Genrikh Kasparian
Notable Games

Genrikh Kasparian

14 celebrated games · 84 in the full archive
Player Index ◈ Biography 84 CURATED GAMES

Notable Games

  • 1937.11 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsFogelevich, Fedor Lvovich 1-0 French Defense: Classical Variation 25 moves Moscow-ch17 Moscow championship 1937. Kasparian castles queenside and marches the g-pawn — 11.g4, 12.g5 — then breaks with 18.d5 and 19.gxf6. The finish is the study composer at the board: 23.Qxg6+ Qg7 24.Qxh5 Bxe3+ 25.fxe3, giving back the exchange because the resulting position is simply won.
  • 1940 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsRauzer, Vsevolod 1-0 King's Indian Attack: Keres Variation 20 moves URS-ch12 Semifinal USSR Championship semifinal 1940 against Vsevolod Rauzer, the theorist whose name is on the Richter–Rauzer Attack. Twenty moves: 14.e6 buries the black bishop on g8, 18.Bxf5 gxf5 wrecks the pawns, and 19.Qg5 Bxe6 20.Qf6 arrives with mate.
  • 1940 Dubinin, Peter Vasilievich vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 Grünfeld Defense: Botvinnik Variation 40 moves URS-ch12 Semifinal USSR Championship semifinal 1940, forty moves with Black in a Grünfeld against Peter Dubinin, later World Correspondence Championship runner-up. Kasparian answers the Botvinnik Variation on its own terms and outplays it in the middlegame.
  • 1944 Petrosian, Tigran V vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 King's Indian Defense 50 moves GEO-ch Georgian championship 1944 — Kasparian is thirty-three, his opponent a fifteen-year-old Tigran Petrosian, nineteen years from the world title. Fifty moves, and the finish is pure endgame craft: 44...a4, 45...a3, 47...Rb2+, and 50.d5 a2, the a-pawn queening first by one move.
  • 1946 Petrosian, Tigran V vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 Caro-Kann Defense: Classical Variation 39 moves ARM-ch Petrosian-Kasparian+5-3=6 From the 1946 Armenian championship match with Petrosian, which the record books +5−3=6 to Petrosian — Kasparian took three games off the future World Champion, and this is the first. He gives the exchange with 28...Rxh3+ 29.gxh3 Nxb1, wins it back, and the f-pawn arrives at 39...f4+.
  • 1946 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsPetrosian, Tigran V 1-0 French Defense: King's Indian Attack 30 moves ARM-ch Petrosian-Kasparian+5-3=6 The same match, with White, and thirty moves. Kasparian opens the h-file with 20.h5 and 21.hxg6, doubles rooks on it with 22.Rh1 and 24.Rah1, and Petrosian's defence 26...Rxg5 27.fxg5 does not survive 29.Qh4 Nb4 30.Qh8+.
  • 1946 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsPetrosian, Tigran V 1-0 Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Double Spanish 34 moves ARM-ch Petrosian-Kasparian+5-3=6 The third win from the same match. Kasparian sacrifices a pawn to open lines with 18.g5 Bxd3 19.gxf6, swings both rooks across — 20.Rb3, 24.Reg3 — and finishes 32.Qc5 Rd1+ 33.Kg2 Qe2 34.Qf8+.
  • 1947.02.18 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsAronin, Lev Solomonovich 1-0 Catalan Opening: Closed 41 moves URS-ch15 Final USSR Championship final 1947 against Lev Aronin, himself a study player in this archive. A Closed Catalan taken to move forty-one, and one of six wins Kasparian recorded in the strongest field in the world that year.
  • 1947.03.02 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsBronstein, David Ionovich 1-0 Sicilian Defense: Closed 34 moves URS-ch15 Final USSR Championship final 1947 against David Bronstein, four years from tying a World Championship match with Botvinnik. Kasparian wins the d4 pawn with 28.Nxd4, then the e6 pawn with 30.Nxe6, and the knight collects everything: 33.Nxc5 Bxd3 34.Nxd3.
  • 1947.03.08 Levenfish, Grigory vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 Caro-Kann Defense 61 moves URS-ch15 Final The same 1947 championship, with Black against Grigory Levenfish, the former USSR champion who had drawn a match with Botvinnik ten years earlier. Sixty-one moves of Caro-Kann defence and counterattack.
  • 1947.07.26 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsTolush, Alexander V 1-0 Catalan Opening: Open Defense 64 moves Parnu Training Tournament Pärnu training tournament 1947 against Alexander Tolush — the most uncompromising attacker in Soviet chess and later Spassky's trainer. Sixty-four moves in a Catalan, decided in the endgame rather than the assault Tolush was looking for.
  • 1950 Korchnoi, Viktor Lvovich vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 Caro-Kann Defense 38 moves URS-ch18 Semifinal USSR Championship semifinal 1950, Black against a nineteen-year-old Viktor Korchnoi at the start of a career that would twice reach a World Championship match. Thirty-eight moves, and the record has it as a clean win.
  • 1953.09.22 Korchnoi, Viktor Lvovich vsKasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich 0-1 Slav Defense: Three Knights Variation 70 moves URS-chT Republics 03 Final Soviet team championship 1953, Korchnoi again and seventy moves this time — the longest game in this archive, and the kind of position Kasparian spent his life composing. He was the greatest endgame study composer chess has produced, and the first player ever given the title of International Grandmaster for Chess Composition.
  • 1952.12.28 Kasparian, Genrikh Moiseevich vsBronstein, David Ionovich 1-0 Sicilian Defense: Moscow Variation 66 moves URS-ch20 Final USSR Championship final 1952, Bronstein again — a year after his drawn title match with Botvinnik. Sixty-six moves: Kasparian pushes the d-pawn to d7, gives up a knight and a queen to clear its path — 57.d6 Rxg4 58.Qe8+ Kg7 59.Ne6+ Kf6 60.d7 Rxd7 61.Qxd7 — and grinds out the pawn ending.
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