Genrich Gasparjan

Genrich Gasparjan on a special postage stamp issued in 2010

Genrikh kasparyan ( Armenian Գենրիխ Գասպարյան in scientific transliteration Genrix Gasparyan), internationally known as Genrich Moissejewitsch Kasparjan ( Russian Генрих Моисеевич Каспарян , * 27. February 1910 in Tbilisi , Georgia ; † 27. December 1995 in Yerevan , Armenia ) was a Soviet chess master and important study composer .

Life

Gasparjan learned the game of chess at the age of 13 from his older brother. From 1926 to 1931 he attended the Polytechnic Institute in Tbilisi and completed training as a civil engineer . During this time he dealt a lot with chess composition and composed about 40 exercises. His playing strength in tournament chess also increased. In 1931 he became city champion of Tbilisi and was able to win first place in a qualifying tournament for the USSR championship before the later world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik . In 1936 he moved to Yerevan and secured the title of Master of Sports by winning 9½: 7½ against Vitaly Chekhov , making him the first chess master in Armenia. From July 1941 to November 1945 he was a soldier and was awarded several medals. In 1950 FIDE awarded him the title of International Master . In 1956 he received the title of Honored Master of Sports and retired from active tournament chess, but worked as a chess coach until 1990. Overall, he won the championship of Armenia ten times in his career from 1934. Gasparjan achieved his highest historical rating of 2625 in January 1948 , placing him in 31st place in the subsequently calculated world rankings.

Gasparjan attended the technical college (later renamed the workers' school) in Tbilisi from 1917. In 1925 he graduated from secondary school and from 1926 went to the Polytechnic Institute in Tbilisi. Gasparjan received his doctorate in 1931 by graduating from the Transcaucasian Institute for Communication Technology in road construction and from then on worked as a civil engineer. From January 1932 to November 1933 he worked as a construction engineer on the Black Sea building the railway between Ochamchiri and Sukhumi . From 1934 until he was drafted in July 1941, he worked as a construction engineer in project planning in Tbilisi, Alaverdi and Yerevan. After Gasparjan was called up for military service in the Soviet Army in July 1941 , he worked there until November 1945. In 1944 he received a medal for the defense of the Caucasus and in 1945 for victory in the “ Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 ”. From 1946 to April 1952 Gasparjan taught chess in Yerevan. He then worked as a construction engineer at the project institute from April 1952 to 1953. He then taught chess again in Yerevan until May 1957 and in Tbilisi from June 1957 to April 1964. In the meantime Gasparjan received an award for "bravery of workers" in 1958. From May 1965 to 1990 Gasparjan gave chess lessons again in Yerevan. During this time he retired in 1970 and in 1985 received an "Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class". Gasparjan died in Yerevan on December 27, 1995.

Genrich Gasparjan was a very religious Christian. He received several offers to join the Komsomol and the Communist Party , but always refused, so that he did not receive the corresponding privileges.

Gasparjan was married twice. The first marriage from 1937 to 1947 had no children. His second marriage brought him a son - the study composer Sergei Gasparjan - and a daughter.

Chess composition

Genrich Gasparjan's first study of the endgame was published in 1928. In total, his work comprises 545 correct studies, of which about 300 were awarded in competitions. From 1947 to 1983 he took part in 13 USSR championships (1st to 11th and 13th and 14th championships) for study composition and won six, including one shared. Except for his last participation, he was never worse than third place. Since 1956 he was international referee for chess composition . In 1960 he became an international master, and in 1972 a grand master in chess composition . The prerequisite for being awarded this highest title was 70 points through the publication of chess compositions in FIDE albums . Gasparjan scored a total of 174.17 points in his career.

Many of Gasparjan's studies begin with a position close to the game. Gasparjan often ended the analysis of variants so early that it was not understandable for the solver that the position was really won or drawn. Gasparjan strove for the highest economy. In positions with mutual pressure to act , a thematic seduction was almost always present. Often all the stones pulled during the solution, while Gasparjan took care to keep the number of hits to a minimum. In addition, Gasparjan developed ideas from other composers and was very careful with the analysis. In those cases in which one of his studies was proven to be incorrect, Gasparjan sought a correction.

