David Bronstein (1924-2006) was born in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine and showed early promise debuting in the 1939 Ukrainian Championship at age 15. A year later his strong 2nd behind Isaac Boleslavsky in the 1940 Ukrainian Championship earned him the Soviet Master title. Four years later he qualified for the USSR Championship (1944).
He continued to improve, but his performance was not strong enough to achieve the Soviet Grandmaster title. FIDE still invited him, along with six other Soviets, to the 1948 Saltsjöbaden Interzonal. Surprisingly, Bronstein won and was immediately awarded the Soviet Grandmaster title.
He continued this excellent form and went on to tie Boleslavsky for 1st in the 1950 Budapest Candidates and won the subsequent playoff match thereby earning the right to face Botvinnik.
Botanist had played no chess in public since he had won the World Championship tournament in1948, but fir the upcoming match he studied the games Bronstein had played since the Saltsjobaden Interzonal.
Bronstein was an energetic player in contrast to the scientific Botvinnik, the patriarch of Soviet chess. In the match Bronstein opened with the Dutch Defense. Botvinnik considered himself an expert on the Dutch and had not prepared for it. He suspected that Bronstein meant to "force me tofight against my own systems," a ploy Botvinnik dismissed as naive. After scoring +0 -1 =2 with the Dutch, Bronstein abandoned it.
By game 22, Bronstein led by a point and needed only to win once or draw twice in the last two games to become World Champion.
In game 23 Botvinnik played one of his best games of the match. It took Bronstein forty minutes to convince himself that it was time to resign. The final position caused some speculation. Bronstein was a P up, but Botvinnik had two Bs against two Ns and was the strongest endgame player in the world so there was little point in playing on. I confirmed this using Stockfish when white scored 5-0 in Shootouts.
Bronstein could still have become champion by winning the final game, but after pressing with the white pieces for 22 moves he was without winning chances and accepted Botvinnik's draw offer.
Years later, Botvinnik and Bronstein spoke in less than friendly terms about the match. Bronstein complained that after the last game many journalists came to the stage and asked Botvinnik to hold a press conference and they ignored Bronstein.
Botvinnik accused Bronstein of "outrageous" behavior. He would make a move and quickly go behind the stage, then... suddenly dart out and disappear again. There was also laughter among the spectators and this hindered Botvinnik's play.
Bronstein hinted that there was government pressure on him to lose the match. In a 1993 interview he explained that "There was no direct pressure... But... there was the psychological pressure of the environment..." in part caused by his father's "several years in prison" and what he labeled "the marked preference for the institutional Botvinnik."
Bronstein concluded that "it seemed to me that winning could seriously harm me, which does not mean that I deliberately lost."
Some say Soviet authorities pressured Bronstein to lose in order to keep Botvinnik, a favorite of the Communist Party leadership, on the throne.
Luis Rentero, organizer of the Linares tournaments, says Bronstein once told Bobby Fischer after Fischer lost to Spassky, "They forced me to lose an entire match to Botvinnik, and I didn't cry." Years later in an interview Bronstein denied having said it, but eventually conceded that he may have said something to that effect, but too much time had passed.
On the other hand, some historians claim that Bronstein simply "choked" and just couldn't score when he needed to.
The fact is that Bronstein was not as strong as Botvinnik. The only major tournament that Bronstein ever won was the 1950 Candidates tournament. It was the tournament of his life and he was never again a serious contender for the world championship.
In winning the following game (game 11) Bronstein evened the score by again adopting a system preferred by Botvinnik himslef and in doing so he achieved a sound position. Botvinnik had no real prospects so he decided to sacrifice two center Pawns. He got an attack, but it really didn’t amount to much and eventually Bronstein’s counterattack prevailed.
