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David Ionovich Bronstein was born in Bila Tserkva near Kiev, Ukraine February 19th 1924 and died in Minsk, 5th December 2006.
The cult of the ELO rating is a relatively late phenomenon starting in 1970, before that the concept of the world number one in chess didn't really exist, just the world champion. According to some retrospective analysis by Jeff Sonas on his Chessmetrics site, David Bronstein was in the top ten in the world between 1945 and 1959 and maintained a top twenty place until the early 1970s. He was barely out of the top five between 1948 and 1959, peaking in 1951 at the time of his match against Botvinnik at number one.
In fact Bronstein had a really eclectic style. He could play dull chess, positional chess, attacking chess, crazy chess, exciting chess, sharp chess, complex strategic chess depending on his mood and the dictations of the situation. Bronstein was a complex man born in complex times. He was a child of the Stalin era where just to survive you had to tread a very fine line all the time. All of this was complicated by the fact he was Jewish and that his father (said to be a relative of Leon Trotsky but Bronstein specifically says in his book that he knows of no such family relationship) was arrested in December 1937 during the Stalin purges. He was only released in February 1944 from the camps due to ill health, and even on his emergence he was forbidden to live within 100km of Moscow or Kiev. Bronstein's mother got a document in 1955 admitting that there was "absence of any evidence" that he committed any crime but that was all way after the fact and three years after his death.
By the age of 14 Bronstein was starting to attract attention; in 1940 at 15 he was second behind Boleslavsky in the Ukrainian Championship. However the 2nd World War was to impinge strongly over the next years. In May 1941, at the age of 17, he was awarded the title of Master of Chess. He competed in the Semi-Finals of the 13th USSR Championship in Rostov on Don but this was halted due to the outbreak of war. He had to flee Kiev on foot in 1941 (losing everything including the records of most of his games up to then) but avoided going to the front in the spring of 1942 due to his bad eyesight. He eventually ended up in Tbilisi, Georgia and later, by 1944, he was in Stalingrad working on the reconstruction of a steel factory. It was then with the war almost won he was permitted to return to chess (but for a couple of minor events) reconvening to Baku in February 1944 to take up his place again in the 13th Soviet Championship semi-finals. He qualified for the finals in Moscow later in the year where he defeated Mikhail Botvinnik on the way to finishing a disappointing 15th of 17 (+4 -7 =5). But he was soon really on his way. 1945 was Bronstein's breakthrough year. 1st in the Semi-Finals of the Soviet Championships in Moscow, he then went on to finish 3rd behind Botvinnik and Boleslavsky in the 14th Soviet Championships and scored his first GM norm (according to his book, although I'm not really sure they had them then). It was enough to get him into the 1945 USSR - USA Radio match (2-0 against Santasiere). 1st in the 1946 Moscow Championships (2nd GM norm). He spent the rest of 1946 representing Moscow and the USSR in various matches. It was in one of those he played his first couple of truly famous games, both in the King's Indian, a not highly regarded opening up until then. Both were against Prague where he defeated Ludek Pachman and Frantisek Zita.
