There is also the Miguel Najdorf that is very good.
Zürich 1953 by Euwe, not Bronstein
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KineticPawn wrote:
There is also the Miguel Najdorf that is very good.
Yes. I thought I have this book, but I couldn’t find it in my library.
„This book focuses on one of the most important chess competitions of the twentieth century, the candidates tournament for the world championship, held in Switzerland in the fall of 1953. In the spirit of a marathon, the tournament lasted about two months and consisted of 30 rounds. It was attended by the 15 strongest grandmasters in the world; one of them, Max Euwe, was a former world champion, and two others, Vassily Smyslov and Tigran Petrosian, were future champions. Four candidates, Max Euwe, David Bronstein, Gideon Ståhlberg, and Miguel Najdorf, wrote books about this significant event. Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997), the author of this book, belonged to the world chess elite for about 30 years and hardly needs any introduction. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a poor Jewish family. He was then called Moishe, and when he grew up, Mieczyslaw. He became interested in chess relatively late by modern standards, but by the mid-30s of the last century, he was among the strongest chessplayers in the country. In 1939, he made the Polish team and went to Argentina for the world chess Olympiad in September of that year. Soon afterward, the Second World War broke out. Poland was quickly occupied by German and Soviet armies, and Najdorf, like many other players, decided to stay in South America. In 1944, he became a citizen of Argentina. I met Najdorf in 1950 during the candidates tournament for the world championship in Budapest. I remember our first conversation very well. He asked about my parents and I told him that my father was Jewish and my mother was Russian. He exclaimed, “That makes you a Jew, according to Hitler!” Back then it was a sore point for him. When he arrived in Europe, he discovered that many of his relatives and friends had perished in Nazi concentration camps. Being in South America during the war serendipitously saved Najdorf’s life. Curiously, Najdorf did not become a chess professional. In Buenos Aires, he opened an insurance company, made a fortune, and became independently wealthy. He was convivial and witty, and got to know people easily. I can say that, despite our age difference, we established a warm friendship. By the way, Miguel could be regarded as a polyglot. He had equally good command of Polish, Russian, Spanish, and English. I remember, once we visited a casino together. He bought a few chips, placed them on a bunch of numbers, and – can you imagine! – he won. After that, he scattered the chips on the same numbers and won again. Once more, he scattered the chips on the same numbers. “Miguel, what are you doing?!” I could not help exclaiming, “Your luck cannot last forever!” “You’re right,” he said, “but I wanted to see how long it could last!” Back to the book. As you will see, quite a few spectacular, interesting, and informative games were played at this tournament, but, as it often happens, the tournament was not without curiosities. Two of them involved the American champion Samuel Reshevsky. In the game with Geller, in a winning position, he ran into a stalemate, and, in the game with Szabó, he could have been checkmated in two moves, but his opponent did not notice it. I would like to mention that there were many more good, instructive games at this event, however, as you will see for yourself. The main feature of the tournament is that there were no inferior players; everyone was well prepared and determined to win; everyone was dangerous. Smyslov’s success was well deserved. In 1954, the following year, he proved that the level of his play was not inferior to the world champion’s. Speaking of whom, Botvinnik, after drawing his match with Bronstein, even earlier, in 1951, admitted that he was not the only primus inter pares, which in Latin means “first among equals!” Among the participants who played well, I should mention the youngest, Tigran Petrosian. He took a respectable fifth place, behind only Smyslov, Reshevsky, Bronstein, and Keres, foretelling a good future; he would become world champion ten years later. A little about myself. I must admit, I was hoping for more, but played at my level: winning mini-matches against Euwe, Keres, and Najdorf, and losing to Reshevsky, Kotov, and Gligoric and, more importantly, losing both games to the last place finisher Ståhlberg. Apparently the Swede was a difficult opponent for me. Out of the five games that I played against him, I only managed a single draw! Overall, however, I always remember this tournament with great pleasure; it proved to be the most important competition of my life. Of the participants of this tournament, which took place almost 60 years ago, only three survive: Taimanov, Gligoric, and I.“
Yuri Averbakh Moscow January 2012
From the Russel edition 2012, available in Kindle.
@brasileirosim -
Thank you. An extremely interesting vignette by Averbakh. A chess icon and man of distinction. May he RIP.
Yuri Averbakh, 1922-2022...
https://www.chess.com/news/view/yuri-averbakh-obituary
"From the Russel edition 2012, available in Kindle."...
Zurich 1953: 15 Contenders for the World Chess Championship Kindle Edition
by Miguel Najdorf, Russell Enterprises Inc. - publisher
https://www.amazon.com/Zurich-1953-Contenders-World-Championship-ebook/dp/B0086I64FS/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3ODDRYGOFFKAA&keywords=zurich+1953&qid=1671908089&s=books&sprefix=Zurich+1953%2Cstripbooks%2C135&sr=1-2
Everybody talks about Zürich 1953 by David Bronstein, but most peoples don’t know Schach-Elite im Kampf by Max Euwe. It is a rare book about the same tournament. It is interesting to follow a game from the tournament using both books as reference. They differ a lot when it comes to identify critical moments in the games.
I am selling one exemplar in Ricardo (a kind of Swiss EBay).
https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/schachbuch-%E2%80%9Eschach-elite-im-kampf-m-euwe-selten!-1221334398/
I am selling other books too, like Nimzovitsch’s Mein System.