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CHESS PRACTICE
Updated: April 2008
- JOHN E HAWKES' BLOG -
John E Hawkes Chess Pages
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"David Ionovich Bronstein"
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"Beauty
is the most important aspect of chess”
DAVID
IONOVICH BRONSTEIN was born in Bila Tserkva, Soviet Ukraine, on the
19th February 1924; three times married (one son by his first wife,
Olga Ignatieva), he died in Minsk (Belarus), apparently of a stroke,
on the 5th December 2006.
Located
75 km south of Kiev on the road to Odessa, Bila Tserkva is a
municipality of about 200,000 people, an ancient civilized culture
notable for the chess players it produced or nurtured, which calls
itself the "City of Kindness." – [after “Sarah’s Pages”]
The
Bronstein family left the city-of-kindness for Kiev but being Jewish
they met with the harshness of the Soviet authorities: in 1937 David's
father was arrested as an "enemy of the people", to be freed seven
years later on the grounds of ill-health. Only-child David was taught
chess by his grandfather from the age of six and joined the local
chess club at the Kiev Palace of Young Pioneers to receive excellent
training from an excellent player and teacher Alexander
Konstantinopolsky. Bronstein soon became one of the strongest young
Soviet players in the period just prior to the Second World War and
at 15 he was runner up to Boleslavsky in the 1940 Ukrainian
Championship and became one of the youngest holders of the
Soviet Master title.
The
USSR championship qualifier in Rostov-on-Don in the summer of 1941 had
to be interrupted when the Germans invaded. The new Master of Sport,
Bronstein, fled Kiev on foot leaving everything behind (including many
of his precious game records). Conscripted into the Red Army, he
avoided being sent into action because of his poor eyesight and
during the conflict first worked in a military hospital in the
Caucasus then in Stalingrad on a steel-factory reconstruction.
Those war years were not devoid of chess activity: he used them to
study and develop his chess prowess, and when the Rostov event
was restarted in 1944 he qualified for his first USSR Championship.
That
first appearance in the USSR Championship included a win against
the great Botvinnik but only a 15th place. The following year 1945
he climbed up to third place in the USSR championship, winning three
games with the King's Gambit 1 e4 e5 2 f4. It is reported, however,
that before the next year’s USSR v US match in Moscow, Botvinnik
reminded the team of their patriotic duty to win and – looking
directly at Bronstein – insisted against risky opening adventures -
the King’s Gambit, for instance!
Bronstein
was now firmly established among the elite Soviet masters. Playing
for Moscow in a match against Prague in 1946 he won two now extremely
famous games with black - against Pachman and Zita – using a
remarkable dynamic concept worked out with Boleslavsky that would
set the trend of a future half-century of opening theory and practice.
The King’s Indian Defence was no longer considered passive and
second-rate – it was henceforth the thing to play – and play to win -
against the Queen’s Pawn opening!
Bronstein
twice finishing joint-champion of the USSR: in 1948 (with Alexander
Kotov) and in 1949 (with Vasily Smyslov).
At
Satsjöbaden 1948, the first FIDE Interzonal, Bronstein qualified for
and then tied for first place in the subsequent Candidates' Tournament
in Budapest in 1950. There was a curious echo of the big match to
come with Botvinnik when Boleslavsky, a point clear with two rounds
left as Bronstein would be, failed to clinch the challenger’s place.
In the play-off match in Moscow Boleslavsky was considered by many to
have “allowed” his friend to win. Boleslavsky went back to Moscow for
the Botvinnik match however as Bronstein’s second.
«Wikipedia - Image Boleslavsky (1947)»
Isaac
Boleslavsky, Ukrainian GM born in 1919 and died in 1977. In 1983
Bronstein married his daughter Tatiana Boleslavskaya, a Minsk
university professor 22 years his junior. She was Bronstein’s third
wife, often accompanied him abroad in the 1990s, and was present at
his deathbed in December 2006.
THE BOTVINNIK MATCH - 1951
Start of the controversial 23rd game in
Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
There
has been much speculation as to whether the match was “arranged”.
