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Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1948, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1983, and 1985). Smyslov twice tied for first place at the USSR Chess Championships (1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals.
Smyslov remained active and successful in competitive chess well over the age of sixty. Despite his failing eyesight, he remained active in the occasional composition of and studies until shortly before his death in 2010. Besides chess, he was an accomplished baritone singer.
Smyslov's competitive chess experiences began at the age of 14, when he started taking part in classification tournaments. In 1938, when he was 17, Smyslov won the USSR Junior Championship. That same year, he tied for 1st–2nd places in the Moscow City Championship, with 12½/17. However, Smyslov's first attempt at adult competition outside his own city fell short; he placed 12th–13th in the Leningrad–Moscow International tournament of 1939 with 8/17 in an exceptionally strong field. In the Moscow Championship of 1939–40 Smyslov placed 2nd–3rd with 9/13.
The Soviet Federation held a further tournament of the top six from the 1940 event, and this was called the 1941 Absolute Championship of the USSR, one of the strongest tournaments ever organized. The format saw each player meet his opponents four times. The players were Botvinnik, Keres, Smyslov, Isaac Boleslavsky, Igor Bondarevsky, and Andor Lilienthal. Smyslov scored 10/20 for third place, behind Botvinnik and Keres. This proved that Smyslov was of genuine world-class Grandmaster strength at age 20, a very rare achievement at that time.
World War II forced a halt to most international chess, but several tournaments involving Soviet players only were still organized. Smyslov was exempted from military service due to being severely nearsighted, and he won the 1942 Moscow Championship outright with a powerful 12/15. At Kuibyshev 1942, he placed second with 8/11. In a strong field at Yekaterinburg 1943, Smyslov tied for 3rd–4th places with 8/14. In the 1943–44 Moscow Championship, Smyslov tied for 3rd–4th with 11½/16. He finished second in the 1944 USSR Championship at Moscow (URS-ch13) with 10½/16. He emerged as champion from the 1944–45 Moscow Championship with 13/16. By this juncture, Smyslov had advanced into the group of the top three Soviet players, along with Botvinnik and Keres, who were playing in Nazi-occupied Europe during the war.
As the war ended, organized chess picked up again. But Smyslov's form hit a serious slump in the immediate post-war period. In the 1945 USSR Championship at Moscow (URS-ch14), Smyslov was in the middle of the very powerful field with 8½/17; the winner was Botvinnik, with Boleslavsky and the new star David Bronstein occupying second and third places. At Tallinn 1945, Smyslov had the worst result of his career, scoring just 6½/15 in a not especially strong field. It was little better in the Moscow Championship of 1945–46, as he could only score 7½/15 for a tie of 7th–11th places, as Bronstein won. Then in the Moscow Championship of 1946, Smyslov scored just 8½/15, for a tie of 3rd–6th places, as Bronstein won again. During this period he scored just 31/62 in those four tournaments, for 50%.
Nevertheless, Smyslov's earlier strong results secured him one of the five Soviet places in the first really strong post-war international tournament, at Groningen, Netherlands, in August 1946. This event, the Howard Staunton Memorial, was won by Botvinnik with 14½/19, half a point ahead of former World Champion Max Euwe. Smyslov finished third with 12½/19, and this reconfirmed his status as one of the world's top players.
Once he was back playing in Soviet events, however, Smyslov found it tough going for a while. In the next Soviet Championship (URS-ch15, Leningrad 1947), he tied for 3rd–4th places with 12/19, as Keres won. At Pärnu 1947, Smyslov scored 8/13, tying for 4th–6th places, as Keres won again. At Warsaw 1947, Smyslov scored 6/9 to tie for 2nd–5th places; the winner was Svetozar Gligorić. In the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial tournament, Moscow 1947, Smyslov tied for 3rd–4th places, with 10/15, as Botvinnik won.
His results showed a consistent pattern of high finishes against strong company, but with virtually no tournament championships. Smyslov had never actually won an adult tournament (other than the Moscow City Championship) before he played in the 1948 World Championship Tournament.
With his second-place finish from the 1948 World Championship, Smyslov was admitted directly into the 1950 Budapest Candidates' tournament without needing to play in qualifying events. Smyslov scored 10/18 for third place, behind Bronstein and Boleslavsky, who tied for first place. Smyslov's third place automatically qualified him into the next Candidates' tournament. He was awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1950 by FIDE on its inaugural list.
