Over on the ecforums site there is a thread 'Chess History Trivia' where proper chess historians ask almost impossible to answer questions. This week I came across something which would fit well there!
Can you name an untitled player who beat two World Champions in the same tournament?
Looking at some Keres over the past week -see my last blog - I came to one of his greatest results - the 1951 U.S.S.R. Championships, which he won after an wonderful win over Mark Taimanov in the last round. It was the strongest U.S.S.R finals up to that time, and an incredible tournament.
I have always said that anyone who qualified for the finals back then was a de facto Grandmaster. Only four players were seeded to the finals. Keres as defending champion, Botvinnik and Bronstein, - who had played for the world title earlier in the year, and Kotov. The rest - including Smyslov, would you believe - had to come through the qualifiers. One of the qualifiers was this man
Sergey Kim on twitter.
Nikolai Kopylov. Never awarded an international title over the board. He later earned the c.c. I.M title as part of the incredible correspondence team of the U.S.S.R. at the time. I will throw in a lovely c.c. game at this point before I forget. (Apologies, by the way, for the lack of notes to all but two of the games - I got engrossed in the endgame of one given later and ran out of time! hopefully you will enjoy studying the games for yourselves.)
So, back to the 1951 tournament. In the first two rounds he beat the defending champion - Keres - and the future World Champion, Petrosian!! A beautiful picture.
sovietchesssets.com. Petrosian in 1951
A young Petrosian. via. facebook.
Next up was Keres, who tried an unusual line to try to confuse his less experienced opponent in the opening, and then went wrong in the endgame.
Keres at the 1954 olympiad in Amsterdam. beautiful picture.
In the middle of the tournament he played a mad game against Bondarevsky
Smslov and Bondarevsky. tabladeflandes.com.
who came in to the tournament as a substitute for the unwell Boleslavsky. Despite sharing first place in the 1950 Candidates, Boleslavsky had to qualify for the Soviet Championship finals like all the rest, and a Grandmaster like Bondarevsky had missed out. Go figure! White has three Queens during the game, but it is the original one which concludes the game.
O.K. The two games that I have found time to do proper notes to - they won't be engine correct, so feel free to add improvements!! I just enjoy studying positions for myself.
Towards the end of the tournament Kopylov had Black against the World Champion.
Botvinnik - Bronstein title match from earlier in the year.
Botvinnik was desperate to win, and took a few risks. An observation on Botvinnik. His style was much sharper than people think. Also, in the endgame he was not quite as naturally strong as he is painted out to be. If he had the chance to analyse an ending at adjournment he was incredibly strong, but as a natural endgame player, I would not rate him as highly as Smyslov, for example.
I spent far too long on this endgame, and still can't say that understand it properly.
At least I am honest!!
Also I was interested in the opening. Kopylov was from Leningrad and one of the early pioneers of the Leningrad Dutch. When I took up correspondence chess I started playing the Leningrad.
I love strategically complex positions where big decisions have to be made almost every move. Such positions are especially suited to correspondence games, where you don't have the clock ticking. I had good days and bad days with it, and it still fascinates me!
Anyway, the game in question, with the world champion trying hard to win - see the table above - in something new.
O.K. Here's another Kopylov game in the Leningrad. from the time. His opponent was a pretty strong player, although only his losses ever get published!! As said above the Leningrad - by it's nature - leads to complex positions which can eat away at your clock time. White -
The back of Zagoriansky's head!! U.S.S.R Championships 1950. Griffin on twitter.
plays very well up to a point, but then blows it in what I assume was time trouble. Kopylov was a risk taker, and this is a game where he got away with it!.
Lets finish with a bit of fun. No analysis - just a game I spotted while I was digging out the game files.
I hope you enjoyed the chess. See you all next time. Take care.
