Moscow 1935 was the second international

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

tournament held in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, taking place from 15 February to 15 March 1935.

Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tournam ...

and future world champion

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...

tied for first, followed by former world champions

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Cham ...

and

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capabl ...

Tournament field

The single

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

was organized along the lines of Moscow 1925, with twelve

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

players and eight international players. Of the twelve Soviets, only four,

Grigory Levenfish Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish (russian: Григо́рий Я́ковлевич Левенфи́ш; – 9 February 1961) was a Soviet chess player who scored his peak competitive results in the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion ...

Peter Romanovsky Peter Arsenievich Romanovsky (russian: Пётр Арсеньевич Романо́вский; 29 July 1892 – 1 March 1964) was a Russian chess player and author. He won the Soviet Championship in 1923 and, jointly, 1927. Biography At the begi ...

Ilya Rabinovich Ilya Leontievich Rabinovich (russian: Илья Леонтьевич Рабинович; 11 May 1891 – 23 April 1942) was a Russian and later Soviet chess player, among the best ones in his country for three decades, from 1910 to 1940. His best ...

and

Fedir Bohatyrchuk Fedir Parfenovych Bohatyrchuk (also ''Bogatirchuk'', ''Bohatirchuk'', ''Bogatyrtschuk'') ( uk, Федір Парфенович Богатирчук; , ''Fyodor Parfenyevich Bogatyrchuk''; 27 November 1892 – 4 September 1984) was a Ukrainian-Ca ...

had played at the 1925 event.

(Czechoslovakia) was internationally renowned and considered a world championship contender. Later, Flohr would be in the inaugural group to receive the grandmaster title when it was introduced by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 1950.

(Soviet Union) was known as a rising star at age 24 and two years earlier had drawn a match with Flohr. He would later become

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 1948. Botvinnik and Flohr (together with Levenfish) jumped out to an early lead in the tournament. After round 15, Flohr led Botvinnik by half a point. Botvinnik won in round 16 while Flohr only

drew Drew may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places ;In the United States * Drew, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Drew, Mississippi, a city * Drew, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Drew, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Drew County, Arkansas ...

to bring the two into a first-place tie, the tournament's ultimate result as both players drew all their games in the final three rounds. Botvinnik had scored only 50% in his final nine games.

(Germany) and

(Cuba) were former world champions. At age 66, Lasker was undefeated, beating Capablanca in their individual game and finishing third, a half point ahead of Capablanca in fourth place.

Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...

hailed Lasker's result at age 66 as "a biological miracle." Rudolph Spielmann (Austria), finished fifth.

Crosstable

Notes

References

* * * *{{citation , last=Pachman , first=Ludĕk , authorlink=Ludek Pachman , year=1972 , origyear=English trans. 1975, Dover ed. 1987 , title=Decisive Games in Chess History , publisher=Dover , isbn=0-486-25323-6 Chess competitions Chess in the Soviet Union Sports competitions in Moscow 1935 in chess 1935 in Moscow 1935 in Soviet sport