Vasily Smyslov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He was born in the town of Moscow, Russia (1921). Just like most of the chess world champions who precede him, he was introduced to the game at a very young age of 6. Vasily Smyslov learnt all he could about chess by playing with his father as well as reading lots of books on the game in his father’s library. At a very young age, his interest for chess was sparked and though he tried his luck at singing at the opera, and failed at the Bolshoi auditions, his destiny was bound in becoming one of the grandmasters of chess.

His father Osipovich Smylsov was a trained engineer-technician and also played professional chess at the side by representing the college he taught in at the inter-college chess competitions. Besides playing, his father also did a lot of studying on chess to perfect his art of playing. So it goes without saying that this young Russian boy was a definite chip from the old block. Of the many books he read, one book that he always referred to was Alexander Alekhine’s ‘My Best Games of Chess (1908-1923)’.

By age 14 he was already competing in one classification tournament after another.  By the age of 17, Vasily Smyslov took the lead in the USSR chess tournament for junior level. That very year he proceeded to play at the Moscow City Championship where he tied with our junior champs at the 1st and 2nd positions. With a win of 121/2 out of a possible 17, the junior chess champ felt he could now try his luck at the table of men. He tried out adult chess at the Leningrad Chess Tournament in 1939. This field was really strong for the young Russian player and he took the 12th and 13th positions after competing with other champs. This never deterred him, he continued to play adult chess at the Moscow Championship of between 1939 and 1940 and finally took the 2nd and 3rd place with a whooping 9 wins out of 13.

Then it was time to enter the adult chess waters fully and he did saw when he played in the real USSR Chess Championship in Moscow. His performance was astounding finishing in at 3rd place with a great 13/19 score. His win was also way ahead of the then Russian champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Given that this was one of the strongest tournaments in Soviet history, it gave him quite of an ego boost to pursue other tougher grounds and play more reigning champions.

1940 was another defining moment for him as he was selected to play at the Absolute USSR Chess Championship. Only six top players were selected and he was privileged to meet chess gurus like Isaac Boleslavsky, Botvinnik, Igor Bondarevsky, Keres and Andor Lilienthal. Once more he impressed the Russian crowd by scoring 10 out of 20 which placed him third after Keres and Botvinnick. He had made his mark finally as a promising upcoming Grandmaster of chess at only the age of 20.

World War II disrupted things a little nevertheless the promising Grandmaster continued to play in tournaments and winning. He played the Moscow championship again which he won in 1942. This was a performance that went down in history as the most powerful for the gentleman since he scored a clean 12 out of 15. His skill had perfected and when he played another strong chess fields held in Kuibyshev and Sverdlovsk.  In 1934, he scored a clean 11.5 out of 16 while later on in 1944, in the same USSR Chess Championship, he scored a 10.5 out of 16. Later on in 1945, when signs of the war ending could be seen, he played once more in the Moscow Championship and became the champion with a clean 13 out of 16.

As the war came to a close, Vasily Smyslov was already recognized as one of the top three distinguished chess player in Soviet Russia. When the tournaments began to pick again word went out that his playing form was subsiding and this was seen in the 1945 USSR Championship when he came out with a 8½   out of 17 plays. Botvinnick had taken the title again while Boleslavsky and a new comer David Bronstein took the second and third positions. Later on that year he played another tournament in Tallinn and this is where his form was with no doubt deteriorated; he scored a shocking 7 ½ out of 15 and managed to secure a tie at the 7th and 11th places.

Despite these shaky performances, his career is recorded as one of the most amazing in the history of championship chess. He was privileged to be summoned in 1948 to be part of the players who were going to compete for the position of World Champion after Alexander Alekhine’s demise. The choice of Vasily Smyslov as one of the contestants was highly questioned by some people, however he managed to silence them by finishing second place after Mikhai Botvinnick took the title.

This remarkable performance at the world chess championship earned him a free ticket to the Budapest Tournaments for candidates; he didn’t need to go through the qualifying matches. He came out with a clean 10 out of 18 earning him the third position in the tournament. This win put him into the next candidate tournament which saw him being awarded the title of International Grandmaster by the FIDE organization; in 1950.

The reign for World Champion was one that he had to fight for several times. After winning another Candidate Tournament in Amsterdam (1956) he proceeded to a tough match against the then champion Botvinnik in 1957. He was aided by two experts who were training him; Vladimir Simagin and Makogonov Vladimir. Through their coaching he defeated Botvinnick to his game with a 12 ½ against a 9 ½ score.

Botvinnick didn’t like these results and he later on challenged rematch and reclaimed his title by a close 12 ½ to 10 1/2. Despite this loss, Vasily Smyslov was content that he had taken the 7th position in the world as the best chess player.