The tournament was organized along the lines of Moscow 1925, with twelve Soviet players and eight foregin players. Of the twelve Soviets, four (Grigory Levenfish, Peter Romanovsky, Ilya Rabinovich and Fedir Bohatyrchuk) had played at the 1925 event.
Salo Flohr (then of Czechoslovakia) was internationally renowned and considered a world championship contender. And, Mikhail Botvinnik was known as a rising star. Two years earlier he had drawn a match with Flohr. Emanuel Lasker and JoseCapablanca were former world champions.
There was a controversy when Flohr (a Czech but later to become a Russian) was tied with Botvinnik going into the final round. This was considered unacceptable to Nikolai Krylenko, head of the Russian chess machine.
It was suggested to Botvinnik that Ilya Rabinovich would throw his last round to Botvinnik. Supposedly Botvinnik replied that if he realized that was happening, he would blunder away a piece and "resign on the spot". As it turned out, Botvinnik, fearing that Rabinovich would somehow manage to lose anyway and thereby force Botvinnik to carry out his threat, offered a premature draw which was readily accepted. Flohr did the same in his game against Vladimir Alatortsev and the result was Botvinnik and Flohr shared first place.
Although it is unlikely this tournament would make the list of one of the most important tournaments ever played, it was significant in that it 1935 heralded the arrival of the Soviet School of Chess in general, and Mikhail Botvinnik in particular.
In today’s game check out Spielmann’s sudden attack in his game against Vitaly Chekhover )1908-1965, 56 years old) who was born in St. Petersburg. He was awarded the IM title at its inception in 1950. He was won the Uzbekistan championship in 1944. He also did some important theoretical work on endings.
[Event "Moscow"] [Site ""] [Date "1935.02.28"] [Round "?"] [White "Rudolf Spielmann"] [Black "Vitaly Chekhover"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A50"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "1935.02.15"] {A50: Queen's Indian} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 b6 {The Indian defenses were just coming into vogue and the best strategies were not yet known. The Q-Indian works best against 2.Nf3} 3. Nc3 Bb7 {Preventing 4.e4} 4. Qc2 {Renewing the threat.} d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 e5 8. Nf3 exd4 9. Bb5+ c6 10. Bc4 b5 {White does not get enough compensation to justify sacrificing his B on f7.} 11. Be2 (11. Bd3 dxc3 12. O-O Qa5 13. e5 Qa4 14. Qxc3 Nd7 15. Rb1 Be7 16. Bg5 Qa3 17. Rb3 Qc5 18. e6 Nf6 19. exf7+ {Kezin,R (2510)-Bezzubenkov,S (2301) Sochi RUS 2022. White is winning.}) 11... dxc3 12. Qxc3 Nd7 {The purpose of this move is to play ...Nc5 and ...Ne6 which defends the g-Pawn and so frees the B} 13. O-O { [%mdl 1024]} Qe7 $146 {Black’s situation is unpleasant. This move is played with the aim of preventing the 14 Bb2} 14. Bb2 {As it turns out black's last move does not prevent this.} Nc5 (14... Qxe4 {is strongly mey by} 15. Bd3 Qb4 16. Rfe1+ Kd8 17. Qc2 {and black is in serious trouble because his K is stuck in the center.}) 15. Qc2 {Stronger was 15.Rad1} Ne6 (15... Nxe4 {Capturing the e-Pawn is still a poor idea.} 16. Ne5 Nf6 17. Rfe1 O-O-O 18. Nxc6 Bxc6 19. Qxc6+ Kb8 20. Bf3 {with a mating attack.}) (15... Qxe4 {is actually black's best option.} 16. Bd3 Nxd3 17. Rfe1 Qxe1+ 18. Rxe1+ Nxe1 19. Qe4+ Be7 20. Nxe1 {and black has compensation for the Q.}) 16. a4 {Stronger was 16.Ne5, but the text induces a blunder.} a6 {[%mdl 8192] Black could have equalized with 16... Qc5} 17. axb5 axb5 18. Rxa8+ Bxa8 19. Rd1 {As quickly becomes apparent black's Q-side Ps are no com[ensation for his undeveloped K-side and K in the center.} Qb7 20. Ne5 Be7 21. Bh5 Rf8 22. Qb3 g6 23. Bg4 Qc8 24. Nxf7 {[%mdl 512] A forceful finish.} Kxf7 25. Qf3+ Ke8 (25... Kg8 26. Qh3 {wins}) 26. Qh3 Nf4 27. Bd7+ {Black resigned.} (27. Bd7+ Qxd7 28. Qxd7+ Kf7 29. Qc7 Ne6 30. Qe5 Rd8 31. Rxd8 Nxd8 {White is winning.}) 1-0
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