirely from the UPITT collection, stopped at the beginning
of 1998. I brought it up to date with the help of Mark Crowther's
TWIC...

The Week in Chess by Mark Crowther
http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html

...one of the best historical resources available on the Web. These
updates included 104 games played by Kasparov since his match with
Kramnik. I also had expert help from an archivist and researcher in
the Netherlands who works freelance for the commercial chess data
companies. This confirmed my experience that the Web is an excellent
tool for collaborative work. 'Share what you know; learn what you
don't know'.

What is the current state of the collection? After loading my data
into a database, I performed some simple analyses. I discovered that
the collection covers 272 events, of which 263 have at least one game
score. The 9 events missing all games are:-
1975 Chp. Azerbaijan
1987 Simul, Zurich
1988 2 x simul, New York
1990 Simul vs. Grandes-Ecoles, Paris
1991 Simul vs. Grandes-Ecoles, Paris
1992 Super Blitz, Moscow
1997 Simul, Tel Aviv
1997 Simul, Geneva
2000 Simul, Langjokull glacier, Iceland
It's not too surprising that simultaneous exhibitions are among those
missing all games. If the game scores are not collected during or
immediately after a simul, they are easily lost. It's surprising that
a simul from as recent as last year is on the list.

A convention that I use on my reference page is to highlight certain
events in blue, which means that I have incomplete information about
the event. At the time of my analysis, I had 61 'blue' events. Of
these, 55 were events which I've been unable to confirm against a
reliable reference. Of the 6 (=61-55) blue events with a reference,
most were mentioned in an article without other significant
information. For example, the two 1997 simuls listed above were
mentioned in a short article saying only that the Geneva event had 30
participants.

The problem of missing reference comes from having worked backwards --
I started with a collection of PGN game scores and matched these
against other sources. Some of the game scores may be bogus (I've
seen this several times), but I'm reluctant to remove them without a
good reason. The events having the most games on file but without a
reference are:-
Games Yr Event
30/? 1992 Simul, Cordoba
28/? 1991 Simul, Galicia
21/? 1994 Event(s)?, Site(s)? [seems to be a simul]
20/20 1991 Simul, Asiago, Italy
14/? 1978 Team event, Baku
12/? 1976 Event?, Moscow
12/? 1977 Event?
11/? 1993 Event?, Katowice
11/? 1993 Event(s)?, London
The meaning of '30/?' is that I have 30 games on file, but I'm not
sure how many games were played in the event. If you have any
information about these events, I'd certainly like to hear from you.
I'd especially like to know more about the three Soviet events from
the 1970s.

For all but 2 of the 55 events missing a reference, I'm not sure how
many games were played in the event. Unfortunately, even some
references don't always give the number of games. I have 68 events
where the total number of games is unknown; these events total 427
games on file.

Of the 204 (=272-68) events where the total number of games is known,
I have 1837 games on file out of 2527 games played in the events.
This means that there are almost 700 games known to be missing! If
you're good at mental calculation, you may have noticed that the
number of games on file (2266) doesn't equal the combined counts I've
just given (2264=427+1837). This is because I have 2 games in the
most recent event on file ('EUR-ASIA Rapid Match, Batumi GEO') which
are in the PGN file for the event, but have only headers; the moves
are missing completely.

I've already said that simuls represent a special category of event.
How do these skew the overall numbers? The 272 events include 65
simuls, which account for 471 of the games on file. The 65 events
include clock simuls, a Kasparov specialty, where he played
simultaneously against all members of a strong team, his thinking
time limited by a chess clock on each board.

I have 50 simuls where the total number of games is known. These
account for 343 games on file out of 965 known to have been played.
This in turn accounts for 622 of the 690 games missing from the games
file. The other 15 simuls where the total number of games is unknown
account for 128 games on file. It's entirely possible that I've only
scratched the surface on simuls. In the days before TWIC, simuls were
often not reported outside of the country where they took place.

