Candidates Tournament 1953
Zurich 1953 was a chess tournament won by Vasily Smyslov, held from 29 August to 24 October 1953. It was a Candidates Tournament for the 1954 World Chess Championship, which led to the match between Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik. The tournament is famous for the strength of the players, the high quality of the games, and books on the tournament by David Bronstein and Miguel Najdorf that are regarded as among the best tournament books ever written.
The tournament was a double round-robin event. Players were assigned one point for every win and a half-point for each draw. In later years, Bronstein claimed that the Soviet players were accompanied by KGB agents. According to Bronstein, during the tournament, the KGB handlers started to worry that the American candidate, Samuel Reshevsky, would win, and began pressuring some of the Soviet players to draw their games against Smyslov, who was leading the other Soviet players in points.
Bronstein stated that Paul Keres was pressured to draw his Round 24 against Smyslov by the Soviet triumvirate (Postnikov, Igor Bondarevsky, Moshintsev), who had accompanied the players. Bronstein maintains he was told that Efim Geller would lose to him in Round 25, but that Geller had been told that he [Bronstein] had demanded that Geller lose to him. He also wrote that he was told to go to Smyslov's room and prearrange a draw with him for their game in Round 26.[1][2]
Smyslov responded in an article in the chess magazine 64, stating that Bronstein was trying to "rewrite history". Smyslov wrote that Bronstein was the one who wanted to make a draw with him, for the purpose of securing second place in order to qualify to the 1956 Candidates Tournament.[3]
# Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Total 1 
Vasily Smyslov (USSR)½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 18 2 David Bronstein (USSR)½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 16 3 Paul Keres (USSR)0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 16 4 
Samuel Reshevsky (USA)½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½1 1½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 16 5 Tigran Petrosian (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 15 6 Efim Geller (USSR)0 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ ½ 14½ 7 
Miguel Najdorf (Argentina)½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 14½ 8 Alexander Kotov (USSR)½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 0 1 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 14 9 Mark Taimanov (USSR)½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 14 10 Yuri Averbakh (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 13½ 11 Isaac Boleslavsky (USSR)½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 13½ 12 
László Szabó (Hungary)½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 13 13 
Svetozar Gligorić (Yugoslavia)0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 12½ 14 
Max Euwe (Netherlands)0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 11½ 15 
Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden)0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 8
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Bronstein, David (1978), Hochberg, Burt (ed.), The Chess Struggle in Practice: Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953, McKay, ISBN 9780679130642
- ↑ Bronstein, David. "Soviet cheating in FIDE competition: Zurich 1953". chess.com. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
- ↑ Soltis, Andy (29 January 2002). "Treachery in Zurich Part 1" (PDF). ChessCafe.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 June 2006.
- ↑ Soltis, Andy (24 February 2002). "Treachery in Zurich Part 2" (PDF). ChessCafe.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 June 2006.
External links
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