Sechsmeisterturnier 1941 I. Botwinnik - II. Keres - III. Smyslow

Sergey Vsevolodovich Belawenetz and Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich Judowitsch

Verlag: Ungarische Schachwelt, Kecskemet, 1941

Beschreibung

71 pages with diagrams and tables. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 1/2") unbound. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 5621) First edition. USSR Absolute Championship (1941) taking place in the cities of Leningrad and Moscow, the winner of this Match - Tournament was going to be the challenger for Alexander Alekhine's world title. The USSR Absolute Championship of 1941 was brought about by the results of the 12th USSR Championship (1940) . Following the Russo-German Non Aggression Pact of August 1939, the Soviet Union annexed the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as the eastern parts of Poland. This meant that players like Keres, Petrov and Mikenas were eligible to play in the 12th Soviet Championship. As Andre Lilienthal had been granted Soviet citizenship, he was eligible to compete as well. The hall in which the 12th Championship was held had excellent acoustics so the players suffered with noise from the audience. Botvinnik, who was leading after nine rounds, felt his performance was being affected by these conditions and he ended up in shared fifth and sixth places with Boleslavsky behind Bondarevsky and Lilienthal who were joint first, Smyslov third and Keres fourth. After receiving a letter from Botvinnik and working behind the scenes, chess organiser (and keen Botvinnik supporter) Vladimir Nikolayevich Snegiryov persuaded the authorities that a Match - Tournament of the first six place-getters would be a fairer determination of the Champion (and hence Challenger for Alyekhin), rather than the proposed winner of the Bondarevsky-Lilienthal Match play-off. So the Match - Tournament was a twenty-round affair, with the first ten rounds held in the Tauride Palace (1) in Leningrad and last ten rounds played in the Hall Of Columns in Moscow. It started on the 23rd of March and ran until the 29th of April. Botvinnik ran out the convincing winner. Two months after this tournament in "Operation Barbarossa" Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and so the quest for a Soviet player to win the World Title receded into the background until after the War. Condition: Lacks original wrappers, corners bumped, lightly soiled else a good copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers C1222

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Sechsmeisterturnier 1941 I. Botwinnik - II. ...

Verlag: Ungarische Schachwelt, Kecskemet

Erscheinungsdatum: 1941

Einband: Soft cover

Zustand: Good

Auflage: 1st Edition