GM David Bronstein died on December 5, 2006.

One of the strongest players of the mid-twentieth century, he narrowly missed becoming the world champion in 1951, drawing the match with Mikhail Botvinnik.

David Ionovich Bronstein was born on February 19, 1924, in Bila Tserkva (near Kiev) in Ukraine. He won international fame as a chess player at the 1948 Interzonals and the Candidates Tournament in Budapest in 1950, where he defeated Boleslavsky to become a challenger for the world title. He also married Boleslavsky's daughter Tatiana.

Bronstein came agonizingly close to taking it from Botvinnik in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall when he was leading by a full point up to game 22 (or 24). He lost game 23 and then drew 24 and the match, which left the incumbent world champion Mikhail Botvinnik in place.

Rumours that Bronstein had been forced to lose the match persist until today – they were, for instance, debated during the Kramnik vs Deep Fritz match that ended on the day of his death. He himself wrote in his book "The Sorcerer's Apprentice": "I have been asked many, many times if I was obliged to lose the 23rd game and if there was a conspiracy against me to stop me from taking Botvinnik's title. A lot of nonsense has been written about this. The only thing that I am prepared to say about all this controversy is that I was subjected to strong psychological pressure from various origins, and it was entirely up to me to yield to that pressure or not."

In the same book he said “I had reasons not to become the World Champion, as in those times such a title meant that you were entering an official world of chess bureaucracy with many formal obligations. Such a position is not compatible with my character.”

When Viktor Korchnoi defected from the Soviet Union in 1976 Bronstein was one of the few Soviet grandmasters who refused to sign a letter denouncing him. As punishment his stipend, a salary paid to all chess grandmasters in the USSR, was suspended, and Bronstein was banned from competing in elite national tournaments and from travelling abroad more than once a year.

David Bronstein was also a great chess writer, and his book on the Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 won great admiration, as did the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Chess fans especially appreciated his habit of explaining the ideas behind moves, instead of using the traditional method, which he called "analysis of moves that never made it to the scoresheet." Bronstein was also a pioneer in popularizing the King's Indian Defense, which had been considered dubious until he showed how to play it in his games and in a famous book on the King's Indian.

David Bronstein continued to play chess at a very high level until late in life. He became interested in computer chess and played in the Dutch Aegon Mens-Computer Schaaktoernooi, which was staged every year in Den Haag and pitted a team of computers against a team of human players. It was there and on a few other occasions that I had the privilege to meet him and discuss computers and their intrusion into the chess world with the great chess genius.

David Ionovich was always talking about chess, and interestingly, as John Nunn recalls, always about the future – about plans and projects he still intended to undertake, rather than about his great past. On more than one occasion I pestered him to tell me, in front of a video camera, what exactly had transpired during his match against Botvinnik. He always balked, and the closest I came was to hear a "maybe someday". That day, unfortunately, will never come.

Bronstein’s name is closely associated with at least three openings: King’s Gambit, King’s Indian Defense, and Caro-Kann. He used the King’s Gambit to great effect, including playing it in three games that he won during the 1945 USSR Championship. He is often credited with reviving the King’s Indian as a legitimate response to 1. d4. And a somewhat popular variation of the Caro-Kann is named for Bronstein and Bent Larsen (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6 gxf6).

Bronstein wrote several chess books. Most notably, his review of the 1953 Candidates tournament in Zurich was published in 1956 and translated into English in 1979. It is considered one of the best tournament books ever written. Other highlights include the part-autobiography, part-game collection The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, co-written with Tom Furstenberg and published in 1995. Bronstein’s connection to the King’s Indian Defense was bolstered with a 1999 treatise on the opening. He also wrote a longtime chess column for the newspaper Izvestia.

Bronstein also invented the popular time control that bears his name, and his exploits against computers were also notable, as he played recorded games against them as far back as 1963.

Bronstein’s legacy goes far beyond his near-miss in the 1951 world championship match. His creativity as an attacker, his opening exploits, his writings, and his independent streak all leave a lasting impression.

David Bronstein died on December 5, 2006, in Minsk, Belarus. He was 82.