The 1948 World Chess Championship

This post is a continuation of my previous article, The Interregnum of World Chess Champions. You can check it out at: https://www.chess.com/blog/ThummimS/the-interregnum-of-world-chess-champions.

The 1948 World Chess Championship was a quintuple round-robin tournament played to determine the new World Chess Champion following the death of the previous champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946. The tournament marked the passing of control of the championship title to FIDE, the International Chess Federation which had been formed in 1924. Mikhail Botvinnik won the five-player championship tournament, beginning the era of Soviet domination of international chess that would last over twenty years without interruption. 

Previously, a new World Champion had won the title by defeating the former champion in a match. Alekhine's death created an interregnum (gap between reigns) that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was very confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it very difficult to organize the early discussions on how to resolve the interregnum because problems with money and travel so soon after the end of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives – most notably the Soviet Union. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confused. See Interregnum of World Chess Champions for more details.

The eventual solution was very similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to a proposal put forward by the Soviet Union. The 1938 AVRO tournament was used as the basis for the 1948 Championship Tournament. The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO – Alekhine and former world champion José Raúl Capablanca – had died; but FIDE decided that the other six participants at AVRO would play a quadruple round robin tournament. These players were: Max Euwe (from the Netherlands); Mikhail Botvinnik, Paul Keres and Salo Flohr (from the Soviet Union); and Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky (from the USA).

The proposal was modified slightly, in that the Soviet Union was allowed to replace Flohr with Vasily Smyslov, a young player who had emerged during the World War II years and was obviously stronger. Reuben Fine elected not to play, for reasons which are not totally clear. There was a proposal that he should be replaced with Miguel Najdorf, but in the end the tournament was played with only five players, and as a five-cycle round robin.

Botvinnik became the sixth World Chess Champion by winning the tournament convincingly with 14 points out of 20. He also had a plus score against all the other players. Smyslov came second with 11 points, just ahead of Keres and Reshevsky on 10½. Former champion Euwe was in bad form, and finished last with 4 out of 20.

Here are some notable games from the championship:

Round 5

Round 12

Round 20

By move 30, White has an undisputed advantage due to Black's weakened pawn structure. Of course, were the black b5-pawn instead on c6, he could count on a draw. But here, the doubled b-pawns and the isolated pawn on d5 require the constant defense of the black pieces. Both the black king and knight will be forced to occupy passive defensive posts, and the only question will be whether White can make progress. The deficiencies of Black's pawn structure carry another liability -- the doubled b-pawns mean that he cannot create a passed pawn on the queenside, while White can create a passed pawn in the center or perhaps kingside. This means that most king and pawn endings are lost for Black. Being required to avoid the exchange of knights means being required to constantly cede territory. I believe that a good technician should win this ending. Nevertheless, knight endings are amongst the most tricky. Counterplay can come seemingly out of nowhere, and as White begins to make progress, he needs to use great caution to avoid counterplay. In Botvinnik's hands, of course, the game flows smoothly.

Round 14

My next article will be around the World Chess Championship directly after this, the 1951 World Chess Championship, which was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein in Moscow from March 15 to May 11, 1951. Be sure to be on the lookout for that within a few days.

Thank you for reading!