The Chess Mind

Robert Hübner*.

The quotation, once again, was this:

There are innumerable examples with this line [the Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez]; everyone knows the famous games from the world championship matches between Kasparov and Karpov.

It cannot be within the scope of these brief notes to discuss the merits of the main line in detail. The general statement must suffice that in introducing a sharp, clear-cut idea of counterplay (f7-f5 destroying white's centre) it seems to be more promising than the continuation chosen by...."

For those of you familiar with Hübner's work, you've probably got a pretty good idea of what's coming next. For those who aren't, you're probably wondering why I'd bother with such a pedestrian quote. OK, it's useful for someone unfamiliar with the Zaitsev Ruy to know that it featured in some extraordinary Kasparov-Karpov games and to know that ...f7-f5 is an important idea for Black in its main line, but really! - Is it worth bothering about that as a special quotation?

The answer is that it's not. My real interest in the quotation is the first sentence of the second paragraph: "It cannot be within the scope of these brief notes to discuss the merits of the main line in detail." Even less interesting, you might be saying to yourself. (Hold your horses, impatient reader.) The reason why this is amusing has to do with Hübner's work as an annotator, which is oh, shall we say, somewhat thorough. The book from which this quotation was found is called Twenty-five Annotated Games; and now here's a question: how long would you guess the book is? There are some authors who could finish the job in about 50-60 pages, and many more would reasonably call it a day at about 100-110 pages.

Not our Grandmaster Hübner - not by a long shot! Hübner, who was for a couple of decades among the world's strongest players (and no slouch now with a 2595 rating, despite a second career as a papyrologist, complete with Ph.D.), is legendary for his persistence in and enthusiasm for analysis, and the book comprises 416 pages. Nine of those pages are dedicated to material other than the games, and there are generally a couple of diagrams on every page. Even so, you're definitely getting your money's worth out of this volume.

Now let's turn to the game from which the notes were taken. That was game 22, Hübner-Portisch, from the first round of the 1981 super-tournament in Tilburg. The first 15 moves pass without comment, and then there are several short paragraphs, including the ones reproduced above. So far, "brief notes" looks plausible. As it turns out, though, Hübner devotes 52 pages to this game. The high point comes on White's 32nd move, when he spends 13 pages considering alternatives. Hübner was quite possibly pulling the reader's leg when he spoke of "brief notes", but if not I tremble to think what he'd consider a properly filled-out commentary!

Lest anyone think that the foregoing is intended dismissively, I assure you that it's not. His thoroughness is admirable (especially considering that the product was his, not Frybka's - the book was published in 1996), and while it's as obvious as almost anything in this world that very few will plow through the whole thing, the games are fascinating in their own right, and even skimming the analysis is valuable for instruction, insight, entertainment and training.

And fans of my ChessVideos presentations might benefit too: maybe I'll do a series called "The Super-Fast Hübner", where each part will cover a page of his analysis. Imagine the possibilities: we could get through the Hübner-Portisch game in just one year!

*Source: Wikipedia, Photo: Stefan64