Zita,Frantisek - Bronstein,David
I [E68]
1947 saw him stand still a little with 6th place in the 15th USSR Championship, and 2nd after a playoff in the Moscow Championship. Then in 1948 came two of his career highlights; first of all he took clear first place in the Salsjöbaden Interzonal +8 -0 =11 (awarded Soviet GM title) and shared first place with Alexander Kotov in the 16th USSR Championship in Moscow. He repeated the trick the following year sharing first place with Vassily Smyslov in the 17th USSR Championships, Moscow again. Then came the 1950 Candidates tournament in Budapest. Isaak Boleslavsky, David Bronstein and Paul Keres started with wins and in the early part of the event set the pace. Bronstein was defeated in round two by Smyslov, who I imagine would have been the pre-event favourite. Then Smyslov lost to Stahlberg in the following round and Boleslavsky in the 6th, and despite a brief rally in rounds 10 and 11, he was put out of it by a defeat to Bronstein. Keres picked up a couple of early wins but was bogged down by a lot of draws before finally Kotov defeated him in round 14 to virtually end his challenge. The man who should probably have won the event was Isaak Boleslavsky. A quiet and meek man he played some of the most enterprising and risky chess around this time. He went through the entire event undefeated and won in rounds 1, 6, 8, 10, 13 and 14 to set up a strong lead. David Bronstein had a more colourful route to staying in touch. He won against Szabo in round one, lost to Smyslov in round 2, won against Kotov in round three, beat Najdorf in round 5 but lost to Stahlberg in round 8. However that was the end of his losses. He came from the pack by winning against Smyslov in round 11, Flohr in round 13 and Najdorf in 14. Boleslavsky had white against Bronstein in round 16 and they drew in 21 moves after some brief fireworks. This left Boleslavsky a point clear of Bronstein with two rounds to go, with Keres a further point behind. Bronstein defeated Stahlberg with black in a very complex Dutch whilst Boleslavsky drew out against Kotov. Boleslavsky took a quick draw against Stahlberg in the final round, leaving the stage open for Bronstein who had white against Keres. There are some strange stories about how Boleslavsky was told to slow down and allow Bronstein to catch up. Looking at the results and games I simply don't buy it at all. I think as Boleslavsky said later, he expected Keres to hold a draw against Bronstein. Indeed this final game was an incredibly tense affair:
Bronstein,David I - Keres,Paul
[C91]
So at the end of the Candidates, Bronstein and Boleslavsky tied with 12/18, two points clear of Smyslov. Bronstein claims he didn't prepare for the match but spent his time chasing after a girl. Whatever the truth, Boleslavsky was at the height of his powers both theoretically (always his strength) and practically, and an attritional match took place (famously Bronstein spent 50 minutes as black trying to work out what to play against 1.e4 in game two, he eventually opted to punt an Alekhine's Defence). Bronstein won the first and seventh games but then let Boleslavsky back in losing a 55-move grind in game eight. Boleslavsky then won with black in a King's Indian in game eleven to tie the match back up with one game to go. The match was drawn 6-6 and went into over-time. Things got even sharper in game 13 where Boleslavsky, as black, ended up with two queens and Bronstein gave perpetual check. The fatal 14th game for Boleslavsky saw Bronstein hit him with a novelty on the black side of a French on move 8 from which Boleslavsky didn't really recover. Thus, at the age of 27, David Bronstein would play the hero of Soviet Chess Mikhail Botvinnik. That same year FIDE started awarding GM titles, he was of course amongst the list of the top players who got the title.
Boleslavsky,Isaak -
Bronstein,David I [C15]
Candidates playoff 1pl 1950
Bronstein had different problems. He was comparatively inexperienced, having played just the one match against Boleslavsky. That said he was obviously one of the best players in the world (probably would have been number one in the rating list with Botvinnik marked as inactive in modern times) and he seemed to have almost unlimited gifts. 19th World Championship 1951
Gm1 Botvinnik, Mikhail - Bronstein, David I 1/2
29 A91 Dutch Classical
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
Bronstein pressed hard with white in game six before committing probably one of the worst errors in world title history:
Bronstein then went on to lose game seven too, he was the one to collapse from move 30 on the run up to first time control this time. Botvinnik effectively finished things off in the adjournment session. One of the things about the old classical 24-game matches is that none of these ups and downs mattered overly much, they were pretty much getting going at this point. Bronstein missed a good chance in game nine, and the session ended in controversy over the sealed move after time pressure. Botvinnik returned the favour in game 10. Again move 30 seemed to be the weakening point for Botvinnik in game 11 as he blundered his position away in only nine moves to allow Bronstein back level. Bronstein was done in the opening in game 12 and was already practically lost by move 13; he resigned on move 40. Game 13 was drawn. Game 14 saw Bronstein write down a bad move but pull back at the last moment and play correctly. Botvinnik had the initiative but was blowing his chances - this was true in game 15 and especially right at the end of game 16 when 72.Rxg3+ was an error. Game 17 saw Bronstein level the match up again after Botvinnik was gradually outplayed and then just blundered his entire position away. Game 18 was a tremendous struggle, one of the best of the match, and saw a manoevering game where Bronstein missed a chance with his sealed move; 41.c6 would have won:
Botvinnik won game 19 after Bronstein blundered in his adjournment analysis rejecting the drawing idea after setting the position up incorrectly. Game 20 was drawn. Game 21 brought the match back level after Bronstein completely outplayed Botvinnik on the black side of a Kings Indian. Bronstein was in the psychologically dominant position against a clearly tiring Botvinnik. There was a heavyweight struggle against Botvinnik's Dutch Defence and again Botvinnik collapsed in the run up to the first time control. Thus with two games to go Bronstein only had to draw out the match.
