Talk:Vasily Smyslov

message: Why is there no photo for this page? A world champion deserves a photo I should think. I 08:06, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photo 

message: The article needs a better photo of Smyslov.  Bubba73 (talk), 03:00, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think we may have too many now actually. Do we really need five? The 1958 image has a fair use rationale which claims the subject is deceased (not the case, obviously) and placed in the World Champion section it's created a large amount of empty white space which looks a bit odd to me.Pawnkingthree (talk) 14:32, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

text: I've now expanded that section a bit to remove the white space.Pawnkingthree (talk) 15:00, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  That message was a few weeks ago.  Now the photos are OK.  Bubba73 (talk), 15:21, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm aware of that, but my point was that Wikipedia's policy is that fair use images should be kept to an absolute minimum and that as there are already free images in the article, I'm not sure we can justify having two fair use ones. Pawnkingthree (talk) 15:53, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  At that time, there were only the two recent photos and the early one that has the strange pattern running through it.  The new ones don't show him well enough, and the other one has those distracting artifacts.  I added the other two - a better shot of his face, and also around the time he was in his prime playing years.  Bubba73 (talk), 17:01, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Needs better photo 

message: Smyslov was never rated 2800 by the FIDE. Perhaps it is some chessmetrics type rating that tries to rank all players, past and present, "fairly."
As is well known, Bobby Fischer held the all-time FIDE high rating of 2785 until Garri Kasparov broke it in the 1990s.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.191.134.38 (talk) 04:41, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes that 2800 can't be his FIDE rating.  Elo gives his best 5-year average as 2690, so his peak must have been 2700-something.  Bubba73 (talk), 05:06, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

text: And that is what Elo calculated - the official FIDE ratings didn't start until 1970.  Bubba73 (talk), 05:21, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rating 

message: His personal life is not mentioned; the only family member that is mentioned is his father. Anyone have any info? Jim Michael (talk) 01:02, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Family and personal life 

message: I think the article needs at least one photo of Smyslov around the time he was World Champion.  The ones on his 80th birthday were more than 40 years later.  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 14:52, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: As there are free images available, we cannot use any fair-use images for identification purposes per WP:NFCC. The only solution is to find a photo that has a free licence or is out of copyright.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 13:11, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  So Wikipedia is worse off because of the free images.  If there weren't free images available, we could use more appropriate images by "fair use".  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 15:02, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: How essential to the understanding of the topic is it that we see a 40 year old picture of him instead of a recent one? The purpose of an image in a biography, surely, is to show what he looked like. An 80 year Smyslov is still Smyslov. And he was still playing chess then!--Pawnkingthree (talk) 15:37, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  I feel that it would be much more important to have a picture of him in his prime years, especially around the time he was World Champion.  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 15:44, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  I see your point, but neither of the 1958 images previously in the article were of good quality in my opinion. Plus the 2002 image was incongruously in the "War years" section. I actually prefer how things look now.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 16:38, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

text:  OK, that's the way it is. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 16:45, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Don't forget, we had a similar problem with Bobby Fischer, and then :File:Bobby Fischer 1960 in Leipzig.jpg turned up. So you never know.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 19:42, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Yes, I remember that.  Stuck with a very bad image because it was free, so we couldn't use "fair use".  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 19:48, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Images 

message: When did he die? 26 or 27? Time of death?--Chvsanchez (talk) 23:26, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Apparently, Google translation of a Russian source incorrectly stated that he died on Friday night. In fact, he died in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 27th. That's the cause of the confusion.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 15:41, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

text: Having said that, The Guardian is saying the 26th, so maybe it's not as clearcut as I thought. Most sources, however, eg The New York Times, Reuters, The Moscow Times, are following the initial reports by Russian television station NTV and going with Saturday. Ultimately, we're only talking about a difference of a few hours; it's clear Friday night into Saturday morning was when he died.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 16:21, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: He was (by far) the last player from the 1948 World Championship match-tournament to die. Now Andor Lilienthal is the last living link to the past. Krakatoa (talk) 18:19, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Indeed. The oldest living ex-world champion is now Spassky, from a different generation entirely.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 19:47, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, Averbakh is still alive (and soon to be 100!), and he's about the same generation as Smyslov. Certainly not an easy generation to be in. Double sharp (talk) 08:48, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Sadly, also RIP to Averbakh (though he did make it to 100). Double sharp (talk) 16:53, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Death 

message: Mikhail Chigorin died before Smyslov was born, so the part about him being a tutor must be wrong.  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 15:21, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I clarified that with this edit. It was just poor wording. It was not: "He (Smyslov) had also studied chess for a time under the tutelage of Mikhail Tchigorin and he (Chigorin) became the boy's first teacher" but instead it was "He (Smyslov's father) had also studied chess for a time under the tutelage of Mikhail Tchigorin and he (Smyslov's father) became the boy's first teacher". Carcharoth (talk) 23:52, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mikhail Chigorin 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Does that record  count team medals or individual medals or both?? 213.149.51.126 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 16:34, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  olympiad medals 

message: He may have had a Jewish ancestry according to some accounts
* The Jewish Lists: Physicists and Generals, Actors and Writers, and Hundreds of Other Lists of Accomplished Jews
Martin Harry Greenberg
Schocken Books, 1979
*Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps
Front Cover
Felix Berkovich, N. J. Divinsky
McFarland & Company, 2000 
* http://www.jinfo.org/Chess_Warriors_List.html
(This website claim he was listed as Jewish by USSR anti-Semitic authorities.)
I am not sure if this information should be added in the article since it is controversial :
"There is some controversy surrounding his mother's Jewish ancestry, while his father Vasily Osipovich Smyslov was Russian."
I feel like it may be added in a note since USSR was anti-Semitic.
--Vanlister (talk) 10:12, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ancestry 

message: He did not beat Polgar in his final tournament, it was in 2000. In 2001 he beat Galliamova. His rating was never around 2400. "The highlight of the match" was not written by a chess player, I guess. 
Someone else may try to correct this mess. 62.194.42.39 (talk) 05:28, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Final years