After winning the Candidates Tournament in Zürich 1953, with 18/28, two points ahead of Keres, Bronstein, and Samuel Reshevsky, Smyslov played a match with Botvinnik for the title the following year. Sited at Moscow, the match ended in a draw, after 24 games (seven wins each and ten draws), meaning that Botvinnik retained his title.
In 1983, at the age of 62, he reached the Candidates' Final (the match to determine who plays the champion, in that case Anatoly Karpov), losing 8½–4½ at Vilnius 1984 to Garry Kasparov, who was 21 at the time, and who went on to beat Karpov to become world champion in 1985. He had beaten Zoltán Ribli 6½–4½ in the semifinal, but drew his quarter-final match against Robert Hübner 7–7, with the advancing player (Smyslov) determined only by the spin of a roulette wheel. His final Candidates' appearance was the Montpellier 1985 tournament, where he did not advance.
He was a joint winner of the contest in 1949 and again in 1955 (with Bronstein and Geller respectively). Whilst the 1949 title was shared, the 1955 title was awarded to Geller after a play-off.
Much later in his career he showed that he could still mount a credible challenge; he took a share of third place in 1969 (behind Tigran Petrosian and Polugaevsky) and in 1971, was joint runner-up with Tal, behind Vladimir Savon. He was ranked by FIDE as one of the top 15 players in the world from the late 1940s into the early 1980s, a stretch of almost 40 years.
In 1950, he was second behind Alexander Kotov at Venice and in 1951, won the Chigorin Memorial, held in Leningrad. He shared third place with Botvinnik at Budapest (Maróczy Memorial) in 1952, behind Keres and Geller. In 1953, he won a training tournament in Gagra and finished third at Bucharest, behind Alexander Tolush and Petrosian. At the 1954–55 edition of the Hastings Congress, he shared first place with Keres. At Zagreb 1955, he was sole winner, two clear points ahead of the field. He continued his winning streak at Moscow's Alekhine Memorial in 1956, a victory shared with his constant rival, Botvinnik. During this period, there were several triumphs in his city of birth, when he shared first place with Bronstein and Boris Spassky at the inaugural edition of the Moscow Central Chess Club international tournament series (sometimes also referred as an Alekhine Memorial) in 1959, was a joint winner in both 1960 (with Ratmir Kholmov) and 1961 (with Evgeny Vasiukov), and won outright in 1963.
His good form continued throughout the 1960s. There were shares of second place at Dortmund 1961 (behind Mark Taimanov) and at Mar del Plata 1962 (behind Polugaevsky). He traveled again to Hastings at the end of 1962, and scored third place behind Gligoric and Kotov. In 1963, he was second at Sochi (Chigorin Memorial) behind Polugaevsky. His visit to Havana's Capablanca Memorial in 1964 resulted in a share of first with the East German, Wolfgang Uhlmann. He took outright first at the same tournament the following year. In 1966, there were victories at Mar del Plata and at the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica Zdroj. In 1967, he was second (behind Bobby Fischer) at Monte Carlo, won at Moscow, and finished second (behind Leonid Stein) at the city's Alekhine Memorial tournament. He placed third the same year at the Capablanca Memorial in Havana (behind Bent Larsen and Taimanov) and finished third again at Palma de Mallorca 1967 and Monte Carlo 1968, the latter two events both being headed by Larsen and Botvinnik. This was also the year he repeated his previous success at Polanica Zdroj, finishing first outright. His next trip to Hastings also ended in triumph, as he took clear first at the 1968–69 edition. The 1960s drew to a close with victory at Monte Carlo 1969 (shared with Lajos Portisch) and a share of third place at Skopje 1969 (with Uhlmann and Kholmov, behind Vlastimil Hort and Matulović).
While less prolific than in previous decades, Smyslov played many strong tournaments in the 1970s and even into the 1980s and beyond. He was joint runner-up with Hort, Gligoric and Viktor Korchnoi at Rovinj/Zagreb 1970, behind Fischer. A winner at Amsterdam 1971, he came third at the Alekhine Memorial (Moscow) in the same year, behind Karpov and Stein. At Las Palmas 1972, he was second equal with Larsen, behind Portisch and in 1973, topped the Capablanca Memorial in Cienfuegos. First place followed at Reykjavík 1974; at the Venice tournament of the same year, he finished second behind Liberzon. Then followed a second place at the Alexander Memorial (Teesside) in 1975 (behind Geller), a first place at Szolnok (also 1975), and a multi-way share of second at the large Lone Pine Open of 1976 (Petrosian won). He finished third behind Romanishin and Tal at Leningrad in 1977, when all three eclipsed the efforts of then–world champion Anatoly Karpov. In 1978, he won at São Paulo and finished with a share of second at Buenos Aires, behind Ulf Andersson. As the 1970s ended, he took first place at Berlin 1979, this time shared with Csom.
