Vasily Smyslov

World Champion 1957 – 1958. Winner of the title match 1957

Ranking: World Number One according to Chessmetrics briefly in 1952 and almost continuously from 1953 – 1958, totaling 59 months. On the FIDE list, he was ranked as high as ninth.

Highest FIDE Elo rating: 2620

Tournament Career: Winner of 15 super-tournaments:

Candidates Tournament 1953

Candidates Tournament 1956

1x winner of the USSR Championship, 1x shared victory and loss in a tie-break

4x winner of the Alekhine Memorial or other significant tournaments held in Moscow

2x winner of the Amsterdam Chess Tournament

and several others…

Chess Olympiads: 9 gold team medals, four gold, two silver, and two bronze individual medals. His 17 medals in total is a historical record.

What earned him this:

Vasily Smyslov was the seventh world champion and the first of three to take the title from Botvinnik. Smyslov was a positional player, an excellent endgame specialist, and a typical product of the Soviet chess school. He became an elite grandmaster during World War II at Soviet tournaments. After the war, he was completely unknown outside the USSR, but the Soviets knew his potential. After Alekhine’s death, they pushed Smyslov into the 1948 World Championship, where he finished second behind Botvinnik.

Smyslov then began to win tournaments consistently, proving he was part of the world elite. His calm style of play and demeanor won him many admirers. His first attempt to win the Candidates Tournament was unsuccessful, but he succeeded on his second try, becoming the winner of the famous Candidates Tournament in Zurich 1953, one of the strongest tournaments in history. The title match with Botvinnik ended in a 12-12 draw, so the world champion retained his title. But Smyslov did not give up, winning the Candidates Tournament again and this time defeating Botvinnik, fulfilling every chess player’s dream.

At that time, the world champion was guaranteed the right to a rematch the following year if they lost the title. Botvinnik exercised this right and defeated Smyslov, who was recovering from a major illness. Interestingly, in the sum of all three matches they played (1954, 1957, 1958), Smyslov won one more game than his rival. Nevertheless, he was world champion for only one year, while Botvinnik held the title for thirteen years.

According to historical rankings, Smyslov was the world number one for much of the 1950s, which was also his most successful decade in terms of tournament victories. Interestingly, with 17 medals, he is the most successful player in chess Olympiads.

In 1970, Smyslov participated in the USSR vs World chess match, where he defeated the Reshevsky/Olaffson duo on the sixth board. He experienced an unexpected chess revival in the early 1980s when no one expected it. In 1984, at the age of 63, he reached the finals of the Candidates Matches, where he lost to Garry Kasparov. In the same year, he played two games on the fourth board of the USSR team in the second match against the World team. Against Ljubojević, he had one loss and one draw.

Best Games:

Paul Keres vs Vasily Smyslov

Candidates Tournament 1953, Zurich