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.
Rudolf Spielmann–Vitaly Chekhover1–0A50Moscow28.02.1935Stockfish 17
A50: Queen's Indian 1.d4 f6 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.c3 b7 Preventing 4.e4 4.c2 Renewing the threat. d5 5.cxd5 xd5 6.e4 xc3 7.bxc3 e5 8.f3 exd4 9.b5+ c6 10.c4 b5 White does not get enough compensation to justify sacrificing his B on f7. 11.e2 11.d3 dxc3 12.0-0 a5 13.e5 a4 14.xc3 d7 15.b1 e7 16.g5 a3 17.b3 c5 18.e6 f6 19.exf7+ Kezin,R (2510)-Bezzubenkov,S (2301) Sochi RUS 2022. White is winning. 11...dxc3 12.xc3 d7 The purpose of this move is to play ...Nc5 and ...Ne6 which defends the g-Pawn and so frees the B 13.0-0 e7N Black’s situation is unpleasant. This move is played with the aim of preventing the 14 Bb2 14.b2 As it turns out black's last move does not prevent this. c5 14...xe4 is strongly mey by 15.d3 b4 16.fe1+ d8 17.c2 and black is in serious trouble because his K is stuck in the center. 15.c2 Stronger was 15.Rad1 e6 15...xe4 Capturing the e-Pawn is still a poor idea. 16.e5 f6 17.fe1 0-0-0 18.xc6 xc6 19.xc6+ b8 20.f3 with a mating attack. 15...xe4 is actually black's best option. 16.d3 xd3 17.fe1 xe1+ 18.xe1+ xe1 19.e4+ e7 20.xe1 and black has compensation for the Q. 16.a4 Stronger was 16.Ne5, but the text induces a blunder. a6 Black could have equalized with 16... Qc5 17.axb5 axb5 18.xa8+ xa8 19.d1 As quickly becomes apparent black's Q-side Ps are no com[ensation for his undeveloped K-side and K in the center. b7 20.e5 e7 21.h5 f8 22.b3 g6 23.g4 c8 24.xf7 A forceful finish. xf7 25.f3+ e8 25...g8 26.h3 wins 26.h3 f4 27.d7+ Black resigned. 27.d7+ xd7 28.xd7+ f7 29.c7 e6 30.e5 d8 31.xd8 xd8 White is winning. 1–0
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