Notable outcomes for 1980 included joint first places at San Miguel (with Walter Browne, Oscar Panno, Jaime Emma) and at Copenhagen (the Politiken Cup, with Mikhalchishin). In the same year he finished second at Bar, behind Petrosian, and second at Baguio, behind Eugenio Torre. At Moscow 1981, he joined Kasparov and Polugaevsky in second place, behind Karpov. A further Hastings visit in 1981–82 resulted in a share of second place, with Jon Speelman, behind Kupreichik. He was first at Graz in 1984 and first equal at Copenhagen (Politiken Cup) 1986 with Chernin, Pigusov and Cserna. He played at Reggio Emilia over the New Year of 1986–87 and shared second spot with Hort, Chernin and Spassky, behind Ribli. At Hastings in 1988–89, he took a share of third with Boris Gulko and Speelman, behind Nigel Short and Korchnoi.
Smyslov remained on FIDE's top 100 list until he was 70 years old. His tournament appearances were fewer in the 1990s, but results included a share of first place at Buenos Aires 1990 and a share of second at Malmö (Sigeman) in 1997, behind Hellers.
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Smyslov represented the Soviet Union a total of nine times at , from 1952 to 1972 inclusive, excepting only 1962 and 1966. He contributed strongly to team gold medal wins on each occasion he played, winning a total of eight individual medals. His total of 17 Olympiad medals won, including team and individual medals, is an all-time Olympiad record, according to olimpbase.org.
At Helsinki 1952, he played second board, and won the individual gold medal with 10½/13. At Amsterdam 1954, he was again on second board, scored 9/12, and took the individual bronze medal. At Moscow 1956, he scored 8½/13 on second board, but failed to win a medal. At Munich 1958, he made 9½/13 on second board, good for the silver individual medal. At Leipzig 1960, he was dropped to first reserve, and made a great score of 11½/13, which won the gold medal.
After missing out on selection in 1962, he returned for Tel Aviv 1964, on third board, and won the gold medal with 11/13. He missed selection in 1966, but returned with a vengeance for Lugano 1968, and made a phenomenal 11/12 for another gold medal as second reserve. At Siegen 1970, he was first reserve, and scored 8/11 for the bronze medal. His final Olympiad was Skopje 1972, where at the age of 51 he played third board and scored 11/14, gaining the silver medal.
His overall Olympiad score is an imposing 90 points in 113 games (+69−2=42), for 79.6%. This performance is the fifth all-time best for players participating in at least four Olympiads. Smyslov also represented the USSR in five European Team Championships, and emerged with a perfect medals' record: he won five team gold medals and five board gold medals. His total score in these events was +19−1=15, for 75.7%. From olimpbase.org, here is his European teams' data.
Smyslov played for the USSR in both the 1970 and 1984 matches against teams representing the Rest of the World. He was on board six at Belgrade in 1970, and on board four at London in 1984, with the Soviets winning both matches.
Smyslov died of congestive heart failure in a Moscow hospital on the morning of 27 March 2010, three days after his 89th birthday. Reports circulated that his final years were spent in near-poverty and that he could not afford badly needed eye surgery. It was also reported that Smyslov and his wife Nadezhda mostly lived on income from renting their apartment and that no one checked on them or provided care. Vasily Smyslov 1921–2010. The Week in Chess (27 March 2010). Retrieved on 4 May 2018.
A variation of the Closed Ruy Lopez is named after him. The line runs 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 h6. In the Grünfeld Defence, the continuation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 Bg4 8.Be3 Nfd7 is known as the Smyslov Variation, and remains a major variation. Smyslov also successfully revived the Fianchetto Defence to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6) in the 1970s. In the Slav Defence, the sideline 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Na6 is named the Smyslov Variation. Finally, a variation of the King's Indian Defense is named after him, which proceeds with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 0-0 5.Bg5 d6 6.e3.
Stanley Kubrick named a character after him in his film .
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Dutch insurance company Interpolis once released an EP sung entirely by Smyslov on their record label imprint Interpolis Verzekeringen to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Interpolis chess tournament. The EP, titled Schaakgrootmeester Vassily Smyslov Zingt (english: Chess Grandmaster Vassily Smyslov Sings), contains vocal covers of traditional Dutch songs accompanied by orchestra conducted by Harry van Hoof.
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