Smyslov Wins World Championship

    
     I have been playing over the games from the 1957 World Championship match in which Smyslov won the world title. He and Botvinnik played three match: 1954, 1957 and 1958. All three clashes were between evenly matched opponents and were filled with tension. Botvinnik defended his title by drawing the first match in 1954, but Smyslov won in 1957 and Botvinnik bounced back with to win the third match. 

     Smyslov was never among the most charismatic of players but was renowned for his positional play, his well-conceived strategy and his skill in the endgame. He once defined his purpose as "strict beauty and harmony, spontaneity and elegance, the faultless intuition of the artist, the absolute mastery of technique and therefore complete independence from it", adding: "In a chess game I always sought not only victory, but also the triumph of logic."
     Vasily Smyslov was born in Moscow on March 24 1921. His father, an engineer, was a gifted chess player who had once defeated Alekhine at a tournament in St Petersburg in 1912. Smyslov learned the game from his father at the age of six and the following year his uncle presented him with a book of Alekhine's games inscribed, "future world champion Vasya Smyslov". 
     In 1938 Smyslov won the USSR junior championship for which he received a chess clock and tied for first in the Moscow championship. Excused from military service on account of his poor eyesight, in the Soviet "absolute championship" of 1941 Smyslov finished behind Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres and was awarded the Soviet GM title. Speaking of Smyslov, Botvinnik wrote, "His defects are chiefly psychological; sometimes he overestimates his possibilities during the actual game. After summing up the position he plays with great power."

     Smyslov won the Moscow championship in 1942 and 1943; in 1944 he was second, behind Botvinnik, in the USSR championship. In 1949 he shared first place in the Soviet championship. Smyslov won the right to challenge Botvinnik by winning the Candidates' tournament in Zurich in 1953. 
     His first match with Botvinnik was played from March to May 1954, and ended in a tie (seven wins, seven losses, 10 draws) and Botvinnik retained the title. They met agian in Moscow in 1957, and Smyslov won with six wins, 13 draws, and three defeats. He was appointed to the Order of Lenin, the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. It is awarded to civilians for outstanding services rendered to the State, members of the armed forces for exemplary service, those who promoted friendship and cooperation between peoples and in strengthening peace and those with meritorious services to the Soviet state and society. 

    Under the rules Botvinnik was entitled to a rematch and a year later they played their third match and Botvinnik won easily. Botvinnik scored three wins in the first three games and went on to win by a score of +7 -5 =11. Smyslov later claimed that when he began the match he was suffering from flu and that by the time it was over this had developed into pneumonia. In 1984, at the unprecedented age of 63, he reached the final Candidates' match to determine a challenger to Anatoly Karpov, but lost to Garry Kasparov. In 1988 at the age of 67, Smyslov became the oldest player to compete in a Soviet championship. Three years later he won the world seniors' title. He finally retired in 2001, owing to failing eyesight.
     Smyslov's other interest was music. In 1950 he had auditioned as a baritone at the Bolshoi Theater and when he failed to get selected he decided to become a professional chess player. 
     A member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Smyslov never joined the Communist Party and was one of the few great chess players to have a religious faith. He believed in predestination and in the predictions of Nostradamus. 
     At the Zurich Candidates tournament in 1953 Smyslov was at the top of his game finishing first by a margin two points and losing only one game, to Kotov. Every leading player of the day except Botvinnik was playing and Smyslov's play was reminiscent of Capablanca at his best. When he met Botvinnik in 1954 most experts favored Smyslov, but three losses in the first six games seemed to spell his end. But then he recovered and even took the lead, but then Botvinnik managed to tie the score and retain his title. Smyslov had proved he was equal to any player in the world, but he still was not World Champion. 
     The last tournament before the Candidates was Moscow 1956 and Smyslov and Botvinnik tied for first. Botvinnik lost one game (to Keres) while Smysov was undefeated. And, this was no minor event; Taimanov, Gligoric, Bronstein, Najdorf, Keres, Pachman, Unzicker, Stahlberg and Szabo were among the 16 participants. In Candidates tournament in Amsterdam in the spring of 1956, Smyslov was again the favorite. But during the tournament the lead seesawed between Geller and Keres with Smyslov close behind. In the end, Geller and Keres collapsed and Smyslov emerged the victor, losing only one game (to Spassky). 
     The World Championship ended in a great 12.5-9.5 victory for Smyslov. It appeared that Botvinnik's age was telling against him, as he had visibly tired, but the following year he defeated an ailing Smyslov. 
     According to Leonard Barden in an article in the 2010 Guardian, “Smyslov understood chess more profoundly than his great rival Mikhail Botvinnik, against whom he contested three world championship matches with honours even.  But Botvinnik was the better psychologist, had a shrewd knowledge of chess politics and made wily use of rules where 12-12 kept his title in 1954 and his 1957 defeat gave him a return series where he caught the flu-stricken Smyslov at the start.” 
     In the same article Barden wrote, “His greatest strength was the endgame where he co-authored a classic book on rook endings, but he could also deal with opening surprises.” And, “Occasionally his intuition let him down, notably in the 1959 candidates where the rising star Mikhail Tal, whose play he had criticised, outplayed him with mazy tactics. But the energy-saving aspect of Smyslov's approach undoubtedly aided his achievements in old age. At 63, he reached the candidates final against Garry Kasparov, and at 70 he won the inaugural World Senior championship for over-60s. He would have continued to perform at a high level but for deteriorating eyesight. Even when nearly blind he was still a strong grandmaster.”