Highlights from an Old Yusupov Video

Games and thoughts of one of the nicest greats of late 20th century chess.

Let me state first of all that Artur Yusupov hasn’t forgotten how to play chess in the 21st century; he’s still rated over 2550 at the age of 64. But in the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s he was in the absolute elite, three times making it to the semi-finals of the Candidates (they were matches then) and reaching a high of #3 in the world in 1986 and reaching his peak rating of 2680 in 1995. He never reached the absolute heights of Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, but during his very best years no one else could boast of being more than his peer - and not many could even claim that.

He gradually became more of a chess trainer, following in the footsteps of Mark Dvoretsky, his own long-time trainer. Many of Dvoretsky’s books were co-authored by Yusupov, and Yusupov has already written a number of outstanding books on his own. He’s also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in the chess world.

Anyway, my YouTube feed a couple of weeks ago offered up this 9+ year-old interview with Yusupov, in which he addresses questions like who he would call the greatest player of all time (I can’t at all agree with his answer, but it’s an interesting one), what’s needed to become a world champion, his best game - both according to popular opinion and according to the man himself - what he loves most about the game, who he found a difficult opponent, and more. I’ve also uploaded the games he mentions or alludes to, here, with comments to (almost) all the games. Enjoy.