Mikhail Botvinnik–David Bronstein0–1E17World Championship, Game 11Moscow URS08.04.1951Komodo Dragon 3
E17: Queen's Indian Defense 1.d4 e6 2.f3 f6 3.c4 b6 4.g3 This has
long been white's most popular line...white contests the long diagonal. b7
The modern line is 4...Ba3 forcing white to decide how to defend the P. 5.g2 e7 6.0-0 0-0 7.b3 This is rarely played. 7 Nc3 is usual because it offers
the best chances to maintain a very slight initiative. d5 8.cxd5 One
annotator said the disadvantage of this move is that it releases the tension
in the center and locks in white’s dark squared B. That does not seem to be
the case as black cannot really avoid playing ...c5 at some point which will
allow whiter to play dxc5. exd5 According to Hams Kmoch capturing with the P
is sound because white lacks the ability to put pressure on the c-file and
the potential weaknesses on c6. Also, black's position has some potential
because he will control the e-file. 9.b2 bd7 10.c3 e8 11.e5 f8 12.c1 This position has been reached a few times in recent years and white has
played 12.f4 which is neither better nor worse than the text. Botvinnik's P
sacrifice really does not offer him much. Instead of playing it safe Botvinnik
sacrifices a P in order to open up black's K-side. xe5 13.dxe5 xe5 14.b5 e7 15.xf6 gxf6 Even though white has an extra P and the Ps in front of
black's K have been shattered the position could not be more equal owing to
black still having his dark squared B and the better center. That said,
Botvinnik manages to use his pieces effectively to work up a bit of an attack. 16.e4 Offering a second P, but he still does not really get much, but it's
the only way to justify the first sacrifice. dxe4 17.g4+ g7 18.fd1 White appears to have obtained a very dangerous attack, but if he is
carsul black has adequate defensive resources. f8 This is best. 18...c8 19.f4 with an attack on the c-Pawn. In pre-engine days it was believed that
white stands better here, but the position is really no more than equal. Black
has two ways to equalize. f8 19...c5 is met by 20.d6 c7 21.f5 xf4 22.xe7+ f8 23.gxf4 xe7 24.xe4 xe4 25.e1 f5 26.f3 g8 27.h1 d4 28.fxe4 with equality. 20.xc7 f5 21.xf5 d8 22.xd8 xd8 23.xe7 equals.
xe7 19.d4 White has made a little progress. He threatens Nf5. 19.xc7 is not especially good. xc7 20.xc7 d8 21.xd8 xd8 and at least black
has an extra P while white is left with nothing to show for his P minus. 19...c8 20.h4 f5 21.c6 InterA plausible idea was the immediate 21.Bh3 e8 22.h3 An interesting position. It may appear even though white is two
Ps down with the exception of the B on g7 all of black's pieces are huddles on
the back rank while white's pieces look pretty aggressively positioned. Komodo
Dragon 3 prefers black by a P. The conclusion is that white does have some
compensation for his Ps, but just watch hoe Bronstein's pieces spring to life! h6 23.c2 e3 A good move that increases the avtivity of his pieces. 24.fxe3 xe3+ 25.h1 e6 Things look different now. Black has open lines, the
two Bs and he threatens to trade Qs with ...Qh6 26.g2 Preventing 26...Qh6 a5 26...h6 27.xh6 xh6 28.e7+ xe7 29.xa8 27.f3 h8 28.d4 ad8
Aiming for ...Qb4 attacking the N. 29.xc7 This is a tactical slip. 29.f6+ g8 30.xe6 xd1+ 31.xd1 fxe6 32.xf8+ xf8 33.xc7 White is a P
down, but Bs of opposite color make a draw likely. 29...d5
Avoiding the trap of playing his intended ...Qb4 29...b4 30.f6+ g8 31.xe6 xd1+ 32.g2 d2+ 33.h3 and black can delay, but not avoid mate 30.e1 This is a real surprise...Botvinnik makes a catastrophic blunder. 30.f1 offers his best defense. d6 31.c2 f4 32.xd5 xd5+ 33.f3 d6
But even here white is under tremendous pressure and is more than lie=kjely
going to lose...a sample line... 30...d6 ...Re4 is the threat. Black is
winning. 31.c2 e4 32.xe4 xe4+ It's time to resign. 33.xe4 fxe4 34.f5 b4 35.xe3 d1+ 36.g2 d2+ 37.xd2 xd2+ 38.h3 f2 39.g4 f6 White resigned. 0–1
When Botvinnik agreed to a draw in the 24th game, he had an advantage of 0.35 (Stockfish 16.1, 49 ply) . If he had played on and won, nobody would have talked about the 12-12 match.
ReplyDeleteIs seems that Botvinnik had broken him and was merciful in the last game.
Before the match, in 1944-1945 they played 2 games with Bronstein winning 1.5-0.5. After the match, they played 7 games, Botvinnik winning 5-2. Four of those games were played in 1951 and 1952, Botvinnik winning 3.5-0.5.
There is no doubt that the Stalinist regime preferred Botvinnik over Bronstein. Like Korchnoi almost thirty years later, the Soviets had imprisoned a member of the challenger's famiy in the Gulag. Having said that Bronstein was inconsistent in his explanations asto why he lost that game and the match.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I for one, am glad that Botvinnk saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The ultimate New Mans political beliefs were a sham.