Gasparjan acted as a judge in many Armenian and Georgian tournaments, including judging the tournament for the 14th Chess Olympiad .

Gasparjan systematically collected and categorized studies. In the end, his collection comprised more than 30,000 pieces.

The following study is remarkable not only because it won first prize in a major tournament, but because Gasparjan worked on its composition for more than 30 years. According to his own statement, he had the underlying idea for the first time in 1945. The study was originally supposed to receive the 6th prize. The tournament was attended by a world record number of 170 composers from 26 countries with 287 studies. 13 studies were ruled out beforehand.

Genrich Gasparjan
Roycroft 50th Anniversary Tournament 1978-1979
1st Prize

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

White to move achieves a draw

Solution:

1. Qe8 – b5 (e.g. it loses 1. Kc1xc2 Bg4 – f5 2. Bh4 – f6 (De8 – b5 e4 – e3 + 3. Kc2 – b3 e3xd2 4. Qb5xe5 + Ka1 – b1) e4 – e3 + 3. Kc2– b3 e3xd2 4. Bf6xe5 + Ka1 – b1) 1.… Ne5 – d3 + 2. Qb5xd3 (again 2. Kc1xc2 leads to a loss: 2.… Bg4 – d1 + 3. Kc2xd1 Rg1 – g1 + 4. Kd1 – e2 (4. Kd1 – c2 Rg1 – c1 + 5. Kc2 – b3 Rc1 – b1 +) Rf4xh4 5. Ke2 – e3 Rh1 – e1 + 6. Ke3 – d4 Nd3 – b2 7. e7 – e8D e4 – e3 +) 2.… e4xd3 3. e7 – e8D Bg4 – e6 (if 3.… Rg7 – g5, then 4. De8 – h8 + f7 – f6 5. Bh4 – f2 Rg5 – b5 6. Qh8xf6 + Rb5 – b2 7. Bf2 – d4 Rf4xf6 8. Bd4xf6 with positional draw despite Black's material superiority) 4. De8xe6 Rg7-g5 (comes with the threat Tb5. Lh4xg5 not because Tf4-f1 + along with Matt ) 5. Lh4-f2 (not de6 5. e3 tF6-f1 + 6. Lf2-e1 Tg5-b5 7. De3xd3 Tf1xe1 + 8 . Kc1xc2 Rb5 – b2 + 9. Kc2 – c3 Re1 – c1 + 10. Kc3 – d4 Rb2 – b4 + 11. Kd4 – e5 Ka1 – b2) and now either 5.… Rg5 – g1 + 6. Bf2 – e1 Rf4 – b4 7. De6xa2 + Ka1xa2 or 5.… Rg5 – b5 6. Bf2 – d4 + Rb5 – b2 7. Qe6 – f6 Rf4xf6 8. Bd4xf6 , each with a draw by stalemate .

In the first variant the black rook ties the white bishop, in the second variant the white bishop ties the black rook.

Publications

Gasparjan published numerous books in Russian, with editions of up to 100,000 copies. As the only one of his contemporaries, Gia Nadareishvili published more and more different books.

• Magic of the Endgame was published in German (1974, 2nd edition 1985).
• In English, Domination appeared in 2545 endgame studies (1981, 2nd edition 1987) as well as a collection edited by AJ Roycroft with 545 studies under the title The complete studies of Genrikh Kasparyan (1997, ISBN 1-888690-02-X ).

Commemoration

On the occasion of Gasparjan's 100th birthday, the Birth Centenary of Henrik Kasparyan was issued in Armenia on February 27, 2010 .

literature

• Gagik Erwandowitsch Akopjan: Волшебник шахмат . Isdatelstwo Ajastan, Yerevan, 1981. (Russian)

See also

• List of masters of the Armenian SSR in chess

Web links

• Literature by and about Genrich Gasparjan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Compositions by Genrich Gasparjan on the Schwalbe's PDB server

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Armenian Chess Federation ( Memento from July 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Genrich Gasparjan's historic Elo rating at chessmetrics.com (English)
3. ↑ Grand master for chess compositions
4. ↑ Michel catalog , No. 705.