Isaak Boleslavsky
- October 19, 2025
Two-time Candidate Tournament participant (1950, 1953)
Chessmetrics Ranking: ranked as high as world number three for three months in 1950
Tournament Career: winner of two super-tournaments:
1950 Candidate Tournament (tied with David Bronstein, with whom he later lost a playoff match, allowing Bronstein to advance to the World Championship match)
Debrecen 1961
Chess Olympiads: gold team medal
Why he deserved it:
Isaak Boleslavsky is one of the few chess players in history who won the Candidate Tournament but did not advance to the World Championship match. The victory in this case was shared with David Bronstein. Boleslavsky led the tournament by half a point before the final round, in which he agreed to a quick draw, allowing Bronstein to catch up. It was then decided that the two winners would play a match a few months later to determine who would challenge Botvinnik for the title. After twelve games of regular play, the score was still tied, leading to a sudden-death playoff—whoever won the next game would advance. The thirteenth game ended in a draw, but in the fourteenth, Bronstein defeated Boleslavsky with the black pieces, securing his place in the title match. Interestingly, many years later, Bronstein married Boleslavsky’s daughter. The two men were lifelong friends, and Boleslavsky served as Bronstein’s second in the title match.
Boleslavsky qualified for another Candidate Tournament in 1953, but he did not finish among the top ranks. He was one of the best players in the world from around the start of World War II until the mid-1950s. The war naturally had a significant impact on his chess career, preventing him from achieving even more success.
Why he isn’t ranked higher:
Boleslavsky cannot be ranked much higher primarily due to his modest record of winning super-tournaments. He had many second and third places, but something was usually missing for a victory. He is thus among those chess players who stopped just short of the pinnacle.
Best Games:
Isaak Boleslavsky vs Vasily Smyslov
1950 Candidate Tournament, Budapest
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.