The 1951

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...

was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and

David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (russian: Дави́д Ио́нович Бронште́йн; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet and Ukrainian chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narro ...

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from March 15 to May 11, 1951. It was the first match played under the supervision of FIDE; and the first to use a qualifying system of an

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

and Candidates Tournament to choose a challenger - a system which stayed in place until

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

. Botvinnik was the defending champion: he was 39 years old, had been a world leading player in the 1930s and World Champion since 1948. The challenger, David Bronstein, was 27 years old and relatively new to top level competition. The match ended in a 12-12 tie (5 wins each, and 14 draws), meaning Botvinnik retained the title of World Champion. Writing in 1973,

Israel Horowitz Israel Albert Horowitz (often known as I. A. Horowitz or Al Horowitz) (November 15, 1907 – January 18, 1973) was an American International Master of chess. He is most remembered today for the books he wrote about chess. In 1989 he was induct ...

described the match as "''perhaps the most interesting match ever played for the world championship''".

1948 Interzonal tournament

interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

tournament was held at

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in Stockholm, Sweden, in July and August 1948. The top eight finishers qualified for the Candidates tournament. : The four players tied for sixth place were to have played off for three spots in the Candidates tournament, but Bondarevsky had to withdraw due to illness, so the other three qualified automatically.

1950 Candidates tournament

The 1950 Candidates tournament was held in

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in April and May 1950. The players who finished second through fifth in the 1948 championship tournament (Smyslov, Keres, Samuel Reshevsky, Reshevsky, and Max Euwe, Euwe) were seeded directly into the tournament, along with Reuben Fine, who had been invited to the 1948 tournament but declined, and the top eight finishers from the Interzonal. It has been written that the two American players, Reshevsky and Fine, were prevented from travelling to Hungary by the US State Department, with travel restrictions due to the Cold War;''From Morphy to Fischer'' (Batsford, 1973),

. p.138 However, Reshevsky said in 1991 that he could have gone but did not want to. Euwe declined due to work commitments, and Bondarevsky due to illness. : The co-winners then played a 12-game rematch in

in July and August 1950. In the event of another tie, the first decisive game would determine Botvinnik's challenger for the title. Bronstein thus earned the right to challenge the reigning champion.

Boleslavsky's strategy

Going into the final round of the Candidates tournament, Boleslavsky had a half point lead over Bronstein. Boleslavsky had white against Stahlberg, and offered a short draw when he was in a good position, which Stahlberg accepted. This gave Bronstein the opportunity to catch him, which he did, with a brilliant win against Keres. It has been said, by both Bronstein and by Yuri Averbakh, that Boleslavsky allowed Bronstein to catch him. Averbakh said that Boleslavsky had a very poor record against Botvinnik, and hoped that a tie would mean a 3-way match between Botvinnik, Boleslavsky and Bronstein, although this did not eventuate. It has also been speculated that the result of the Bronstein-Boleslavsky match was pre-arranged by the contestants.Shattered illusions: "The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein"
Chessbase, 10/25/2017

1951 Championship match

Conditions

The match was played as best of 24 games. If it ended 12-12, Botvinnik, the holder, would retain the Championship.

Match

Botvinnik retained the championship.

Highlights

External links

1951 World Chess Championship
at the Internet Archive record of Graeme Cree's Chess Pages

References

{{World Chess Championships, state=expanded World Chess Championships, 1951 1951 in chess 1951 in Soviet sport 1951 in Moscow