Evening star., 1950-08-27
Chess Notes
By DonoId H. Muaridoe

British women's champion, at a
number Of points obviously misses
the sense of the original or fails
to find the most appropriate
equivalent in chess Technology.
The title conceals another
tournament book, for the games
are those of the so-called lab
solute championship" of the
~. S. s. r., the first half held at
Leningrad and the second half
at Moscow. from March % to
April 20. 1941-the last chess event
in Russia before the outbreak of
the Great Patriotic War" as it
is here called. The regular cham
pionships of the Soviet Union have
some 20 entries, including a Sprin-
king of newcomers, but for this
event the six leading masters were
singled out and scheduled to play
four games with each other in
stead of only one.
The regular championship of
1910 had resulted in rather an
unclear situation with respect to
the title, for first place had been
shared by Bondarevsky and Lilien-
thai, and Botvinnik himself had
turned in one of his few COM
parative failures, a tie for fifth
and sixth. Furthermore, the
annexation of Lithuania had
brought into the Soviet camp
Paul Keres, who had been bril-.
liantly successful in international
chess just before World War II.
and whose powers it was needful
to test against the native Soviet
masters Hilienthal, of course,
was by birth a Hungarian Jew,
but had adopted the U. S. S. R.
as his fatherlandD.
The outcome of the absolute
championship restored Botvinnik
to a primacy which has never
since been challenged. Keres took
a modest lead over the other four
Soviet entries, but came 2l2 points
behind the winner. In this 20
round contest, to which some 40
days were allotted, Botvinnik won
nine games and lost only two,
while Keres won six and lost four,
and Smyslov, who was third. broke
even.
Botvinnik's introduction shows
that he envisaged the event pri-
marily as q race between himself
and Keres, and he thinks that the
crucial decision came in round
three, when Keres with White
ran into a prepared defense and
was overwhelmed in % moves.
The substance OF the book is
the so games of the tourney,
hitherto available in Russian or
Spanish but not in English, with
the World Champions annota-
lions. These are as concise and
lucid as could be desired, and par
take of that extraordinary objec-
tivity which Is also a character
lstic of Botvinnik's style on the
chessboard. In this respect they
are at the opposite extreme from
the annexation of his own games
BY the late Alexander Alekhine,
who regularly claimed that he had
q won game from the opening, or
some very early stage. onward.
Typical is the Botvinnik- Bon
darevsky game from round IA,
which was drawn after IA moves.
Botvinnik carefully points out that
he spoiled his game with his 18th
move, that his oath involved the
loss of a pawn, that his 26th aban-
doned good practical chances of
a draw, and that Bondarevsky
clear, if long and lahorious,
lines on his 39th and
again on his 53rd move. buU, With
all their virtues. these annotations
are for the advanced player or the
and not at all for the be-
ginner. They take a great deal
for granted, and they do not stop
to dot is or cross t's. For the ad-
vanced student, however, Cham
pionship Chess gives a clear in
sight into the mind of the ablest
living chessplayer, and into the
arduous character of chess life in
the Communist Empire. Is