INTRODUCING VASILY SMYSLOV

Vasily Smyslov, born in 1921, was one of the world's best players from the 1940s. He was selected to play in the 1948 World Championship Match-Tournament, to decide Alexander Alekhine's successor (who had died in 1946 with the title, creating a vacancy). Smyslov finished second behind Mikhail Botvinnik, who became World Champion.

In 1953, Smyslov participated in the Zurich International Tournament. This was the "Candidates Tournament," and the winner would challenge Botvinnik for the Championship the next year. Smyslov won the 15-player, 28-round(!), two-month event with a final score of 18 points out of 28. This was two points better than his nearest rivals, and he won the right to challenge Botvinnik in the 1954 World Championship Match.

The Match ended in a 12-12 tie, as had Botvinnik's match with Bronstein in 1951. In both cases the champion retained the title due to "draw odds": the challenger had to score at least 12.5 points in 24 games to win the title, but the champion needed only 12 points to retain it.

Undaunted by this, Smyslov emerged victorious in the 1956 Candidates Tournament in Amsterdam, and challenged Botvinnik again in the 1957 World Championship Match. This time he won the title by a score of 12.5-9.5, and became the 7th World Chess Champion. The next year, however, Botvinnik won the "return match" by a score of 12.5-10.5. Having played in three World Championship matches in four years, Smyslov would never reach another one, although a quarter century later he would get close...

Continuing to try and qualify for another shot at the Title, Smyslov qualified for the Candidates Matches in 1983 (Fischer's accusations of Soviet collusion had gotten FIDE to scrap the Candidates Tournaments in favor of the Matches beginning in 1965). After beating Robert Huebner on the spin of a roulette wheel (their match was tied 7-7), he knocked out Zoltan Ribli in the Candidates Semi-Final, and at the age of 62, challenged Garry Kasparov for a chance to face Anatoly Karpov in the 1984 World Championship Match. Even though Kasparov won the match 8.5-4.5, the ability to reach a Candidates Final 25 years after last playing in a World Championship match is simply unheard-of!

Smyslov became known as one of the "Winter Kings" as he had held the Championship for only one year, but this should not dimish how great a player Smyslov was. He is not one of the most popular world champions because of his positional style, but his play was very "clear" and, it often appeared, effortless. This man simply had a deep understanding of chess!

Now 85 years old, Smyslov no longer plays tournament chess. He made the decision to become a professional chessplayer after he auditioned for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1950. He was known as a fine baritone singer.

To see a biography of Vasily Smyslov on the Wikipedia website, click here.

To see Smyslov's games on ChessGames.com, click here.