Bronstein,David I -
Botvinnik,Mikhail
Game 23 saw Botvinnik gradually obtain the
advantage but then throw it away with an incorrect sealed move.
However, his adjournment analysis was to his usual standard, as was
Bronstein's - just two moves in Bronstein played a very bad move and
collapsed within 14 moves. Thus Bronstein needed a win in the
Botvinnik,Mikhail -
Bronstein,David I [D71]
So Bronstein was left needing a win with white in game 24 to take the title. He never came close and was much worse when the final game was agreed drawn. Looking at the entire match it was clear that Botvinnik was rusty through inactivity and was struggling at the end of the first sessions. Bronstein was generally the better player but his complete inability to come to terms with adjournment analysis and play completely undid him. All of which must have been vexing, especially as his career unfolded. Then over the years stories came about that Bronstein, or more specifically his father, was threatened. He was told it wouldn't be good to win the match, the story goes. Botvinnik said these rumours started with Bronstein's second, Vainstein, a man he called his "evil genius". Bronstein in his book seems to want to have it both ways. "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 a strong psychological pressure from various sources and it was entirely up to me to yield to that pressure or not. Let's leave it at that." Written in 1995 this seems to me a terrible cop-out. (See also this ChessBase article.) I met David Bronstein at the Prestwich tournament in 1990 (or possibly Preston the year before, my memory sometimes fails me) where he was the guest of honour. I heard he was there and took my precious copy of his book on Zurich 1953 for signing, the chance to meet one of the real super stars of the golden age of chess was not to be missed.
Not surprisingly 1952 was not a particularly good year for Bronstein. He finished in a tie for 7th-9th in the Soviet Championship, scored +7-1=2 on board 3 for Russia in the Helsinki Olympiad, and did win the Moscow Championship at the start of 1953. He was obviously qualified for the 1953 Candidates in Neuhausen and Zurich. This was Vassily Smyslov's event. He dominated throughout and finished a full two points clear of David Bronstein, Sammy Reshevsky and Paul Keres. It is this event that Bronstein is most fully identified with. It is due wholly to his classic book on the event. The book analyses every single game, verbally explaining the good, the bad and the indifferent game in an unvarnished manner. It was at first published in Russian but when it was recommended by Kotov in his widely translated works, a couple of translations appeared in English in the late 1970s, which made this work much more widely available. The book was written in conjunction with Boris Vainstein with "much of the text" (see this article at ChessHistory.com) coming from him. As I mentioned above there are rumours that Smyslov was the anointed one for the event and some games were thrown to him (Bronstein says that "Soviet Officials had determined Smyslov should win). I see no evidence of this; Smyslov clearly was the number one player in the world at this time and only a catastrophic start against Botvinnik cost him a world title victory. But again I repeat I heard it personally from Bronstein that there was something wrong about the tournament, without actually directly coming out and saying in specific terms. Bronstein continued being one of the best players in the world. 1954 was another team-year, with the Russian team travelling the world playing matches and winning the Olympiad in Amsterdam where Bronstein scored +7-0=7. 1955's highlight was his 15/20 demolition of the Gothenburg Interzonal, a point and a half clear of Keres. This was probably his last truly great result. 1956 was again a disappointment for him. He finished the Candidates tournament in Amsterdam on +1 tied 3rd-7th on +4-3=11, a long way behind the winner - Vassily Smyslov. 1957 was quiet for him but he did finish 3rd in the 25th USSR Championship, which doubled as a zonal event. I'm sure Bronstein went to the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal fully expecting to qualify in a calm and sensible fashion. Indeed, he started out reasonably well, probably a few too many draws, but it was fine. A couple of things derailed him.
