USSR Honored Trainer IM Aleksander Nikitin donated two large boxes of “debut kartoteka” – openings card index to the Chess Museum in Moscow.
In the pre-computer era masters and grandmasters carried huge cases of books and magazines to the chess tournaments. As trainer of the Soviet national teams in the 70s, Nikitin was in charge of establishing a system for collection and processing of theoretical information.
He created a card index based on idea of Estonian IM Iivo Nei. The system was in use for over two decades.
These valuable exhibits take a worthy place in the Chess Museum.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar