28 July 2014

Kasparov TMER: Matching & Merging

As I noted in the previous post on the Kasparov TMER saga, Early Events, the next step was to merge the events listed in that post with the TMER index, Garry Kasparov's Tournament, Match, and Exhibition Record (1973-). Before you can do a merge, you have to do a match, and this is never as straightforward as it might seem. Different authors call the same event by different names and it's only in the details -- e.g. opponents and dates played -- that it becomes clear that they are discussing the same event. Even then, some guesswork is occasionally required.

As for the 'Early Events', I listed 31 in that post. This compares with 22 events on the TMER index. Of those, 17 events appear on both lists. This means there are 5 events on the index that are not mentioned by Kasparov in the early chapters of his book Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, Part I: 1973-1985. It also means there are 14 events in Kasparov's book that are not on my TMER index.

Of the 5 events on the index but not in the book, one ('1975 Chp. Azerbaijan') appears to be a fabrication. I originally noted this event in the December 1985 issue of Europe Echecs (p.7), but it isn't mentioned elsewhere. Out it goes. For the other four events I have games on file, but there is no mention of the corresponding event in Kasparov's book. All of the games are from 1977.

I compared the 1977 mystery games on my file with the games on Chessgames.com: Player: Garry Kasparov, Year: 1977. I found the games but found nothing explaining the events. More digging is needed. (NB: Chessgames.com has 56 games on file against my total of 52, but that discrepancy is for another time.)

Of the 14 events in the book but not on the index, one is a mistake on my part; the '1974 Tal simul' was one of the games played in the 'clock simuls vs. GMs, Moscow', aka the 'All-Union Tnmt of Pioneers Palaces'. The other 13 are additions to my index. I'll do that update for my next post in this series.

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