DTFC Zurich 1953 Tournament Commemoration

The Daily Tournaments Fans Club (DTFC) invites you to an event to commemorate one of the legendary tournaments in chess - the 1953 Zurich Candidates Tournament. Some prehistory: Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 as a reigning chess champion. The vacant throne was won in a 5-player tournament in 1948 by Mikhail Botvinnik, and with him, the era of Soviet dominance in chess started. The Zurich tournament brought together the 15 strongest contenders to designate the next challenger to Botvinnik. The tournament gained legendary status in the chess world due to the strength of the participating GMs, the high quality of played games, and the two famous books written by participants in the event: one by Miguel Najdorf (Zurich 1953: 15 Contenders for the World Chess Championship, originally in Spanish) and one by David Bronstein (Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953, originally in Russian). To this day these books are used as one of the favorite tools of chess trainers to teach the middlegame. The Najdorf book holds more merit as a historical book, while the Bronstein book is highly valued as a teaching and study book.

At the start of the tournament, Smyslov sang an aria from an Italian opera (he was a world-class baritone singer) and Taimanov played piano compositions from Tchaikovsky and Chopin (he was one of the top piano players of his time). A local factory pledged gold Swiss watchеs to the leaders after Round 7, who turned up to be Smyslov and Reshevsky. The tournament soon turned into a drawn-out battle not just of individual players, but of the Soviet Union against the West, essentially an extension of the Cold War. The USSR was intent on having a winner from the list of Soviet players (preferably Smyslov) to have an all Soviet final Botvinnik-? and thus, seal Soviet dominance in chess. All games could be adjourned after move 40, and all Soviet players gathered together to advise the player with the postponed game, effectively playing as a team. On many occasions, Soviet players had pre-arranged draws to facilitate the player among them with the highest chance for the final victory. This should not diminish the value of Smyslov's victory, as, after securing a convincing lead, he cruise-controlled to the end of the tournament with a string of early draws. In a more competitive environment, he could have scored more victories. The 15 players in the tournament were: Vasily Smyslov (Russia, USSR), David Bronstein (Ukraine, USSR), Paul Keres (Estonia, USSR), Tigran Petrosian (Georgia, USSR), Efim Geller (Ukraine, USSR), Alexander Kotov (Russia, USSR), Mark Taimanov (Ukraine, USSR), Yuri Averbakh (Russia, USSR),  Isaac Boleslavsky (Ukraine, USSR), Svetozar Gligoric (Serbia, Yugoslavia), Laszlo Szabo (Hungary), Samuel Reshevsky (USA), Miguel Najdorf (Argentina), Max Euwe (The Netherlands), Gideon Stahlberg (Sweden). A few notes: Petrosian was born in Georgia to an Armenian family; both Reshevsky and Najdorf were born in Poland, but being Jews were lucky to escape the invading Germans. The only living player from this tournament is GM Yuri Averbakh (ELO 2445 as of 2021), who at 99 is the oldest living grandmaster.

The tournament ended with Smyslov coming first, Bronstein second, and Keres third (our custom trophies reflect that). The brilliancy prize went to the game Averbakh-Kotov (shown below) which sported a queen sacrifice. A striking feature of the tournament became the King's Indian Defence, which had been considered a dubious opening previously, but rose to the status of a powerful weapon against the Queen's Gambit due to the studies of Soviet grandmasters (including Boleslavsky and Bronstein). It would later be employed successfully by Bobby Fischer as well. Be sure to replay the selected notable games and watch the video!