Bronstein continued to pick up good results; he played his final Olympiad for the Soviet Union in Munich 1958, scoring +7-0=5. He was 1st= in the 1959 Alekhine Memorial Moscow Central Chess Club tournament with Smyslov and Spassky, 3rd in the Mar del Plata International behind Spassky and Fischer, 3rd in the 29th USSR Championships in Baku in 1961 behind Spassky and Polugaevsky but ahead of many strong players. Tied for 4th-6th 31st USSR Championship in Leningrad 1963, tied 2nd-3rd in the ridiculously strong Moscow Zonal which qualified him for the Interzonal in 1964. Moscow zt 1964
Bronstein was in 6th place in the Amsterdam 1964 Interzonal, only a point away from qualification for the new Candidates Match series. Results afterwards though started to trail away into mediocrity, with a few peaks: 2nd in the 32nd USSR Championship 1964-5 in Kiev. In 1968 1st= in the Moscow Championship with Petrosian, 2nd in the 8th IBM tournament in Amsterdam, 1st= in the Lasker tournament in Berlin. In 1970 he beat Korchnoi in a friendly match and finished 2nd-4th at Vinkovci half a point behind Bent Larsen. He was awarded a position in the 1973 world series as 2nd reserve in the player of strength list, on the non-participation of Botvinnik and the death of Leonid Stein he got a place in the 1973 Petropolis Interzonal. This really seemed to motivate him, he played some great chess, and although one gets the feeling he got a bit fed up of talking about the game, he won a classic wild game against Ljubojevic in the Four Pawns variation of the Alekhine's Defence in round 11. In the end he finished a point off a share of qualification in 6th place. His last USSR Championship final was the 43rd in Yerevan in 1975 sharing 9th-10th. Bronstein was not one of the Soviet authorities favourites and when he refused to sign a letter condemning Korchnoi for his defection in 1976 Bronstein was forbidden to travel abroad (or at least to the west) and this had the knock-on effect of depressing his rating which meant he didn't get prestigious home invitations either. Bronstein is probably correct in saying that they wouldn't have been able to do this if he had been an ex-world champion. In 1979 he finished 4th in the Keres Memorial in Tallinn behind Petrosian, Tal and Vaganian. In 1983 he stopped playing for a while and in 1984 was pensioned off by the Soviet Sports Committee (a point of bitterness in his book). He resumed playing in 1987 with a 2nd= at Pancevo. He played on - with diminishing returns - until 1999, finishing with a highly respectable 2432 rating.
Bronstein,David I (2585) -
Ljubojevic,Ljubomir (2570) [B03]
When he emerged, he was to that generation as Tal and Fischer were to the next, or the young Kasparov was to me. He brought something new and exciting to the game, and he took that ability right to the very top; in doing so he actually influenced how an entire generation of chessplayers played the game. He has more great games than most, and wins against almost every player of importance (he did draw all his games against Fischer and Euwe and only had a -4=19 record against Spassky, but had some great records against some of the other legends). The man won Soviet Championships, he won two interzonals alone, he finished 1st= in a Candidate's cycle, and fought for the world title - and drew. He was the top player in the world in the early 1950s. He was an important chess journalist in Russia and some of his writings have made it to the west. The key book is his Zurich 1953 book but his Sorcerer's Apprentice is an almost equal delight and 200 Open Games is worth having. In his long career and even lengthier decline he could shock and surprise. His influence on the openings, particularly the early development and popularization of the King's Indian along with Boleslavsky was great. He pioneered Man-Machine matches (starting in the 1960s and including playing Deep Thought 2 in the early 1990s and the AEGON events) and pioneered different time controls, including something close to the Fischer time rate with increments. He is also, probably along with Tal, the greatest player the ordinary Joe Chessplayer might have run into somewhere on his long and peripatetic journey round the world in his later years. He was a true great and should be remembered as such.
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