A Century of Chess: USSR Championship 1931

A new star shows up in our history with Mikhail Botvinnik’s victory at the 1931 USSR Championship. Botvinnik established himself as a teenager as a strong, talented player, but he didn’t have the kind of meteoric ascent that other world champions have. He struggled to get through the semi-finals, and, for much of the tournament, he was in the background. The attention was on the Moscow player Nikolai Riumin, a favorite son and sharp combinative player who was tearing through the field. With only slight exaggeration Ilya Kan called his third round victory over Sorokin “one of the most thrilling games in the history of chess.” 

Botvinnik suffered a first-round loss and then another in round seven but began steadily to reel in Riumin, scoring 7 out of his other 8. Even then, Botvinnik had a reputation for being “a dry, cold player,” but it may surprise chess fans, familiar with the “materialist” moniker that was attached to him in the ‘60s, to see how active and energetic his play was throughout the ‘30s. His hallmark, even here, was deep research in the opening and then control of all phases of the game. 

The showdown between Botvinnik and Riumin occurred in the 15th round with Riumin leading by a half-point. Here is how Soltis describes it: "Botvinnik, pale and trying to act calm, revealed his inner tension with frequent glances at the clock and extremely slow moving of the pieces. Riumin's face 'burned with a feverish flush' and he often had to write down his moves very carefully because his hands trembled, then he would jump up from the table and walk off the stage." 

In the end, the game was not very exciting, Riumin never got a head of steam going to put his combinative talents on display and Botvinnik retained control throughout. Riumin weakened down the home stretch and Botvinnik had his first major triumph by two full points. 

One thing about Soviet chess is that the stakes were always immense. "The winner would be the unofficial leader of the new generation," writes Soltis and the beneficiary of the state's support. Nikolai Krylenko, the ‘godfather’ of Soviet chess, seemed to prefer Riumin, who was more of a ‘worker type’ and ethnically pure Russian, but nothing spoke louder than success, and, after Botvinnik's triumph, Grigory Levenfish recalled, "the Botvinnik era, in essence, began.” That would have profound effects for everyone involved. Botvinnik would enjoy state support for the rest of his life, while Riumin would soon drift out of the Soviet elite. He died at age 34 during the war. 

The Soviet championship was already an immense event in the USSR at that time but it was about to vault forward in importance. 1931 was the first edition built around qualifying tournaments, as opposed to invitations, which introduced another degree of difficulty to the proceedings. A daily bulletin with a circulation of 10,000 appeared twenty times with copies quickly scarfed up. And Krylenko was so excited by the event that he authorized a 562-page doorstop of a tournament book. Sources: Andy Soltis discusses this tournament twice, once in Soviet Chess and once in Mikhail Botvinnik. Botvinnik gives his perspective on the tournament in Achieving The Aim  and annotates some of the games in One Hundred Selected Games. simaginfan has a write-up on Riumin here.