World Chess Championship 1948
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The 1948 World Chess Championship was a tournament played to determine a new World Chess Champion following the death of the previous champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946. The tournament is important historically because it marked the passing of control of the World title to FIDE, the international chess federation.
Previously, a new World Champion had won the title by defeating the former champion in a match. Alekhine's death created an interregnum (gap betwween reigns) that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was very confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it very difficult to organize the early discussions on how to resolve the interregnum because problems with money and travel so soon after the end of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives - most notably the Soviet Union. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confused.[1] See Interregnum of World Chess Champions for more details.
The eventual solution was very similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to a proposal put forward by the Soviet Union. The 1938 AVRO tournament was used as the basis for the 1948 Championship Tournament. The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO - Alekhine and former world champion José Raúl Capablanca - had died; but FIDE decided that the other six participants at AVRO would play a quadruple round robin tournament. These players were: Max Euwe (from Holland); Mikhail Botvinnik, Paul Keres and Salo Flohr (from the Soviet Union); and Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky (from the USA).
The proposal was modified slightly, in that the Soviet Union was allowed to replace Flohr with Vassily Smyslov, a young player who had emerged during the war years and was obviously stronger. Reuben Fine elected not to play, in order to pursue his studies in psychiatry (see Reuben Fine#1948 World Championship). There was a proposal that he should be replaced with Miguel Najdorf[2], but in the end the tournament was played with only five players, and as a five-cycle round robin.[1]
The tournament was played partly in The Hague, and partly in Moscow.
Botvinnik became the sixth World Chess Champion by winning the tournament convincingly with 14 points out of 20. He also had a plus score against all the other players. Smyslov came second with 11 points, just ahead of Keres and Reshevsky on 10.5. Former champion Euwe was in bad form, and finished last with 4 out of 20.[3]
Since Keres lost his first 4 games against Botvinnik, suspicions are sometimes raised that Keres was forced to "throw" games to allow Botvinnik to win the Championship. Chess historian Taylor Kingston investigated all the available evidence and arguments, and concluded that: Soviet chess officials gave Keres strong hints that he should not hinder Botvinnnik's attempt to win the World Championship; Botvinnik only discovered this about half-way though the tournament and protested so strongly that he angered Soviet officials; Keres probably did not deliberately lose games to Botvinnik or anyone else in the tournament.[4]
[edit] Final scores
[edit] References
- ^ a b Winter, E. (2003-2004). Interregnum. Chess History Center.
- ^ From Morphy to Fischer, Israel Horowitz, Batsford, 1973
- ^ 1948 FIDE Title Tournament, Mark Weeks' Chess Pages
- ^ Kingston wrote a 2-part series: Kingston, T. (1998). The Keres-Botvinnik Case: A Survey of the Evidence - Part I. The Chess Cafe. and Kingston, T. (1998). The Keres-Botvinnik Case: A Survey of the Evidence - Part II. The Chess Cafe. Kingston published a further article, Kingston, T. (2001). The Keres-Botvinnik Case Revisited: A Further Survey of the Evidence. The Chess Cafe. after the publication of further evidence which he summarizes in his third article. In a subsequent 2-part interview with Kingston, Soviet grandmaster and official Yuri Averbakh said that: Stalin would not have given orders that Keres should lose to Botvinnik; Smyslov would probably have been the candidate most preferred by officials; Keres was under severe psychological stress as a result of the multiple invasions of his home country, Estonia, and of his subsequent treatment by Soviet officials up to late 1946; and Keres was less tough mentally than his rivals - Kingston, T. (2002). Yuri Averbakh: An Interview with History - Part 1. The Chess Cafe. and Kingston, T. (2002). Yuri Averbakh: An Interview with History - Part 2. The Chess Cafe.
World Chess Championships | |
|---|---|
1886, 1889, 1891, 1892 (Steinitz) · 1894, 1897, 1907, 1908, 1910/I, 1910/II (Lasker) · 1921 (Capablanca) · 1927, 1929, 1934 (Alekhine)
| |
| Classical | 1993, 1995 (Kasparov) · 2000, 2004 (Kramnik) |
| FIDE | 1993, 1996, 1998 (Karpov) · 1999 (Khalifman) · 2000 (Anand) · 2002 (Ponomariov) · 2004 (Kasimdzhanov) · 2005 (Topalov) |
| Reunified | 2006 (Kramnik) · 2007 (Anand) · Planned: 2008, 2009 |
ru:Матч-турнир за звание чемпиона мира по шахматам 1948
