Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a publishing company that periodically produces a book of the same name, as well as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings, Opening Monographs, other print publications, and software (including electronic editions of most print publications). The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings ( ECO) is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess Aleksandar Matanovic and Milivoje Molerovic founded the company in 1966 for the purpose of offering the rest of the world the sort of access to chess information enjoyed by Soviet players. Aleksandar Matanović (born May 23, 1930 in Belgrade) is a Serbian Chess Grandmaster with an Elo rating of 2490 The company has sold three million books in 150 countries, according to its website. [1]
Chess Informant published two issues per year 1966-1990, and since 1991 has published three issues per year. [2] Each issue offers several hundred games or fragments of games from master play, many annotated by the players themselves. A board of leading players selects the best games of each issue, and these are republished in the next issue often with more extensive annotations. Each issue since Chess Informant 5 has included a combinations section with problems from recent play. A similar endings section has also become a standard feature.
For two decades prior to the emergence of computer databases, Chess Informant publications were a leading source of games and analysis for serious chess players. [3] The publication routinely appears in the bibliography of texts on specific chess openings[4] and other chess texts. [5]
The Chess Informant system of codes for the classification of chess openings, and its system of symbols have set the international standard[6] for organizing chess information and communicating this information across language barriers. When annotating Chess games commentators frequently use Question marks and Exclamation points to denote a move as bad or good The system of codes is explained in ten languages on the front of each issue of Informant, the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, and other publications. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings ( ECO) is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess Former world champion Garry Kasparov asserted "We are all Children of the Informant,"[7] and then explained that his own development as a chess player corresponded with the ascendance of Chess Informant's popularity. Garry Kasparov (Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров) (born as Garry Kimovich Weinstein on April 13 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Other world champions, including Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Vishwanathan Anand, attest that Informant is central to their tournament preparation. Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов born May 23, 1951) is a Russian Chess grandmaster Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник (born June 25, 1975) is a Russian Chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (ʋiɕˈʋəˌnɑˌt̪ʰən ɑnˌənd̪ விசுவநாதன் ஆனந்த் (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian [1]
On April 1, 2008, Informant issued its one-hundredth issue [8].