Bronstein wrote this in his Sorcerer’s Apprentice intro:
"I
have been asked many, many times if I was obliged to lose the 23rd
game and if there was a conspiracy against me to stop me from taking
Botvinnik's title. A lot of nonsense has been written about this. The
only thing that I am prepared to say about all this controversy is
that I was subjected to strong psychological pressure from various
origins and it was entirely up to me to yield to that pressure or
not."
His
co-author Tom Furstenberg wrote: "Of course David succumbed to
that pressure, albeit not voluntarily. However nobody, not even David
himself, knows what went on subconsciously in his mind."
Back
to Bronstein who also had this to say: “I had reasons not to become
the World Champion as in those times such a title meant that you were
entering an official world of chess bureaucracy with many formal
obligations. Such a position is not compatible with my character.”
THE BOTVINNIK MATCH - 1951
David Bronstein vs Michael Botvinnik
And
then there is his explanation of his private-life situation at the
time: "I was considering a divorce [from the Soviet woman
international, Olga Ignatieva] and was in love with another girl. But
suppose I would win the title, then I would be famous and when you
were famous a divorce was out of the question. And I would be in the
press and every time they would start about my father."
Malcolm
Pein’s compliation of his excellent columns and notes covering the
crucial games of the notorious match can be seen via the TWIC link
«David Bronstein (1924-2006)»
After
the world championship match Bronstein represented the Soviet Union
at the successive Olympiads of 1952, 1954, 1956 and 1958, winning
gold board-medals in each appearance for the Soviet team.
He
was also gold medallist 8 times in USSR Team Championships and was
six times individual Moscow Champion. His assault on the World title
continued and he played in the Candidates' Tournament in Zurich in
1953, finishing joint-second. There was again speculation of
“fixing” - Bronstein claiming that officials had pressured him and
certain other Soviet grandmasters in the closing rounds to draw
quickly with Smyslov and play hard against the American representative
Sammy Reshevsky, the man Moscow certainly did not want challenging
their protégé Botvinnik. The title had to stay in Russian hands!
Soon
after, having only tied for first place with Britain’s Hugh Alexander
at the Hastings Congress, Bronstein came in for criticism in Moscow's
Literary Gazette. An article accused him and other Soviet players of
"complacency and self-conceit", thus robbing the nation of
international tournament success.
1955’s
highlight was his great 15/20 victory at the Göteborg Interzonal - a
point and a half clear of Keres – but in the 1956 Candidates he was
joint third behind Smyslov and Keres. In the next Interzonal at
Portoroz 1958 a surprising last-round defeat by outsider Cardoso lost
him the coveted qualifying place. In the Amsterdam Interzonal of 1964
it was a loss to the Dane Bent Larsen and then a nervy draw with an
unknown Peruvian Quinones that ruined his last real chance of
challenging again for the World Championship crown.
Bronstein,
however, continued to be an elite player for many years, tying
for second in the Soviet championships in 1957 and 1964-65, Moscow
Champion again in 1957, and winning several big international
tournaments.
The
Bond movie “From Russia with Love” has a game played between a
certain Kronsteen(!) and a certain McAdams. It is based on the King’s
Gambit brilliant miniature won by Boris Spassky (White) v Bronstein
at the 1960 USSR Championship in Leningrad.
A
decade later when Viktor Korchnoi defected in 1976 Bronstein was one
of the few top Soviet grandmasters who refused to sign an official
letter condemning him. He was banned from travelling to tournaments
in the West and did not compete there again until the ban was lifted
as perestroika came in the mid-eighties. He was also barred from the
best elite tournaments within the Soviet Union and also from
competing anywhere outside the country more than once-a-year. His
“pension” book always carried an endorsement meaning a 10% penalty
deduction in his allowance.
