Vasily Smyslov

The elder Smyslov gave his son a copy of Alexander Alekhine's book My Best Games of Chess 1908–1923 and the future world champion would later write that this book became his constant reference.

He would also write that "...I was later to read everything that my father had in his library: Dufresne's handbook, separate numbers of the Soviet chess magazines Chess and Chess Sheet, the text-books of Lasker and Capablanca, and the collections of games of Soviet and international tournaments. The games of the great Russian chess master M. I. Chigorin made an indelible impression on me; it was with interest that I read the various declarations on questions of strategy by A. I. Nimzovitch; I studied attentively the genius of prominent Soviet masters."

Smyslov's competitive chess experiences began at the age of 14, when he started taking part in classification tournaments.

Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958.

In 1938, at age 17, Smyslov won the USSR Junior Championship.

However, Smyslov's first attempt at adult competition outside his own city fell short; he placed 12th–13th in the Leningrad–Moscow International tournament of 1939 with 8/17 in an exceptionally strong field.

In the Moscow Championship of 1939–40 Smyslov placed 2nd–3rd with 9/13.

This tournament was the strongest Soviet final up to that time, as it included several players, such as Paul Keres and Vladas Mikėnas, from countries annexed by the USSR following the Nazi–Soviet Pact of 1939.

In his first Soviet final, the 1940 USSR Chess Championship (Moscow, URS-ch12), he performed exceptionally well for 3rd place with 13/19, finishing ahead of the reigning champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

The Soviet Federation held a further tournament of the top six from the 1940 event, and this was called the 1941 Absolute Championship of the USSR, one of the strongest tournaments ever organized.

The format saw each player meet his opponents four times.

The players were Botvinnik, Keres, Smyslov, Isaac Boleslavsky, Igor Bondarevsky, and Andor Lilienthal.

Smyslov scored 10/20 for third place, behind Botvinnik and Keres.

This proved that Smyslov was of genuine world-class Grandmaster strength at age 20, a very rare achievement at that time.

World War II forced a halt to most international chess, but several tournaments involving Soviet players only were still organized.

Smyslov was exempted from military service due to being severely nearsighted, and he won the 1942 Moscow Championship outright with a powerful 12/15.

At Kuibyshev 1942, he placed second with 8/11.

In a strong field at Sverdlovsk 1943, Smyslov tied for 3rd–4th places with 8/14.

In the 1943–44 Moscow Championship, Smyslov tied for 3rd–4th with 11½/16.

He finished second in the 1944 USSR Championship at Moscow (URS-ch13) with 10½/16.

He emerged as champion from the 1944–45 Moscow Championship with 13/16.

By this juncture, Smyslov had advanced into the group of the top three Soviet players, along with Botvinnik and Keres, who were playing in Nazi-occupied Europe during the war.

As the war ended, organized chess picked up again.

But Smyslov's form hit a serious slump in the immediate post-war period.

In the 1945 USSR Championship at Moscow (URS-ch14), Smyslov was in the middle of the very powerful field with 8½/17; the winner was Botvinnik, with Boleslavsky and the new star David Bronstein occupying second and third places.

At Tallinn 1945, Smyslov had the worst result of his career, scoring just 6½/15 in a not especially strong field.

It was little better in the Moscow Championship of 1945–46, as he could only score 7½/15 for a tie of 7th–11th places, as Bronstein won.

Then in the Moscow Championship of 1946, Smyslov scored just 8½/15, for a tie of 3rd–6th places, as Bronstein won again.

During this period he scored just 31/62 in those four tournaments, for 50%.

Nevertheless, Smyslov's earlier strong results secured him one of the five Soviet places in the first really strong post-war international tournament, at Groningen, Netherlands, in August 1946.

He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1948, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1983, and 1985).

Smyslov twice tied for first place at the USSR Chess Championships (1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record.

In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals.

Smyslov remained active and successful in competitive chess well after the age of sixty.

Despite failing eyesight, he remained active in the occasional composition of chess problems and studies until shortly before his death in 2010.

Besides chess, he was an accomplished baritone singer.

Smyslov born in Russian family, first became interested in chess at the age of six.

His father, Vasily Osipovich Smyslov, worked as an engineering technician and had represented the St. Petersburg Technical Institute in intercollegiate chess competitions.

Smyslov's father had also studied chess for a time under the tutelage of Mikhail Chigorin and the senior Smyslov became the boy's first teacher.

That same year, he tied for 1st–2nd places in the Moscow City Championship, with 12½/17.