Customer Reviews

World Chess Championship 1954, The (Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics S.)

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for most of the 1950s the world chess championship was fought over between the two soviet grandmasters mikhail botvinnik and vasilly smyslov. their first match was drawn-smyslov won the second but botvinnik got his revenge a year later-1958-thus staying on as world champion.

this book tells the story of their first match-botvinnik leapt into a 3 point lead and seemed on the point of annihilating smyslov both on the chess board and psychologically but the challenger fought back bravely and exploited botvinniks weaknesses- his slightly passive openings as white and his rather risky defences as black. smyslov also turned out to be especially good at endgames .

the author harry golombek was present thruout as an umpire and he had access to soviet notes as well as both players. golombeks notes always make a good read since he turns every game into a drama. i much prefer this style of writing to the contemporary telephone directory style of annotation where there are no words just streams of variations-a good chess game with good notes should tell a story and golombek does this particualrly well.

readers should note that this book is in the older descriptive notation.

Having personally attended the World Chess Championships of 1954, '57 and '58 as a judge, Harry Golombek, OBE, was able to bring crucial insight and understanding to this collection of games in the first match between Botvinnik and Smyslov which occurred in 1954. As a result of this hand on experience, the book is unquestionably richer in dynamics and the tension that existed at the time. Here we see how Smyslov fought back bravely after a 3-0 loss, astonishing the crowds. An exciting analysis. Published by Hardinge and Simpole.

Golombek proved his penchant for chess writing time and time again, as correspondent for The Times and The Observer, his pieces stood out for their clarity, their grandiose and eloquent style and for the passion with which he wrote. His power of communication makes it well worthwhile reading WCC 1954, despite the slight lack of enthusiasm with which one might approach work covering Botvinnik's career through the 50s, which he dominated which such seeming ease. But if there was ever a player to contend with Botvinnik at this time (before the appearance of Tigran Petrosian of course), it must surely have been Smyslov. Smyslov had crushed all the the major opposition by this point, and at the time there must have been serious speculation that Smyslov would actually oust the Soviet strong-arm. Golombek captures some of this tension, and as an expert on Soviet chess, and an observer of the match, is a perfect medium through which to witness such a class of titans.

Harry Golombek was perhaps the king of chess writers. Chess correspondent for The London Times and The Observer, he possessed an unrivalled gift for transforming a chess game into an heroic saga with himself as the bard, singing the exploits of his chosen heroes of the mind. Several times British Champion, Golombek also played top board for England in the Olympiad and represented the British Chess Federation in the FIDE World Championship cycle. He was fluent in Russian and personally attended the World Chess Championships of 1954, 1957 and 1958 as a judge.
This book contains the account and eye witness analysis by Golombek of the first of the three titanic world title clashes between Botvinnik and Smyslov, unquestionably the dominant players of the 1950s. (A companion volume, also published by Hardinge Simpole, covers the second and third of these matches.) Botvinnik was the iron man of Soviet chess while Smyslov, by crushing the world's greatest players at the Candidates Tournaments of 1953 and 1956, had proved himself the most worthy challenger. These games are bloodthirsty classics between two supreme exemplars of the Soviet school of chess, annotated by the man on the spot who had unrivalled access both to the players and to the very best of Soviet analysis.