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Lesson 19: Vasily Smyslov 7th World Champion, GM Tejas Bakre, Cyberchess Lectures, 2008

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LESSON 19: Vasily Smyslov 7th World Champion  

The seventh world champion, Vasily Smyslov's universal technique was simply superior  

to the resistance employed even by the very strongest players of the early and mid fifties.  

Only Botvinnik's iron character enabled him to stay even with Smyslov after their three  

matches - the greatest chess battle until the Karpov-Kasparov saga - in 1954 (12:12),  

1957 (12.5:9.5 for Smyslov) and 1958 (12.5-10.5 for Botvinnik). This game is a typical  

example of Smyslov's purity fo style. The victim was one of the strongest western players  

at the time.