Genrich Kasparyan(Armenian Գենրիխ Գասպարյան, in scientific transliteration Genrix Gasparyan), better known internationally as Genrich Moiseyevich Gasparyan (or Kasparian) (Russian Генрих Моисеевич Каспарян, * 27. February 1910 in Tbilisi, Georgia; † December 27, 1995 in Yerevan, Armenia), was a Soviet chess master and important study composer.

Kasparjan's life
Kasparjan learned to play chess from his older brother at the age of 13. From 1926 to 1931 he attended the Polytechnic Institute in Tbilisi and graduated as a civil engineer. During this time, he devoted a lot of time to chess composition and composed around 40 tasks. His playing strength in tournament chess also increased. In 1931, he became the city champion of Tbilisi and won first place in a qualifying tournament for the USSR championship ahead of the future world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik. In 1936, he moved to Yerevan and secured the title of Master of Sport by winning the competition 9½:7½ against Vitaly Chekhov, making him Armenia's first chess champion. He was a soldier from July 1941 to November 1945 and was awarded several medals. In 1950, FIDE awarded him the title of International Master. In 1956, he was awarded the title of Meritorious Master of Sport and retired from active tournament chess, but worked as a chess coach until 1990. In total, he won the Armenian Championship ten times during his career from 1934 onwards, and in January 1948 Gasparjan achieved his highest historical Elo rating of 2625, which placed him 31st in the retrospectively calculated world rankings.

Kasparjan attended the technical college (later renamed the Workers' School) in Tbilisi from 1917. In 1925 he graduated from secondary school and in 1926 he entered the Polytechnic Institute in Tbilisi. Gasparjan graduated from the Transcaucasian Institute of Communications Engineering in 1931 with a doctorate in road construction and from then on worked as a civil engineer. From January 1932 to November 1933, he worked as a construction engineer on the Black Sea, building the railroad between Ochamchiri and Sochumi. From 1934, until he was drafted in July 1941, he worked as a construction engineer in project planning in Tbilisi, Alaverdi and Yerevan. After Gasparjan was called up for military service in the Soviet Army in July 1941, he worked there until November 1945. He received a medal in 1944 for the defense of the Caucasus and in 1945 for the victory in the “Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”. From 1946, Gasparjan taught chess in Yerevan until April 1952. He then worked as a design engineer at the Project Institute from April 1952 to 1953. He then taught chess again in Yerevan until May 1957 and in Tbilisi from June 1957 to April 1964. In the meantime, Gasparjan received an award for “worker bravery” in 1958. 

From May 1965 to 1990, Gasparjan again taught chess in Yerevan. During this time, he retired in 1970 and was awarded the “Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class” in 1985. Kasparjan died in Yerevan on December 27, 1995.

Genrich Kasparjan was a very religious Christian. He was offered several times to join the Komsomol and the Communist Party, but always refused, so that he did not receive any corresponding privileges.

Kasparjan was married twice. His first marriage, from 1937 to 1947, produced no children. His second marriage brought him a son - the study composer Sergei Gasparian (1952-2022) - and a daughter.

Chess composition
Genrich Kasparjan's first endgame study was published in 1928. His work comprises a total of 545 correct studies, of which around 300 were awarded prizes in competitions. From 1947 to 1983 he took part in 13 USSR championships (1st to 11th and 13th and 14th championships) for study composition and won six, one of which was shared. Except for his last participation, he never finished lower than third place. From 1956 he was an international arbiter for chess composition. In 1960 he became International Master, and in 1972 Grand Master of Chess Composition. 70 points from the publication of chess compositions in FIDE albums were a prerequisite for the award of this highest title. Kasparjan achieved a total of 174.17 points in his career.

Many of Kasparjan's studies begin with a position close to a game. Kasparjan often ended the analysis of variations so early that it was not clear to solvers that the position was really won or drawn. Kasparjan strove for maximum economy. In positions with mutual zugzwang there was almost always a thematic seduction. Often all the pieces moved during the solution, while Gasparian took care to keep the number of captures to a minimum. In addition, Kasparjan developed ideas from other composers and was very precise in his analysis. In cases where one of his studies was found to be incorrect, Kasparjan endeavored to correct it.

Kasparjan was active as a judge in many Armenian and Georgian tournaments, including the tournament for the 14th Chess Olympiad.

Kasparjan systematically collected and categorized studies. In the end, his collection comprised more than 30,000 pieces.

The following study is remarkable not only because it won first prize in a major tournament, but also because Kasparjan worked on its composition for more than 30 years. According to his own statement, he first had the underlying idea in 1945. The study was originally intended to win 6th prize. A world-record number of 170 composers from 26 countries took part in the tournament with 287 studies. 13 studies were eliminated in advance.

Source: de.wikipedia.org