Шахматы в СССР / Chess in USSR – Soviet Tournament News Review – Complete run 1988–1990 (7 volumes)

Magazine of the Central Chess Club of the USSR, published as an Italian-Soviet co-edition under the patronage of the Chess Federation of the USSR and the Italian Chess Federation, distributed in Western Europe by Messaggerie Scacchistiche (Brescia). Seven issues appeared between November 1988 and June 1990, when publication ceased as the Soviet Union was nearing its end. The first issue (No. 1, 1988) had its own numbering; in 1989 the magazine started again from No. 1 and then continued with progressive numbering up to No. 6/1990.

A top-class editorial team. Editor-in-chief: GM Yuri Averbakh. Coordinated by Pavel Chekryzhov, director of the Central Chess Club; vice editor Dmitry Plisetsky; with the collaboration of Garri Kasparov and Vasily Smyslov. The Italian staff, coordinated by Sebastiano Izzo, included Roberto Messa, Nicola Palladino, Antonio Rosino and Alvise Zichichi. The honorary committee included Botvinnik, Karpov, Kasparov, Smyslov, the cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastianov (president of the Soviet Chess Federation) and Aldo Aniasi.

Annotators. The games are annotated by a large team of Soviet grandmasters and masters of the time, including Smyslov, Averbakh, Taimanov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Bareev, Dreev, Lputian, Sveshnikov and Razuvaev, along with the young Shirov, Khalifman, Yudasin and Smirin.

Format. Large-format paperback, about 250 pages per volume. Text in Russian and English; games in algebraic notation using the Chess Informant symbols and opening classification (by permission of Šahovski Informator, Belgrade), so they can be read without knowing either language.

Sample contents – No. 4/1989 (October–December 1989):

• 56th USSR Championship (Odessa, September–October 1989): 120 games, the most important annotated, with theoretical articles on the opening novelties;
• Frunze qualifying tournament for the 57th Championship: all 175 games;
• about 150 selected and annotated games from national and international events of summer and autumn 1989;
• the 8 games of the Karpov–Yusupov Candidates semifinal;
• the two games Kasparov–Deep Thought;
• new sections: Golden Dozen (Smyslov’s best games), Selected Combinations and Archives, with games from the 1939 Training Tournament (Keres, Flohr, Lilienthal, Reshevsky) annotated by the players themselves.

Condition: second-hand, good condition.

• Marca Central Chess Club of USSR
• Code Z1C19
• Anno 1988/90
• Pagine ca. 250 pp. per volume