Of the 272 events, I've marked 72 as exhibitions. These include the
65 simuls plus 7 other events. What should be classified as an
exhibition? Obvious examples are a game played on the TV
program 'Late Night vs. Letterman' (1990), the CNN exhibition vs.
tennis champ Boris Becker (2000), and the charity odds match played
earlier this year in London. In the 200 non-exhibition events, I've
included the 2 game match vs. Deep Thought (1989), the 24 game blitz
match vs. Kramnik (1998), and MSN's Kasparov vs. The World (1999),
plus many more borderline cases.

While I was looking at the 'blue' events, I realized that I hadn't
been consistent. I now consider four problems to merit blue
treatment:-

1) Events missing all games; these are the 9 that I've listed above.

2) Events missing a date; I'm satisfied to know the month when an
event started. This makes it easier to track down references in
periodicals. I have 60 events missing the month played.

3) Events missing a reference; as I mentioned above, there are 55 of
these

4) Events missing the total number of games played; there are 68.

This totals 192 problems. These cover 78 different events, which is
more than the 61 that I'd already colored blue. I'll update my
reference page ASAP.

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While we're on the subject, let's take a look at Kasparov's games
from simuls. There are many more examples of Kasparov playing White
(405) than Black (66). It's worth noting that the games with Kasparov
as Black are mainly from the clock simuls, where he often faced
stronger competition than in the other simuls.

If you're planning to play in a simul against Kasparov, here's a tip
on how to prepare. Forget about it. The first bit of bad news is that
you're probably going to lose. With the White pieces, he has scored
+330-14=60, with one game unfinished. You'll have better chances with
the Black pieces, but he's still scored an overwhelming +40-6=20.

The second bit of bad news is that his opening repertoire in simuls
is as versatile as it is playing him one to one. What does Kasparov
play as White in simuls? The sample that I have breaks down as:-
196 1.d4
140 1.e4
49 1.c4
16 1.Nf3
In a special simul played last year, he went easier on Sting's band,
opening two games with 1.b3 and two others with 1.g3.

The 196 1.d4 games were met 106 times with 1...Nf6 and 62 times with
2...d5. Kasparov's responses to 1...Nf6 were:-
72 2.c4
19 2.Nf3
15 2.Bg5
The Trompowsky (2.Bg5) has been seen more frequently in recent years.
Against 2.c4, his opponents have played 31 times 2...e6, 23 times
2...g6, and 12 times 2...c5. He's met 2...e6 with:-
16 3.Nc3
16 3.Nf3
1 3.g3
This totals more than 31 games because of transpositions from other
lines.

His 140 1.e4 games were met 46 times with 1...e5 and 45 times with
1...c5. Other possible responses were played much less frequently.
Against 1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6, he's played the Giuoco Piano (3.Bc4) 23
times, the Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5) 17 times, and the Scotch (3.d4) twice.

What does Kasparov play as Black in simuls? Our sample is much
smaller than with the White pieces, but large enough to make some
observations. Of the two major openings, he's faced 31 times 1.e4 and
28 times 1.d4.

Against 1.e4, he's been less versatile, playing the Sicilian (1...c5)
29 times. After 2.Nf3, which he's seen 21 times, he's played:-
10 2...e6
9 2...d6
1 2...Nc6
1 2...a6
Against 1.d4, the versatility returns. He's replied with:-
19 1...Nf6
6 1...d5
2 1...g6
1 1...d6

I have more facts to share about other aspects of Kasparov's career,
but I'll leave that for another time.

Bye for now,
Mark Weeks

[P.S. - I had planned to cover...

The Game is Afoot by Terry Crandall
http://www.pstat.ucsb.edu/%7ecarlson/chess/

...for the next site review, but the site has disappeared ('File Not
found : The requested URL /~carlson/chess/ was not found on this
server.'). I sent a message to the email address which was formerly
listed as contact for the site, but have received no response. If you
happen to know anything about the site, please let me know.]

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