| Sep-18-03 | | Benjamin Lau: Wow, I don't think even I would have made that move. |
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| Sep-18-03 | | drukenknight: he looks under a lot of time pressure at the end.
Benko looks afraid to start exchanging, I was thinking 28 Bxd5 |
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| Sep-18-03 | | Sylvester: You have to respect Smyslov for winning back to back candidates tournaments and playing well in 3 World Championship matches. Plus there is the stuff he did in the early eighties. Did he have a great international tournament and Olympiad record too? |
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| Sep-19-03 | | PVS: SMYSLOV AT THE OLYMPIADS
+69=42-2. That is about 80%. He was also second in the 1948 world championship match tournament. He dominated those candidates' tournaments, winning Zurich 1953 by 2 points and Amsterdam 1956 by 1.5 points. He won quite a few international tournaments, Havana 1965 comes to mind. |
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Sep-19-03
 | | Benzol: Smyslov's Father was a strong player he beat Alyekin in 1912 at St. Petersburg. |
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Sep-19-03
| | Benzol: <Sylvester> Smyslov twice defeated Reshevsky in the USSR-USA radio match 1945.
At Groningen 1946 he was 3rd after Botvinnik and Euwe.
In the Budapest Candidates Tournament 1950 he was 3rd after Bronstein and Boleslavsky.
Moscow 1960 1st.
Moscow 1963 1st.
Havana 1965 1st.
Monte Carlo 1969 1st= with Portisch.
Moscow 1971 3rd after Karpov & Stein.
Teeside 1975 2nd after Geller.
Buenos Aires 1978 2nd= with Panno & Vaganian after Andersson.
Moscow 1981 2nd= with Kasparov & Polugaevsky after Karpov.
He is certainly one of the great champions. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Sylvester: What was the 1945 USSR-USA radio match? |
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Sep-19-03
| | Benzol: <Sylvester> Radio Chess have games in which the moves are transmitted by radio. A sort of early internet chess. All early games were played at sea, a circumstance that suited the primitive equipment then.
In September 1945 the USSR defeated the USA 15 1/2 : 4 1/2 in the first important event at the end of the second world war. In 1946 the USSR beat England 18 : 6, France beat Australia and Spain beat Argentina.
If I remember correctly there was an earlier format that used telegraph transmissions. These were used in the cable matches between England and the USA at the begining of the 20th Century. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | refutor: the 1945 radio match was almost a coming out party for the USSR, the Americans were dominant throughout the 30s in the Olympiads and no one had any idea how strong the Russians had become. this is my favorite game from the match Denker vs Botvinnik, 1945 |
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| Sep-19-03 | | skakmiv: Why couldn't black play 31.Rxe2? |
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| Sep-19-03 | | AdrianP: 31 ... Rxe2 32. Qxa4 and there is no mate for B; although 33... Rxf2+ 34. Kg1 Bd4?! looks promising it fails to 35. Rb8+ Kg7 36. Qxd4+!! cxd4 37 Kxf2 when W ends up the exchange up. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | AgentRgent: <AdrianP: although 33... Rxf2+ 34. Kg1 Bd4?! looks promising> If Black plays Rg2+ before Bd4 I think He gets a draw. (31...Rxe2 32. Qxa4 Rxf2+ 33. Kg1 Rg2+ 34. Kf1 Bd4 35. Rb8+ Kg7 36. Qe8 Rg1+ 37. Ke2 Rg2+ 38. Kd1 Rg1+ 39. Kd2 Rg2+ 40. Kc1 Rg1+ 41. Kd2 Rg2+ 42. Kc1 Rg1+ 43. Kd2 draw) But why take a draw when you can score a win! ;-) |
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| Sep-19-03 | | skakmiv: Hehe.. My fault. I absolutely overlooked Qxa4 :-) |
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Sep-21-03
| | Benzol: If Benko had 37.Rb8 instead could he have hung on.
37.Rb8 Qf3;38.Qf4 then what? |
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| Sep-21-03 | | Sylvester: Thanks for the information Benzol and refutor. So the result, or at least the margin, was a huge upset? Does anyone know how many boards there were and who played them? Or was it all play all? |
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| Sep-21-03 | | refutor: <sylvester> from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconVal... it was the top 10 russian masters v. the top 10 american masters. the top american master played the top russian master 2 games, the second american master played the second russian master 2 games, etc. USSR won 15.5-4.5 Botvinnik 2 - 0 Denker
Smyslov 2 - 0 Reshevsky
Boleslavsky 1.5 - 0.5 Fine
Flohr 1 - 1 Horowitz
Kotov 2 - 0 Kashdan
Bondarevsky 0.5 - 1.5 Steiner
Lilienthal 1 - 1 Pinkus
Ragozin 2 - 0 Seidman
Makagonov 1.5 - 0.5 Kupchik
Bronstein 2 - 0 Santasiere
amazing that Bronstein would be playing on Board 10?! |
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| Sep-21-03 | | sleepkid: My favourite games from the Radio match are Smyslov vs Reshevsky, 1945 where a prepared opening novelty catches Reshevsky totally unawares. Smyslov used only 5 minutes on his clock compared to Reshevsky's hour and 20 minutes or so for the first 25 moves! And this one. . .I A Horowitz vs Flohr, 1945 which is an excellent game from Horowitz, one that deserves to be more widely known. |
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Sep-22-03
| | Benzol: <refutor> I find interesting that Denker although a strong player was placed ahead of both Reshevsky and Fine given that they had both played internatonally. |
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| Sep-22-03 | | sleepkid: I believe Denker had won the U.S. Championship that year, which may be why he was placed ahead of Fine and Reshevsky. It's a pity that Fine didn't play Botvinnik as he had a winning record against him. |
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Sep-30-03
| | Benzol: Is Denker still alive? |
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Sep-30-03
 | | paulalbert: Arnold Denker absolutely is live and well. Remains very active in supporting chess through sponsorship of Denker High School Championship and as Trustee of Chess in the Schools Foundation in NY, where I served with him for many years. Paul Albert |
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Sep-30-03
| | Benzol: <paulalbert> That's great to hear. Thanks. |
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| Jun-04-04 | | AdrianP: Benko had a reputation for both (i) hanging rooks; and (ii) getting into time trouble. This game apparently demonstrates both. |
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| Jun-04-04 | | drukenknight: 28 Qe1 looks ugly arent there other moves possible? |
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Jan-27-11
 | | GrahamClayton: <drunkenknight> 28.♕e1 looks ugly arent there other moves possible? <drunkennight>,
Maybe Benko could have exchanged pieces to ease the pressure, eg 28.♗d5 ♗d5 29.♖e8+ ♕e8 30.♗f4. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 29...Rxd2