Världsschackturneringen, Neuhausen-Zürich, 1953. Varldsmästarmatchen, Moskva, 1954
Världsschackturneringen, Neuhausen-Zürich, 1953. Varldsmästarmatchen, Moskva, 1954
Världsschackturneringen, Neuhausen-Zürich, 1953. Varldsmästarmatchen, Moskva, 1954
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Världsschackturneringen, Neuhausen-Zürich, 1953. Varldsmästarmatchen, Moskva, 1954

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Author: Ståhlberg, Anders Gideon Tom (1908-1967) and Paul Keres

Year: 1954

Publisher: Sveriges Schackförbunds förlag

Place: Helsingfors

Description:

351 pages with diagrams, photographs, tables and index. Octavo (9" x 6 1/4" bound in quarter biege cloth with green boards and spine label in gilt lettering to cover and spine. First edition.

This is part of the famed series of tournaments by Grandmaster Gideon Stahlberg and Grandmaster Paul Keres. They were also players in the tournament which gives unique insight. All the games of the Zurich 1953 tournament are deeply annotated. There is also the games of the match for the World Championship between Botvinnik -Smyslov 1954.

This event was played in Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Zürich. The Swiss Chess Federation spent 100,000 Swiss Francs in order to stage the event, which was one of the reasons they insisted that host countries pay the travel expenses for their respective players. Prize money for first place was 5,000 Swiss francs. Alois Nagler was tournament director.1 All contestants brought a second except for Bronstein and Reshevsky: Miroljub Trifunovic (Gligoric), Salomon Flohr (Taimanov), Julio Bolbochan (Najdorf), Andre Lilienthal (Petrosian), Mikhail Beilin (Averbakh), Carel Benjamin van den Berg (Euwe), Kristian Skold (Stahlberg), Tibor Florian (Szabó), Alexey Sokolsky (Boleslavsky), Viktor Moiseev (Kotov), Igor Bondarevsky (Geller), Vladimir Simagin (Smyslov), and Alexander Kazimirovich Tolush (Keres). The players and their seconds stayed at the Bellevue Hotel in the beautiful resort town of Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Play began on Sunday 29 August in the spacious Kirchgemeindehaus (Parish Hall), which would host the first 8 rounds. A local factory had pledged a gold watch to whoever led after round 7, which turned out to be both Smylsov and Reshevsky. Both got a watch. n round 9 play began in the Kongresshaus (Salon of Music in the House of Parliament) in Zürich, which would host the rest of the tournament. From rounds 9-11 Reshevsky led, only to be overtaken by Smyslov in round 12. At the conclusion of the first half of the tournament, Smyslov was the only undefeated player, leading Reshevsky and Bronstein by a point. The American kept pace with Smyslov, sharing the lead by round 21. The stage was set for a showdown in round 25, with Reshevsky just a half point behind Smyslov and facing him in their second meeting of the tournament. Reshevsky resigned after 56 moves, giving Smyslov a 1 1/2 point lead over him with just 5 rounds to go. Smyslov cruised home easily to win the tournament by 2 points. He had earned the right to play Mikhail Botvinnik in a match for the world championship

The 24-game match had 14 decisive games, 12 of the first 16, including a streak of 8 decisive results in a row! All the games were full of fight, and many of the games were of theoretical significance. Botvinnik won three of the first four games, but by the 11th game Smyslov had taken the lead. Just as with his match against Bronstein, once again Mikhail Botvinnik retained his title on a tied match.

Condition:

Corners bumped, previous owner's stamp to front paste down, some shelf wear else a very good copy.