The Serbian publication Sahovski Informator (Chess Informant) recently marked 42 years of operation with its 100th volume. Appearing three times a year (twice a year over most of its run), Informant provides hundreds of deeply annotated games, as well as combinations and endings. To render the commentary internationally understandable, the editors invented a language of symbols to evaluate moves and positions (e.g., “+=” means white has a slight advantage) still in wide usage today. The chess community is particularly grateful for the openings classification system known as ECO codes, after its five-volume work “Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.”
In the 70s and early 80s, Informant was considered the chess bible, and for many fans and competitors, it presented the only access to game scores from foreign tournaments. Players were greatly honored to have a game published in its pages. A lingo even developed around Informant terms: If someone spoke of a “box” move, you knew he was referencing the symbol for a forced or only move.
Its “biblical” status began to fade in the mid-80s with the advent of commercial chess databases. The Internet dealt an even more serious blow. Annotated games from major competitions are generally available online the next day. Many events are even covered live. Moreover, the wordless analysis of Informant may not differ much from the output of chess engines owned by most serious players.
Most young players today do not subscribe to Informant, if they even know of its existence. Far fewer Western grandmasters contribute analysis than in the periodical’s heyday. Amateurs rarely dream anymore of making it into Informant.
Yet Informant soldiers on, changing to remain relevant in the digital age. All of its products can now be purchased in CD form. Informant has already survived the political troubles of the 90’s, which forced its editor to publish from Cyprus to sidestep embargoes on Yugoslavian products.
With its games grouped by opening codes, Informant is still the best tool for monitoring developments in opening theory. I serve on the jury for the “Ten Most Important Novelties of the Preceding Volume” primarily to keep up with the latest trends.
Some fun facts reported in Volume 100:
* 101,033 games, 3,128 combinations, 2,503 endings and 108 studies
* Most games: Viktor Korchnoi 1,709 (and counting) followed by Jan Timman 1,703 (also still going)
* Most common opening: 1,498 ECO code B33 (Lasker-Pelikan Sicilian, Sveshnikov Variation)
* 3,000 total contributors
* Longest game: van der Wiel-Fedorowicz, Graz 1981, 143 moves (With adjournments, the game took several days to complete. Fedorowicz was so sick that after each session he went back to bed.)
2008
9:13 pm
great publication. also launched by the staff of Sahovski Informator is NIC, NEW IN CHESS
— Posted by arshile
2008
10:43 pm
While New In Chess is indeed an excellent publication, it has no connection to Sahovski Informator. The Netherlands-based NIC is actually a major competitor to Informant.
— Posted by Joel Benjamin
2008
9:57 pm
René Olthof (RO): “The Yearbook was an integral part of the original NIC concept. In 1983 the New In Chess Keybook was published, an encyclopaedic analysis of current opening theory 1970-1982. The Yearbook was conceived as a yearly update. Believe it or not but the initial idea was launched by the staff of Sahovski Informator (Matanovic, Milic, Bozic, Molerovic) and implemented by Elsevier, the Dutch publishing house. Remember this was well before the ascent of the personal computer. NIC was the first to use mainframe database technology in chess publishing. The Dutch programmer was called Helmer Wieringa. Early on in the project Willem Andriessen was asked to join.”
René Olthof, Yearbook Supervisor and Magazine Editor for Dutch-based New In Chess
— Posted by arshile
2008
11:14 pm
That’s an excellent nugget of chess trivia. I never would have imagined NIC got started in that manner.
— Posted by Joel Benjamin
2008
1:02 pm
The Classification of Chess Openings was created by Braslav Rabar (coediter) who “examined and registered some 20,000 games” for some 20 yrs prior to edition 1.
— Posted by arshile
2008
7:33 pm
Joel’s game from 1983 in Informator
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1026504
comments from Byrne, Mednis. move 16!?
— Posted by arshile
2008
5:11 pm
The history about NewInChess is a little longer. In 1980 I started a company called Chess Data International. I developed the concept “personal printing”, Nowasdays we would call it personalized printing on demand. A chessplayer could subscribe to his/her personal selection of chess opening information. The personal selection could then be produced from a database which would sent the selection to an industrial fast Xerox laser printer. After some months Job de Lange joined the company. We submitted a business plan to Elsevier, we had many meetings and reason to belief that they would be willing to invest. After a year of negotiating the project was put on hold until Mr Verheul(Elsevier board) was contacted by someone of Informator (name?) in 1982/3.
I remember that there were internal problems within the Informator group, the person from the Informator offered a manuscript to Elsevier which they purchased. Elsevier thought it would be a good start to publish first book editions every six months. Barend Toet became managing publisher and Barend asked me to deal with the production. The first book contained too many errors, but is was the first chess book that was published automaticaly (including diagrams) from a database.
The name NewInChess (yearbook) originates from Elsevier possibly Barend. Some months after the publication of the yearbook, Barend made a deal with Wim Andriessen: the famous Dutch “Schaakbulletin” stopped and the International magazine NewInChess started. The first editorial article of Wim started the famous sentence “It is so far”, a literal expression of a dutch expression, meaning “we are finally there”
There are a lot of more stories but this comment is already too long.
Regards,
“The dutch programmer Helmer Wieringa”
I am now Techology Officer for Reed Business(Global) part of Reed Elsevier.
— Posted by helmer wieringa
2008
12:08 am
How much does the Informant pay for one annotated game? Is it worth the trouble? Which company pays best for annotated games? Can an FM try to send?
— Posted by Peter