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Soviet Cheating in FIDE competition: Zurich 1953
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Oct 4, 2021
0
#103
Contenchess wrote:
I'm getting Zurich 1953 next week. I've heard nothing but good reviews and my middle game planning definitely needs work 🤔
Bronstein's tournament book is considered a classic.
Oct 5, 2021
0
#104
JamieDelarosa wrote:
tygxc wrote:
Back to Zürich: when of 15 participants 9 are from one country something is fundamentally flawed. That is also what Fischer pointed out after Curaçao. FIDE then changed to Candidates' Matches, but more recently returned to a Candidates' Tournament for financial reasons. Even in the last Yekaterinburg Candidates the 3 Russians and 2 Chinese among 8 participlants gave rise to criticism.
By the way of these 9 Soviet players 5 were Jewish.
Of the 15 participants 8 were Jewish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_chess_players
The old saying is, "The deck was stacked."
The reason that there were so many Soviet players in the 1953 Candidates Tournament is that they qualified by outplaying everyone else. The field consisted of the top five finishers from the 1950 Candidates' Tournament (Bronstein, Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Keres--all Soviets--and Najdorf) plus the top eight finishers from the Saltsjobaden Interzonal. That tournament had 21 players from around the world. There were only five Soviet players (Kotov, Taimonov, Petrosian, Geller, Averbakh), but they finished 1-5 in the tournament. Then Reshevsky and Euwe were invited to the Candidates Tournament without qualifying.
How is this "stacking the deck"?
Both Najdorf’s and Bronstein’s books on Zurich 1953 are excellent. I personally recommend Bronstein’s book first.