Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential chess players. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem".
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet and Ukrainian chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was one of the world's strongest players from the mid-1940s into the mid-1970s, and was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics. He was also a renowned chess writer; his book Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 is widely considered one of the greatest chess books ever written.
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik 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.
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions. Smyslov twice tied for first place at the USSR Chess Championships, and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals.
Paul Keres was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five occasions. As Estonia was repeatedly invaded and occupied during World War II, Keres was forced by the circumstances to represent the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany (1941–44) in international tournaments.
Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s, and was among the world's top ten players during that era.
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second strongest non-Soviet player, behind Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen.
Samuel Herman Reshevsky was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s: he tied for third place in the 1948 World Chess Championship tournament, and tied for second in the 1953 Candidates tournament. He was an eight-time winner of the US Chess Championship, tying him with Bobby Fischer for the all-time record.
This is a timeline of chess.
Efim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions. He won four Ukrainian SSR Championship titles and shared first in the 1991 World Seniors' Championship, winning the title outright in 1992.
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik". One of the strongest non-Soviet players from the early 1960s into the late 1980s, he participated in twelve consecutive Interzonals from 1962 through 1993, qualifying for the World Chess Championship Candidates Cycle a total of eight times. Portisch set several all-time records in Chess Olympiads. In Hungarian Chess Championships, he either shared the title or won it outright a total of eight times. He won many strong international tournaments during his career. In 2004, Portisch was awarded the title of 'Nemzet Sportolója', Hungary's highest national sports achievement award.
Pál C. Benkő was a Hungarian-American chess player, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.
László Szabó was a Hungarian chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 1950, when it was instituted by FIDE.
Zoltán Ribli is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion.
The 1948 World Chess Championship was a quintuple round-robin tournament played to determine the new World Chess Champion following the death of the previous champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946. The tournament marked the passing of control of the championship title to FIDE, the International Chess Federation which had been formed in 1924. Mikhail Botvinnik won the five-player championship tournament, beginning the era of Soviet domination of international chess that would last over twenty years without interruption.
The World Chess Championship 1984–1985 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov in Moscow from 10 September 1984 to 15 February 1985 for the World Chess Championship title. After 5 months and 48 games, the match was abandoned in controversial circumstances with Karpov leading 5 wins to 3, and replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985.
The 1954 World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and Vasily Smyslov in Moscow from March 16 to May 13, 1954. Botvinnik had been World Champion since 1948 and had successfully defended the title in 1951, while Smyslov earned the right to challenge by winning the 1953 Candidates tournament.
The 1957 World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and Vasily Smyslov in Moscow from March 5 to April 27, 1957. Botvinnik had been World Champion since 1948, while Smyslov earned the right to challenge by winning the 1956 Candidates tournament. This was the second World Championship match between the pair, after the drawn 1954 match.
Zurich 1953 was a chess tournament won by Vasily Smyslov. It was a Candidates Tournament for the 1954 World Chess Championship, which led to the match between Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik. The tournament is famous for the strength of the players, the high quality of the games, and books on the tournament by David Bronstein and Miguel Najdorf that are regarded as among the best tournament books ever written. In May 2022 Yuri Averbakh died at the age of 100, having been the last living player to have played in the tournament.
Vasily Smyslov (USSR)
Laszlo Szabo (Hungary)
Dr. Miroslav Filip (Czechoslovakia)
Oscar Panno (Argentina)
