After the successful start of the Chess Days and growing events in the 1980s, the 19th International Dortmund Chess Days are the last under the direction of Eugen Schackmann. He hands over to Gerd Kolbe as event director and he brings Carsten Hensel into the event team. Together with Jürgen Grastat, they want to turn the Chess Days into something great. 1992 marks the high point. The Dortmund press ran the headline "Kasparov can come".
A chess highlight at this time can only be set with Garry Kasparov. Only with Kasparov can you inspire the non-chess and national press. At the Cebit computer fair, Hensel and Pit Schulenburg make contact with Andrew Page, the World Champion's manager. They promise a top-class field of participants, an entry fee and another highly paid simultaneous exhibition. With the support of Lord Mayor Günter Samtlebe and the Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet, the event can take place. The Sparkassen Chess Meeting has an elo average of 2662, absolute world class. The German grandmaster Dr. Robert Hübner is among the participants.
With a total of 541 participants, the International Dortmund Chess Days set a new record for the number of participants. 3 Opens take place. In the A-Open, which is full of grandmasters, the entry fee goes up to 295 Marks. In the A-Open of the Chess Festival, the shared winner is a certain 16-year-old Vladimir Kramnik, still without a title at the time, for whom this is an important step in his career. The tournament winner by second rating is grandmaster Smbat Lputjan.
The main tournament promises what everyone has promised. The favourite Kasparov wins only with the last move of the tournament before the world number two Vassily Ivanchuk. But on the way to winning the tournament he lost two games, a rarity in his career. Against the 18-year-old Gata Kamsky, today still a regular guest in Dortmund, and against the home player Robert Hübner, of all people. In this sixth round, Hübner asserts himself in a complicated King's Indian middlegame with White and winds up in a won endgame.
Table of the International Dortmund Chess Days 1992
Rank Name Points
1. Kasparov, Garry 6,0
2. Ivanchuk, Vassily 6,0
3. Bareev, Evgeny 5,5
4. Anand, Viswanathan 5,0
5. Kamsky, Gata 4,5
6. Salov, Valery 4,5
7. Hübner, Dr. Robert 4,0
8. Adams, Michael 3,5
9. Shirov, Alexei 3,5
10. Piket, Jeroen 2,5
With a positional victory over Valery Salov, Kasparov passes Ivanchuk in the last game. In the course of the tournament he also wins against the young Vishy Anand, with whom he was to fight many more battles on the board in the following years.
For the first time in 1992, the spectators - a total of 11,000 paying fans on the nine days of the event - can follow the games on monitors. In front of the playing hall, Dr. Helmut Pfleger and Vlastimil Hort (photo) comment on the games of the top tournament. It takes place in the Westfalenhallen Hall 2a, where the players sit like in a boxing ring, surrounded by the audience.
Main picture: Dr. Robert Hübner - Garry Kasparov, Sparkassen Chess Meeting 1992, all photos from Christian Lünig, Arbeitsblende