DAVID IONOVICH BRONSTEIN
The writer’s 1970 Soviet edition of “200 Open Games”
- signed during a coffee break in Bronstein’s game v Kavalek,
Teesside 1975. [Compared with other examples of his signature
this one seems to lack a Cyrillic letter. JEH]
For
an immense number of chess fans David Bronstein was and remains an
inspirational hero, perhaps the one real chess artist and quite simply
the most creative player of all time. He played hundreds of original
and attractive games demonstrating a high degree of imagination and
tactical verve and introduced many new ideas into the King's Indian
Defence and King's Gambit especially. He was also one of the
proponents of more Rapid Chess (30 minute and less) tournaments, and
also developed a variety of random chess and the digital “add-on”
chess-clock concept well before Bobby Fischer.
Bronstein
was also an exceptional writer, having a chess column in Izvestia
for many years. His book on the Zurich 1953 tournament (published in
1956 and translated into English as “The Chess Struggle in Practice,
1978”) is considered by many as simply the finest tournament book
ever written, if admitting that a significant amount of it had been
ghosted by a lesser master. It concentrated on the ideas behind the
players' moves and was a unique insight into how grandmasters really
think.
DAVID IONOVICH WITH LIUDMILA BELAVENTS
David Bronstein with Liudmila Belavents
in 2004 - ChessBase photo -
There
is a great ChessBase TV interview about Bronstein by Yasser Sierawan
that you can download:
«Seirawan - On Bronstein»
After
looking at the video, I’m sure you will want to play through and
savour the game in question, so here it is:
Reykjavik (Iceland) 1990, Round 10
White: Bronstein, David (RUS)
Black : Browne, Walter (USA)
Opening : B99 Sicilian – Najdorf
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4
DIAG 1
:
7...Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.O-O-O Nbd7 10.g4 b5 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.g5 Nd7
DIAG 2
:
13.f5
(the amazing pawn sacrifice described vividly by Sierawan in the
above video).
13...Bxg5+ 14.Kb1 Ne5 15.Qh5 Qd8 16.Rg1 h6 17.fxe6 g6 18.exf7+ Kxf7
19.Qe2
DIAG 3
:
19...Kg7 20.h4 Bxh4 21.Nf5+ Kh7 22.Rxd6 Qf8 23.Qh2 Bxf5 24.Qxe5 Qe7
25.Qxe7+
DIAG 4
:
25...Bxe7 26.Rc6 Rhc8 27.Rb6 Rxc3 28.exf5 Re3 29.Bd3 Bc5
DIAG 5
:
30.Rbxg6 Rae8 31.a4 bxa4 32.f6 Rxd3 33.Rg7+ Kh8 34.Rh1 1-0
DIAG 6
:
Now
for some Bronstein quotes:
"I have been rejected on a roadside of chess life, but the book "The
International tournament of Grandmasters (Zurich)" is republished,
with issues in other languages. And I think will survive me for a
long time..."
Asked why he went for long periods in the 1970s and 1980s without
participating in chess events: “Because they did not invite me. And
it is a very painful situation for a professional, believe me.”
“You have the impression that I am modest. I am not. I know that I
am good, and even very good. Do you know why I like Leonardo da
Vinci? Because he believed that for him nothing was impossible. I
too believe that for me nothing is impossible in chess, so you can
see that I am not as modest as you think.” [From an interview with
Antonio Gude in Revista Internacional de Ajedrez p 38-42, March
1993]
When asked his favourite player from the past?’: “Tartakower - but
above all Labourdonnais.”!
“I always try to vary my openings as much as possible, to invent new
plans in attack and defence, to make experimental moves which are
dangerous and exciting for both players and also for the audience.”
“You do not analyse during a game; you analyse before a game and
after a game. During the game, you just play!”
“Chess miracles, as against other miracles, sometimes nevertheless
occur, due to the imagination of a chess player and the inexhaustible
opportunities of chess.”
"I still wonder why people have respect only for world champions and
not for all chess players. Is it not clear that we all play the same
game of chess?"
"I'm more than just a few numbers. I'm not Zurich 1953 and 12-12."
"No one looks at chess like I did"
And
the ultimate quote must be:
"Beauty is the most important aspect of chess ...We are passing our
knowledge and our understanding of beauty to the next generations,
and thus life goes on forever."
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By: John E Hawkes
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January 2007
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